NASCAR returns to Darlington, Southern 500 to Labor Day weekend; Bristol spring race moves to April

Bristol Motor Speedway’s annual spring race is being pushed back a month, and NASCAR is restoring one of its great traditions.

Although next year’s schedules for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series will not be revealed until Tuesday, a NASCAR spokesman confirmed Bristol will see its spring race moved from March to April 19, 2015.

Bristol is moving to the weekend currently occupied by Darlington Raceway, which will then revert to its traditional Labor Day weekend date. The news was leaked by Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman c, whose company owns Bristol, when speaking with reporters Friday.

Darlington, NASCAR’s oldest speedway, staged the Southern 500 from 1950 to 2003. Then the sanction body transferred the date to Auto Club Speedway near Los Angeles, and then to Atlanta Motor Speedway. Relocating Darlington off its traditional slot on the calendar was a widely unpopular decision, leaving many longtime fans disgruntled.

“We’ll have some good changes to the schedule that will benefit all the stakeholders and certainly all our fans,” NASCAR chief communications officer Brett Jewkes said Friday at Bristol.

According to Smith, Atlanta (which is also SMI owned) will take Bristol’s March spot on the schedule. Bristol has been lobbying NASCAR to change its spring race to a different month due to frequently inclement weather. This year’s Food City was delayed twice due to rain.

“I think we did them a favor and they did us one,” Smith told USA Today. “I think they kind of needed that Southern 500 thing back in Darlington. So going back there, I thought that was a good thing.”