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BGN Expands To 31 Races In 1998

The series, which added four new races in 1997, grows with the previously announced event at the one-mile oval of Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado Springs, Col., in 1998. It makes the fifth venue west of the Mississippi River to be added since the end of 1996. Previously, the NASCAR Busch Series had never run farther west than Milwaukee.

"Over the past couple of seasons, the NASCAR Busch Series has exploded in popularity to become the second most popular stock car series in the country," said Mike Helton, vice-president for competition for NASCAR. "Previously, the series never had a venue west of the Mississippi River. In the last two years we've been able to move to the western part of the country with five more races. That shows how popular the series has become."

The modern NASCAR Busch Series began in 1982 with a 29-race schedule and has been supported by Anheuser-Busch, Inc. of St. Louis, Mo., since that time. The recent success of the NASCAR Busch Series has given it the opportunity to shine on its own at stand-along events in new market areas across the country, as evidenced by the addition of six new superspeedways to the schedule in the last three years.

In 1998, 25 of America's top superspeedways, road courses and short tracks will host NASCAR Busch Series events. The schedule consists of nine events on tracks less than a mile in length, one road course and 21 superspeedway events.

For the 17th consecutive year, the NASCAR Busch Series will open its season on Feb. 14 at the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The schedule concludes on Nov. 15 at the Metro-Dade (Fla.) Homestead Motorsports Complex.

Each of the schedule's events will be broadcast on national television and by radio. The network television schedule will be released by early 1998.

"The 1998 NASCAR Busch Series season has the potential to be even more exciting and competitive than the 1997 season," Helton said. "Next season will see the two-time defending series champion Randy LaJoie return to seek his third straight title, while a good crop of young drivers like Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jason Jarrett, Mike Cope and Rick Fuller will do battle."

In addition to the Pikes Peak event on the 1998 schedule, changes have been made to nine other races. The most noticeable modifications are the switching of the California Speedway and Gateway International Raceway dates with each other and the move of Richmond International Raceway's first date from February to June.

The 50th Anniversary of NASCAR officially kicks off this December. Plans for the celebration include more than 200 hours of special programming and features focused on the past, present and future of the sport on CBS, ESPN, espn2, TBS Superstation and TNN: The Nashville Network.

By NASCAR Public Relations

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