NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway officials announced Sunday that the race season kickoff will be pushed back one week in 2012 to eliminate any conflict with the NFL and the schedule of the Super Bowl. The 2012 running of the Great American race will be held on February 26th.

This schedule change will eliminate the traditional week off in the first three weeks of the season. This is also a chance that if the NFL goes to a 18 game season, NASCAR is one step ahead of any changes especially if the NFL goes on strike and a lock out occurs, which could delay the Super Bowl by one week.

In an interview on the subject, Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR’s vice president of racing operations said that there wasn't any idea on where the NFL was going to go with the 18 game schedule but NASCAR just wants to stay ahead of the game. Nonetheless, NASCAR officials are anticipating changes to the NFL's schedule. Whether it's an 18-game schedule and/or an extra bye week thrown in, they certainly don't want Speedweeks trying to compete with America's biggest sporting event, the Super Bowl.

NASCAR declined to comment on if any of the future Daytona 500's will happen on the fourth Sunday of February. They also fell short on announcing any details on the other races during 2011 Speedweeks, including the Bud Shootout. It is thought that NASCAR may be considering condensing Speedweeks from a two-weekend event spanning 11 days to a weeklong extravaganza. Daytona International Speedway president Joey Chitwood commented that he didn't want to lose the Shootout and the ARCA race. So with the changes in the NFL we will see some schedule changes in NASCAR.

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