2004 Schedule adds one hardship

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DALLAS -- No surprises. That sums up the 2004 Nextel Cup schedule, which NASCAR released earlier this week.
The major changes for next season were announced earlier: the California Speedway in Fontana gets a second race on Labor Day weekend, the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham loses a race, and Darlington (S.C.) Raceway's Southern 500 moves from Labor Day weekend to Nov. 14.
The Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway will be April 4, one week before Easter.
The schedule has one additional travel hardship for the teams, eliminating the open weekend after the road-course event at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., on June 27. The teams will race at Daytona Beach in the Pepsi 400 six days after the Sonoma event.
However, the schedule has an open date July 18. That means the teams will race on 18 consecutive weekends to end the season. The 2003 schedule has races on 20 consecutive weekends.
Next season will be the first with Nextel as the title sponsor.