2026 NASCAR Draft Kit: What to Watch For

Before we can fill out our cheat sheets or prepare our draft strategies for the upcoming 2026 NASCAR season, there are many changes that we need to take into account in order to be prepared for any fantasy racing league. We're going to take an in-depth look at some of these changes that we'll see and some that aren't so apparent when the engines fire up at Daytona in February.

2026 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Changes

Thanks to less than usual silly season movement and free agent driver signings, we have just a handful of different drivers that have moved to new teams in 2026. We typically see some smaller teams shut down or even new ones start, but that is not the case for this upcoming season. In fact, this is about the "lightest" off-season of driver and team movement we've seen in some time. Outlined below is a short list of drivers who have either swapped teams or been promoted from lower divisions of NASCAR to compete in the top division this year.

Driver                               New Team                                            Old Team                                

Daniel Suarez                 #7 Spire Motorsports                         #99 Trackhouse Racing

Connor Zilisch                 #88 Trackhouse Racing                     #88 O'Reilly Series

Shane van Gisbergen     #97 Trackhouse Racing                     #88 Trackhouse Racing

2026 NASCAR Schedule Changes

The schedule has a number of tweaks and new events added for the 2026 season. It starts with the venue for this season's All-Star Race. After a three-season run at North Wilkesboro Speedway and a three-season run at various tracks prior to that, NASCAR has picked a new venue for the 2026 All-Star Race. This coming May, Dover Motor Speedway will host its first ever All-Star weekend. The Monster Mile will be the backdrop for this intriguing exhibition race. Both the Open and Main race will be run on the afternoon of May 17 in Dover. This is a pretty radical shakeup to recent All-Star installments and will stir some interest with the venue change. 

As for the regular season, we get a new event for 2026 as NASCAR drops the Mexico City Father's Day weekend racing at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and adds a new street circuit at Naval Base Coronado. The sanctioning body worked with the local authorities and devised a layout of street racing that encompasses 3.4-miles and 16 turns of layout on the naval base at Coronado Island.  This new event will happen on Father's Day weekend and causes the Pocono Raceway event to be moved up one week earlier in June. 

As far as the layout of the schedule is concerned, we have multiple dates/tracks shuffling in the order compared to last season. It will be difficult to get a handle on where the Cup Series is going week-to-week due to these changes, so we suggest keeping a 2026 schedule handy. The historical norms of where and when NASCAR races used to be set in stone, but they're really shuffling the deck this season with multiple changes. 

As for the playoffs, Daytona remains the cut-race to make the 10-race playoff. The playoffs will drop the New Hampshire date in the Round of 12 and replace it with a new championship finale track of Homestead. That change results in Phoenix shuffling up from the finale and into the Round of 8. Homestead-Miami Speedway hasn't served as the championship crowing race since 2019 and it will resume that distinction in 2026.

As NASCAR continues to change and evolve, so does the Cup Series schedule. The upcoming season offers some new events and some returning old events in a jam-packed 36-event calendar, plus exhibition races. Unlike 2025, there will be two off-weekends built into the schedule to help break up the grueling run of season-long racing. The previous schedule had featured only one off-weekend so that will be a welcome change to both teams and drivers alike.   

2026 NASCAR Playoff Format Changes (Pending)

As of this writing, no definitive announcement has been made about the championship format for the 2026 season. The primary reason is that the sanctioning body is still discussing and evaluating what the exact format will look like. What we do know is that the current system which features a winner take all format in the final race of the season is likely over. 

NASCAR has all but dismissed the idea of going back to a season-long points format to decide the champion, so that is not likely to happen either. What has leaked of what is planned looks more like the old "Chase" system used from 2004 to 2013. It would involve an elimination format and culminate in an eight-driver, four-race points accumulation system. The driver gathering the most points in those final four events would be crowned the Cup Series champion. 

NASCAR has not announced a date or announcement time for the new format, so it could occur anytime in January or right up to even the Daytona 500. However, it's something to watch closely as any new championship format could have an impact on what the season looks like and how competition evolves around it.

After more than a decade of using the current playoff format, fan and driver discontentment with the system reached a zenith in 2025. NASCAR could no longer continue down this road as this discontentment dominated the social and corporate media space and sagging tv viewership of the playoffs seemed to backup or underscore the fan component of this discontentment. Realizing that change is needed, NASCAR is evaluating the future of the sport and considering an overhaul to the championship format. In the coming weeks we should receive some details on this and it will hopefully improve upon the current system.  

New NASCAR Venue Added For 2026

In cooperation with the Navy base at Coronado Island, NASCAR announced this new event last July. All three top racing series will compete on this street layout June 19-21, 2026. This event effectively replaces the Mexico City event from the 2025 calendar. 

NASCAR released a map and renderings of what the circuit will look like last October. It's a street course very similar to what NASCAR had done in Chicago for the past three years. The layout is a challenging 3.4-mile, 16-turn course on the base at Coronado Island. It will provide high speed straights, hairpin corners and some of the most awe-inspiring views of any racing circuit. Turn 5 has already been nicknamed "Carrier Corner" as it will feature two docked aircraft carriers in the turn's background. NASCAR has yet to announce the stages or total laps for any of the three events planned that weekend at Coronado Island, but those details should be coming sometime early in the 2026 season.

NASCAR continues to look for ways to come up with new race events and bring to the sport to new markets and new fans. The races at both Chicago and Mexico City the past few seasons are an illustration of this. The Coronado Island race is just another example of these continued efforts to expand the fanbase and open new markets. There's no word on NASCAR racing this circuit beyond the 2026 season, and we're sure that will largely be dependent on the success and reception this first race receives. If all goes well, the sanctioning body could close a deal here that keeps NASCAR returning to this naval base for the foreseeable future.

New Series Sponsorship in 2026

NASCAR's second tier division will get a new primary sponsor in 2026. Xfinity had the naming rights for this division since the 2015 season, but now their lengthy run is over. O'Reilly Auto Parts signed a multi-year agreement with NASCAR and will now have the naming rights for this series moving forward. The newly branded NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series will take to the track in February at Daytona and cover the 33-event schedule in the upcoming season. The new title sponsor has deep and lengthy ties in NASCAR and made a perfect choice to follow in the footsteps of Xfinity for this division of NASCAR. The O'Reilly Series features an interesting mix of young talent and seasoned veterans who battle weekly for race wins and the series championship in a highly competitive environment. 

New Regulations for the Next Gen Car in 2026

The sanctioning body decided to tweak the technical regulations for the shorter tracks in the upcoming season. NASCAR will move to a 750-horse power package for the engine which is a significant boost over the 670 it employed last season and still does employ at non-short tracks. The tracks that qualify are: Martinsville, Bristol, Darlington, Dover, Nashville, Richmond, New Hampshire, Phoenix and Gateway. The move is hoped to increase power and the ability to pass on these smaller ovals. The superspeedway ovals of Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta will still use the reduced 510-horsepower package to limit top speeds and for safety.