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NASCAR Announces 31 Races for 1998 Busch Grand National Series

10 November 1997

       THE NASCAR BUSCH SERIES SCHEDULE EXPANDS TO 31 EVENTS IN 1998

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - The NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division will 
continue its push westward and expand to 31 races in 1998 as part of NASCAR's 
50th Anniversary. 

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