2004 NASCAR Winston Cup Series

The 2004 Winston Cup Series will start with the DAYTONA 500 and end at the Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Ford 400.

Schedule
The traditional 36-race season will once again be featured.

Schedule Changes

 * Talladega's spring date is swapped with the spring race at Martinsville, which is now replaced by Greensville-Pickens.
 * The former date Greensville-Pickens held (June 20 weekend) is now taken by Kansas, which moves to the summer.
 * The former Kansas October slot is now taken up by the first visit to North Wilkesboro Speedway in eight seasons.
 * Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is moved to the former New Hampshire slot, as New Hampshire moves to September, taking the old Nazareth date. The new Nazareth date is now the weekend following the visit to Montreal.
 * Races 25 and 26 become the first points-paying national touring event held internationally, with dates in Japan and Australia, respectively. Both races are held on oval layouts. This pushes Darlington from its traditional Labor Day weekend to November, the penultimate race of the season -- replacing a date at Rockingham.

Season Changes
For the 2004 Winston Cup Series season, qualifying races were added to the schedule in favor of time trial qualifying. Prior each Winston Cup race, the entry list will be split in half (even positioned cars in standings to Group A, odd positioned cars in standings to Group B -- outside of Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500, which use Day 1 qualifying speeds). Then, all cars in Group A qualify and race a sprint event (30-miles, track dependent) before Group B does the same. 7 cars in owner standings are locked into each main race while the rest battle for the transfer positions (for crown jewel events, only the top two qualifiers from Day 1 speeds are safe).

Like 2003, just 42 cars are allowed on the grid.