NASCAR adds to the celebration of Easter Weekend with some racing

This weekend’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway (Sunday, March 31 at 7 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will be the NASCAR Cup Series’ 13th-time racing on Easter Sunday since its inception in 1949.

The last two seasons (2022-2023), NASCAR has hosted Easter Sunday races at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt track. Prior to 2022, the last time the Cup Series competed on Easter Sunday was March 26, 1989 at Richmond Raceway. The Richmond race was rescheduled to the Easter Sunday date after being snowed out from its original date in February - the rescheduled race was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace.

On two other occasions – in 1953 at Charlotte Speedway and 1954 at Orange Speedway in Hillsboro – the race was held on Easter Sunday as a make-up date due to rain.

The first scheduled Easter Sunday race was on April 17, 1960 at Wilson Speedway in Wilson, North Carolina. The race was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Weatherly driving a Holman-Moody Racing Ford.

NASCAR Cup Series Races held on Easter Sunday

In total, 23 NASCAR Cup Series events have been held on Easter Weekend from Good Friday through Easter Monday (Easter Monday was a public holiday in North Carolina from 1935 to 1987).

The first time NASCAR held a Cup race on Easter Weekend was on April 12, 1952, when the event at Columbia Speedway was held on a Saturday; NASCAR Hall of Famer Buck Baker was the race winner.

Also worth noting, on Easter weekends in 1964 (Asheville-Weaverville Speedway) and 1966 (Greenville Pickens Speedway) the NASCAR Cup Series held races on Saturday instead of Sunday, and in 1967 the series raced on Monday (Bowman Gray Stadium).