The first entry in the 2023 Stats Overview is Days Raced, which surveys the days races started. Note that races delayed a day by weather aren’t included here. Also, I only include points races in this survey.
Days Raced
NASCAR has moved almost entirely back to Sunday races, with only two races (the Daytona regular-season closer and the Bristol night race) scheduled for Saturday. Two races (Dover and the Charlotte oval) were delayed by weather until Monday. That leaves 88.9% of the races in 2023 run on Sundays.
Context: When We Raced — Back in the Day
The next graph compares the days raced from 2000 to 2023 in a single graph. The white at the bottom is because there were only 34 races in 2000.
This graph shows how NASCAR increased the number of Saturday races as the aughts turned into the teens.
- The 2009 and 2011 seasons had the fewest Sunday races: just 25 each year or 67.4% of all races in the season. From 2009 to 2012, there were eight races a year —22.2% — on Saturdays.
- 2020 also had only 25 Sunday races, but that was because of pandemic-necessitated scheduling rather than intention. The 2021 season was much more like the 2019 season.
And that’s the 2023 Stats Overview: Days Raced report.
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