2026 NASCAR Cup Series

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Kyle Larson enters the season as the defending Cup Series champion. Kyle Larson Round of 8 Introductions Las Vegas Fall 2025.jpg
Kyle Larson enters the season as the defending Cup Series champion.

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series will be the 78th season for NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States and the 55th season for the modern-era Cup Series. The season will start with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on February 1 at Bowman Gray Stadium, followed by America 250 Florida Duel races on February 12, and the 68th running of the Daytona 500 (the first points race of the season) on February 15, both at Daytona International Speedway. The season will end with the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead–Miami Speedway on November 8. [1]

Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports returns as the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion. [2]

Teams and drivers

Chartered teams

ManufacturerTeamNo.DriverCrew chiefReferences
Chevrolet Haas Factory Team 41 Cole Custer Aaron Kramer [3] [4]
Hendrick Motorsports 5 Kyle Larson Cliff Daniels [5]
9 Chase Elliott Alan Gustafson [6]
24 William Byron Rudy Fugle [7]
48 Alex Bowman Blake Harris [8]
Hyak Motorsports 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Mike Kelley [9] [10] [11]
Kaulig Racing 10 Ty Dillon Andrew Dickeson [12]
16 A. J. Allmendinger Trent Owens [13]
Richard Childress Racing 3 Austin Dillon Richard Boswell [14] [15]
8 Kyle Busch Jim Pohlman [16] [17]
Rick Ware Racing 51 Cody Ware Billy Plourde [18] [19]
Spire Motorsports 7 Daniel Suárez Ryan Sparks [14] [20] [21] [22]
71 Michael McDowell Travis Peterson [23] [22]
77 Carson Hocevar Luke Lambert [24] [22]
Trackhouse Racing 1 Ross Chastain Brandon McSwain [25] [26]
88 Connor Zilisch (R)Randall Burnett [27] [28] [29] [30]
97 Shane van Gisbergen Stephen Doran [27] [31]
Ford Front Row Motorsports 4 Noah Gragson Grant Hutchens [32] [33]
34 Todd Gilliland Chris Lawson [34]
38 Zane Smith Ryan Bergenty [35]
RFK Racing 6 Brad Keselowski Jeremy Bullins [36]
17 Chris Buescher Scott Graves [14]
60 Ryan Preece Derrick Finley [14] [18]
Team Penske 2 Austin Cindric Brian Wilson [37]
12 Ryan Blaney Jonathan Hassler [38]
22 Joey Logano Paul Wolfe [39]
Wood Brothers Racing 21 Josh Berry Miles Stanley [40]
Toyota 23XI Racing 23 Bubba Wallace Charles Denike [41]
35 Riley Herbst Davin Restivo [42]
45 Tyler Reddick Billy Scott [14]
Joe Gibbs Racing 11 Denny Hamlin Chris Gayle [43] [44]
19 Chase Briscoe James Small [45]
20 Christopher Bell Adam Stevens [46] [47]
54 Ty Gibbs Tyler Allen [14]
Legacy Motor Club 42 John Hunter Nemechek Travis Mack [14]
43 Erik Jones Justin Alexander [48] [49]

Non-chartered teams

ManufacturerTeamNo.DriverCrew chiefRacesReferences
Chevrolet Beard Motorsports 62 Anthony Alfredo Darren Shaw1 [50]
JR Motorsports 40 Justin Allgaier TBA1 [51]
Richard Childress Racing 33TBAAndy StreetTBA [52]
Ford Garage 66 66 Casey Mears TBA1 [53] [54] [55]
Chad Finchum 2
Josh Bilicki 1
TBA3
RFK Racing 99 Corey LaJoie TBA1 [56]
Toyota Legacy Motor Club 84 Jimmie Johnson TBA2 [57] [58] [59]

Team changes

Manufacturers

Crew chief changes

Driver changes

Rookies

Rule changes

Pre-season

Schedule

The 2026 schedule was released on August 20, 2025, and consists of 31 oval races, 4 road course races, 1 street track race, and four non-championship races to be held on ovals. [1] The start times were announced on November 12. [69]

Notes: Race names and title sponsors are subject to change. Not all title sponsors/names of races have been announced for 2026. For the races where a 2026 name and title sponsor has yet to be announced, the title sponsors/names of those races in 2025 are listed. [1]

Bolded races indicate an event generally known as a Crown Jewel race.

