updated 9:38 p.m. ET May 14, 2004

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Despite the shifting of races from traditional Southeastern venues to tracks in Texas and Arizona, the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season will start and finish in Florida.

The Daytona 500 again is the season-opening event, scheduled for Feb. 20, at Daytona International Speedway. The championship should be decided Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

NASCAR announced Friday that the schedule for next year will again be comprised of 36 points-paying races and two special events.

The only major changes are the abandonment of North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham and the loss of one of two events at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The Rockingham race moves to Texas Motor Speedway and the Darlington event to Phoenix International Raceway, giving both tracks two races for the first time.

Texas will hold its spring race April 17 and the new fall event on Nov. 6. Phoenix is on the schedule April 23 — its spring debut. Its traditional fall race will be Nov. 13.

The cars will race for the first time Feb. 12 at Daytona in the Budweiser Shootout, a race for pole winners from this year. The annual NASCAR all-star race remains at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., and will be contested May 21.

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