At times large changes were made to the NASCAR schedule of the NEXTEL Cup series, which was referred to with the term realignment. Bill France Jr made a big impact at a 2003 conference when he announced a fairly sweeping set of changes for the 2004 season. This new schedule would address the lagging ticket sales of certain tracks as well as the constant re-scheduling of some races due to rain or bad weather. The media immediately pointed to both the North Carolina Speedway and the Darlington Raceway as targets for some of the changes. Both facilities had difficulties selling out their event, and both faced problems with weather, particularly North Carolina where rain had constantly resulted in races being changed to Mondays when fans couldn't attend.
The name Realignment 2004 was used to refer to the official change to the NASCAR schedule announced in June 2003 during an event in Michigan. The list of changes wasn't long, but it was massive in impact.
Back in June 1997, the California Speedway hosted a Winston Cup race. Because it was nearby to Los Angeles hordes of fans flocked there from the Los Angeles area, making Los Angeles NASCAR's largest market overnight.
So the NASCAR schedule changed, they decided that Darlington's Mountain Dew Southern 500, normally held on Labor Day weekend, would be switched to November for 2004. That made room for a switch at North Carolina Speedway where the November race, the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400, changed names to the Pop Secret 500, shifted to Fontana, added 100 miles, and moved to the Labor Day weekend where it would be covered prime time on NBC when it ran during the evening into the night.
The NASCAR schedule for 2009, announced on August 19 2008, was another major realignment.
Talladega's fall event was changed to a later date either the first Sunday in November or the last Sunday in October, thus near Halloween. That meant everything moved a race formerly run in September moved to Talladega's former date, the event for Labor Day weekend moved to September, while the former event held around Halloween shifted to Labor Day weekend. That's a big change.
- The Mexico City road course race was dropped from the Nationwide Series in favor of an August event at the Iowa Speedway.
- A weekend nearest August 30 date was set for a Montreal race in the Sprint Cup series whereas that date was clear in the past.
- Labor Day became the new date for Sprint's only race in Atlanta, formerly held in March.
- Finally, a Camping World Truck series event was added at the Chicagoland Speedway during a larger Indy Racing League week.
Listing all these NASCAR schedule changes is a little bit like the Abbot and Costello routine Who's on First.
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