2021 NASCAR Touring Series

*Under construction*

The **2021 NASCAR Little Caesars Touring Series** was the twenty-fourth season of the NASCAR Touring Series, a national touring-level stock car racing series sanctioned by NASCAR. It began on February 10 at Daytona Raceway Park with the Daytona 250 presented by Lucas Oil, and concluded on October 2 with the Championship Race at New Smyrna Speedway.

2021 marks the first full season with Little Caesars as the entitlement sponsor, after joining as a presenting sponsor for part of the 2020 season. It also marks the final season with the current cars before the debut of the ICR NextGen composite body racecars.

## Schedule

The schedule for the 2021 season was released on October 1, 2020. It features numerous new tracks while maintaining a 24-race season.

### Calendar changes

NASCAR announced that the 2021 calendar would feature a number of new tracks and would add an additional exhibition race to be run at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada. Twenty-four points paying races and two exhibition races are currently scheduled.

* Las Vegas Motor Speedway will now host the spring half opener with a race to be held on the track's 0.375 mi Bullring. The race will be held at night.
* Phoenix Raceway will no longer host two races with the Arizona 150 being cancelled. The Lucas Oil 200 will fill the spring date while the fall date will be replaced with a race in Portland.
* Redwood International Raceway in California will no longer host a race in 2021 with the Memphis 150 taking over its race date. It moves from its traditional May date in an attempt to cut down the length of the West coast swing.
* New Hampshire will no longer host a race with Stafford Motor Speedway taking over its date.
* San Marino will no longer host a race with Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway taking over its date.
* The Lakewood 150 at Fairgrounds Speedway moves from its early-April race date to late July. The Whelen 150 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway takes over the original date.
* Dodge Raceway Park in Washington state will no longer host two races with the spring Burger Zone 150 being replaced with a race at Bowman Gray Stadium.
* Utah Motorsports Campus will host a race on May 1.
* Elko Speedway will host a race on July 9.
* Eldora Raceway will host a race on June 25.

Further changes to the calendar are planned following the disruption of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic:

* **[***a***]** The April 10 race at Greenville-Pickens was delayed until April 11 due to rain.
* **[b]** The Mar 5 race at Las Vegas was postponed to April 17 where it will replace the race at Bowman Gray.
* **[c]** The April 17 race at Bowman Gray was postponed on March 24 to an undetermined date.
	+ It was later rescheduled for June 19.
* **[d]** NASCAR announced changes to their 2021 calendar on March 31 based on new information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. This included the cancellation of the May 29 exhibition race in Montreal.
* **[e]** The NASCAR Touring Series All-Star Race, which was removed from the 2020 calendar, will make its return in 2021. It was originally scheduled to be held at Makahiki Raceway in Hawaii (the planned 2020 host) before being moved to the Belle Isle Street Circuit in Detroit and finally to Daytona Raceway Park.
	+ The race was pushed up three weeks from June 19 to May 29 in mid-April.
* **[f]** The July 31 race scheduled for Alaska Raceway Park, which was removed from the 2020 calendar, was cancelled by race promoters on May 28. The race was to make its debut in 2020 before being removed from the schedule. Its race date will be given to the Lakewood Fairgrounds for a double header.

## Results and standings

### Playoff standings

For the purposes of playoff seeding only, drivers are awarded a 100-point bonus for winning a race that will be added to their playoff total. In order to be eligible for the playoffs a driver must simply attempt to qualify for all 24 points-paying races. A race win automatically locks a driver into the playoffs (provided there are eight or fewer different winners). If more than eight eligible drivers win a race, the playoffs will consist of the top eight in playoff points among those winners. For example, a driver with 2 wins would make the playoffs over a driver with 1 win. Once the playoffs begin, point totals reset to a base of 500 + 25 bonus points for every win in the regular season. Playoff points are then awarded in each race with 1st place earning 20 pts, 2nd place earns 15, 3rd place earns 10, 4th place earns 5, 5th through 8th receive 4-1 pts.

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### Manufacturer's championship

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