5 Things to Know Before The 2026 Daytona 500

2/12/2026 -- Derek Pierce

Keeping up with all the updates a sport has over the off-season can be quite difficult, especially when a sport has a major overhaul like NASCAR has in the last few months. From changing the championship format to driver changes, the entire landscape of NASCAR looks completely different than it does from last year. To keep you up to speed, here's five things you should know before the Daytona 500.

1. New Championship Format

In January, NASCAR announced that the way the champion will be crowned was majorly overhauled. The playoffs are no more and instead they have reverted back the The Chase. No playoffs means there is no more guaranteed entry into the race for a championship just by winning a race and instead it will just be the top 16 drivers in points after the final race of the regular season. Though wins are now worth 55 points rather than 40, this still places extreme pressure on drivers like Shane Van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric, and others that were occasional contenders to win a race but not consistent enough to be in that range. 

The points reset will also look different with the regular season champion starting The Chase with a 100 point advantage over who enters as the 16th place driver. This creates a multiple race gap between the top and bottom that would be extremely hard to overcome, but with no rounds resetting the points multiple times like the playoffs did, it still requires consistency from all drivers. Even a collapse like Martin Truex Jr. had back in 2023 wouldn't be saved from this.

Some elements of the playoffs still linger in this format, however. Rather than reducing it to 10 or 12 like the original Chase formats, NASCAR decided to keep the entries at 16. Some question this as it means the battle for the last few spots could have the viewers looking at 15th-20th place during a race, however the field is closer and as competitive as it has ever been and even with this large field, it is more than likely that some big names are going to miss out. Looking at last year with this format, Kyle Busch would've missed out of The Chase by just two points behind Ty Gibbs who was only two points behind Austin Cindric. Those are drivers for big teams that would have heavy implications on their futures in the sport if they didn't make the post season.

2. 23XI/Front Row Lawsuit Conclusion

NASCAR was in a long legal dispute with two teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, over the charter agreement. This went on for over a year, looming over all three parties for the entirety of last season and possibly affecting the expansion efforts of both teams. However, before the case went to trial, the teams and NASCAR came to an agreement to settle out of court. 

For the teams, this was a major win for them. They essentially won everything they were asking for in the charter negotiations. This being permanent charters rather than risking losing a $40 million investment each time a new cycle of charter agreement contracts roll around. On top of that, the teams were granted a higher percentage of the revenue stream as it was shown in court documents that nearly every single team was losing millions of dollars each year due to the lack of revenue coming from the old agreement. One of the final reported parts of the agreement was giving the teams a say in some of the governing issues surrounding the sport which may be why there have been so many changes since this was settled such as the championship format.

For NASCAR, they entered this as a PR nightmare and are leaving with one as well. Court documents revealed not only how well the business side of NASCAR was doing while every team was struggling, but uncovered messages between executives bashing team owners and drivers. One owner in particular was specifically mentioned by name and insulted. Richard Childress, one of the longest standing and most successful owners in the sport, was mentioned by the former Commissioner of NASCAR, Steve Phelps, where he said in a text, "Richard Childress needs to be taken out back and flogged. He's a stupid redneck and owes his entire fortune to nascar."  There are many eerily similar messages of entitlement throughout the documents and likely led to the stepping down of Steve Phelps. 

As fans of the sport, we can only hope that the executives in charge see their errors and look to fix them and the sport rather than continue down the path of doing their own thing like they had been for the last decade. Only positive changes have been made since, and we hope that trend continues so the sport can go back to growing.

3. Series Rebranding

NASCAR's second highest level of competition, previously known as the Xfinity Series, is facing a rebrand. With Xfinity stepping down as a series sponsor, O'Reilly Auto Parts has taken their place. The series will now be known as the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, or NOAPS for short. Based on the Fox broadcast of the Clash, it seems that the spoken short-hand name is just going to be O'Reilly, but that will likely change over time.

4. Schedule Updates

The 2026 schedule has seen some major changes compared to the last couple of years. NASCAR has been clear about their goal to return to old tracks that still hold a special place in the hearts of many fans while still being innovative with the new markets they want to reach. 

One of the biggest changes is the removal of the Chicago Street Course. This was a super popular event that drove a lot of new eyes to the sport including Amazon which sparked the deal to stream select races on Amazon Prime. However, after push back from certain subjects within the industry and the city of Chicago, the race is no more and instead NASCAR has decided to return to Chicagoland Speedway. After being taken off the schedule in 2019, many fans were asking for a return to the track given how well the Next Gen racing product has been on similar types of tracks. While it may not be as popular as the Chicago Street Course, it should prove to be just as good as a show.

Street Courses aren't totally out of NASCAR, however. The Craftsman Truck Series will be double heading with IndyCar during their season opener at St. Petersburg. 

Additionally, to replace the prestige of the Chicago Street Course, NASCAR will be taking all three national series to race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, California. This is a race that has many drivers excited as multiple Cup Series drivers are expected to enter, Jimmie Johnson has announced his entry, and former F1 driver, Jenson Button, has said to be interested in racing in just the Truck Series alone. This is going to be a highly anticipated race for everyone in the industry as well as all the fans at home. Given a successful race, this could be a long standing partnership and an annual race that many look forward to. 

The newest change to the schedule has been the announcement of returning to the Charlotte oval in October, rather than the road course configuration that had been run since 2018. Though the "Roval" brought a lot of great memories and some good racing, the oval of Charlotte continues to be one of the best tracks in all of NASCAR with the current car leaving a lot of people to want more of it. 

5. Driver Changes 

While this certainly wasn't the biggest silly season ever, there are still a few very notable changes in the garage. The main one revolving around rookie, Connor Zilisch. Zilisch ran three races for Trackhouse Racing last season with pretty impressive performances. His best result was at EchoPark Speedway where he finished 11th in his third start, but some would argue that his best race was at Circuit of the Americas. The 18 year-old had advanced into the top-10 before being involved in a wreck that sent him to the back of the pack. As he was recovering, he was involved in another crash that took him out of the race. Zilisch has proven that he is the definition of a phenom with not only his few Cup Series performances, but by winning 10 Xfinity Series races and only falling short of the championship due to the playoff format.

Zilisch was signed full-time to Trackhouse Racing in the No. 88, replacing Daniel Suarez. Suarez will instead be replacing Justin Haley in Spire Motorsport's No. 7 Chevrolet. Haley made the move down to join Kaulig in the Craftsman Truck Series as they introduce RAM back into NASCAR. 

The 2025 Craftsman Truck Series champion, Corey Heim, will also be making several Cup Series starts this year racing in a fourth car for 23XI Racing. Heim won't be full-time in any series and instead will be splitting starts between Cup, O'Reilly, and Trucks. 

With all of the changes in just a few months, the 2026 NASCAR season is going to feel completely different to the product that saw a decline in viewership throughout 2025. The product will feel as fresh as it did when the Next Gen first debuted and hopefully recapturing the fanbase that had started to leave.