 O  Oval track
 R  Road course
 S  Street course

NoRace name Track LocationDateTime (ET) [69] TVRadio
Regular Season
Cook Out Clash  O  Bowman Gray Stadium Winston-Salem, North Carolina February 18 pm FOX MRN
America 250 Florida Duel at Daytona [70]  O  Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida February 127 pm FS1
1 Daytona 500 February 152:30 pmFOX
2 Autotrader 400 [71]  O  EchoPark Speedway Hampton, Georgia February 223 pm PRN
3 DuraMAX Grand Prix [72]  R  Circuit of the Americas Austin, Texas March 13:30 pm
4 Straight Talk Wireless 500 [73]  O  Phoenix Raceway Avondale, Arizona March 8FS1MRN
5 Pennzoil 400  O  Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada March 154 pmPRN
6 Goodyear 400  O  Darlington Raceway Darlington, South Carolina March 223 pmMRN
7 Cook Out 400  O  Martinsville Speedway Ridgeway, Virginia March 293:30 pm
8 Food City 500  O  Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol, Tennessee April 123 pmPRN
9 AdventHealth 400  O  Kansas Speedway Kansas City, Kansas April 192 pmFOXMRN
10 Jack Link's 500  O  Talladega Superspeedway Lincoln, Alabama April 263 pm
11 Würth 400  O  Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas May 33:30 pmFS1PRN
12 Go Bowling at The Glen  R  Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen, New York May 103 pmMRN
NASCAR All-Star Open  O  Dover Motor Speedway Dover, Delaware May 171 pmPRN
NASCAR All-Star Race 3 pm
13 Coca-Cola 600  O  Charlotte Motor Speedway Concord, North Carolina May 246 pm Prime
14 Cracker Barrel 400  O  Nashville Superspeedway Lebanon, Tennessee May 317 pm
15 FireKeepers Casino 400  O  Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan June 73 pmMRN
16 The Great American Getaway 400  O  Pocono Raceway Long Pond, Pennsylvania June 14
17 Anduril 250 [74]  S  Coronado Street Course San Diego, California June 214 pm
NASCAR In-Season Challenge [75]
18 Toyota/Save Mart 350  R  Sonoma Raceway Sonoma, California June 283:30 pm TNT MRN
19 TBA  O  Chicagoland Speedway Joliet, Illinois July 56 pm
20 Quaker State 400  O  EchoPark Speedway Hampton, Georgia July 127 pmPRN
21 Window World 450 [76] [77]  O  North Wilkesboro Speedway North Wilkesboro, North Carolina July 19
22 Brickyard 400  O  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana July 262 pm IMS
Regular Season
23 Iowa Corn 350  O  Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa August 93:30 pm USA MRN
24 Cook Out 400  O  Richmond Raceway Richmond, Virginia August 157 pm
25 Mobil 1 301  O  New Hampshire Motor Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire August 233 pmPRN
26 Coke Zero Sugar 400  O  Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida August 297:30 pm NBC MRN
Cup Series Chase [67]
27 Cook Out Southern 500  O  Darlington Raceway Darlington, South Carolina September 65 pmUSAMRN
28 Enjoy Illinois 300  O  World Wide Technology Raceway Madison, Illinois September 133 pm
29 Bass Pro Shops Night Race  O  Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol, Tennessee September 197:30 pmPRN
30 Hollywood Casino 400  O  Kansas Speedway Kansas City, Kansas September 273 pmMRN
31 South Point 400  O  Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada October 45:30 pmPRN
32 Bank of America Roval 400  R  Charlotte Motor Speedway (Roval) Concord, North Carolina October 113 pm
33 Freeway Insurance 500 [78]  O  Phoenix Raceway Avondale, Arizona October 18MRN
34 YellaWood 500  O  Talladega Superspeedway Lincoln, Alabama October 252 pmNBC
35 Xfinity 500  O  Martinsville Speedway Ridgeway, Virginia November 1
36 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race  O  Homestead–Miami Speedway Homestead, Florida November 83 pm

Confirmed schedule changes

See also

References

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