Changes in traditional tracks In 1965 90.9% of the NASCAR schedule was in the South Region of the US and it stayed above 70% until 1989. The Northeast Region started out with a high percentage of races in the early NASCAR years, but from the 1960s until the mid 1980s contained 10% or less of the schedule. The Midwest Region had 21.1% of the races in 1950, but many years before 1970 had no races. The NASCAR schedule had usually contained a few races in the West Region but never more than 10% until the late 1990s. From the late 1990s, and into the early 2000s, a number of new tracks were built and became part of the NASCAR schedule, in places such as South Florida, Chicagoland, the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, the Northeast, and the Los Angeles area. This is part of a publicized trend to make NASCAR a more national sport rather than a regional sport. Today, the South makes up only 50% of the NASCAR schedule, while the Northeast has 19.4%, the Midwest has 16.7%, and the West has 13.9% of the schedule. A consequence of NASCAR maintaining its current 36-race schedule is that the inclusion of these new tracks in the schedule results in some of the more traditional tracks in the Southeast no longer hosting races. Examples include North Wilkesboro Speedway, which is no longer a part of the NASCAR schedule, and North Carolina Speedway, which held its last Cup race in 2004 after being in operation for nearly 40 years. Traditionalist fans argue that this slow attrition away from tracks in those states where stock car racing began causes the sport to move away from its roots, and from uniquely styled tracks to those of a more "cookie-cutter" design. 36.1% (13 races) of the Races today are on what fans call "cookie-cutter" tracks (which include Charlotte, Texas, Atlanta since its re-design in mid 1997, Las Vegas, Michigan, California, Kansas and Chicagoland), compared to the 12.9% (4 races) in 1996. Before NASCAR cut the number of races down for the 1972 season, tracks under 1 mile made up more than 55% of the races. After the changes for the 1972 season, tracks under 1 mile made up only 29% of the races in 1972 and then had 10 races, around 33% of the races, until the mid 1980s. After losing 2 races at Nashville in 1985