2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series - The top racing series in NASCAR

Truckers Connection

2/12/2008

The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will begin on February 9, 2008 at Daytona International Speedway with the Budweiser Shootout, followed by pole qualifying for the 50th Daytona 500 on February 18.   The season will continue with the Sprint for the Cup beginning September 14 with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and conclude with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 16. Due to the merger in 2005 of Sprint and NEXTEL, NASCAR's premier series will be known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the 2008 season and beyond, and will crown the first ever Sprint Cup Champion. The series has no connection with Sprint car racing, for NASCAR uses stock car bodies. Coors also replaces Budweiser as Official Beer of NASCAR thereby becoming the new sponsor of the Pole Award given to top qualifier in each Sprint Cup race.

All Sprint Cup races will utilize the Car of Tomorrow template.  NASCAR announced on May 22, 2007 that the original timetable, which would have the full-time use of the single car template in 2009, was being abandoned as 80% of all owners were in favor of moving the full-time use of the CoT one year ahead so they would not race with two sets of rules for all but ten races.

The cars that have been approved for the 2008 season will be the Chevrolet Impala, the Dodge Charger, the Ford Fusion and the Toyota Camry. Dodge had used the Avenger in the 2007 CoT races, but has stated that the Charger will be used full time in 2008.

The following table shows the 2008 schedule published by NASCAR.