For the first time in three years, NASCAR will refrain from hosting a race on Easter Sunday, restoring a longstanding tradition that once held firm across generations. The break marks a return to the sport’s roots, honoring one of Christianity’s holiest days.
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From the start of NASCAR’s modern era in 1989, the Cup Series had steered clear of racing on Easter, a decision widely viewed as a nod to the cultural and religious values of its core fanbase.
However, in 2022, that precedent was overturned when the Bristol Dirt Race was held on Easter Sunday, reviving a bygone chapter in the sport’s early history. Between 1953 and the early ’80s, nearly a dozen Easter Sunday races had been held.
In more recent years, Denny Hamlin captured the Easter spotlight with his win at Richmond in 2024. A year before, Christopher Bell had gotten his name into the holiday’s racing lore by dominating the 2023 Bristol Dirt event.
He led 100 of 250 laps and secured victory when a final-lap crash thwarted Tyler Reddick’s last-ditch effort. That race also marked the end of the short-lived dirt experiment, with Bristol’s spring event returning to its traditional concrete layout in 2024.
When NASCAR first broke from tradition and scheduled a race on Easter Sunday in 2022, it did so with a bang at Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt track. The race produced an exciting finish as Tyler Reddick appeared to have one hand on his maiden Cup victory, just half a lap from the checkered flag, until Chase Briscoe from SHR threw a desperate slide job into Turn 3 on the final lap.
The move backfired as both drivers tangled and spun, opening the door for Kyle Busch to swoop in from third and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. That win ultimately became Busch’s last with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Before that, NASCAR had largely avoided racing on Easter Sunday, maintaining a distance from the date for decades. The last Cup race held on Easter before 2022 took place in 1989 at Richmond Raceway, where Rusty Wallace emerged victorious.
Nineteen years earlier, in 1970, Bobby Allison took the win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and a year prior, Bobby Isaac claimed Easter glory at Hickory Motor Speedway.
From 1960 to 1965, except in 1964, NASCAR held Easter races regularly. Richard Petty claimed three of those, winning at Wilson Speedway (1960), Martinsville Speedway (1962), and South Boston Speedway (1963). Cotton Owens won at Hickory Motor Speedway in 1961, while Junior Johnson earned a win at North Wilkesboro in 1965.
The tradition dates back even further. In 1953, Dick Passwater etched his name in the books of Easter Sunday winners at Charlotte. Gober Sosebee followed suit in 1954 at Central City Speedway, and Junior Johnson returned to victory lane at Wilson in 1959, rounding out the early history of NASCAR’s rare but memorable Easter Sunday showdowns.
