St. Petersburg joins Craftsman Truck schedule; Rockingham, Lime Rock return

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series had gone 31 seasons without holding a street-circuit race. In its 32nd, the tailgate tour will have two.

NASCAR officials released the full 2026 schedules for both the Truck Series and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Wednesday, revealing that the trucks will race for the first time as part of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend next year on Feb. 28. Both series will also participate as part of a tripleheader of national-series events in their debut in San Diego’s Naval Base Coronado alongside the NASCAR Cup Series, June 19-21.

The Craftsman Truck Series will share the bill in its St. Petersburg visit with the NTT IndyCar Series, which has opened its season on the 1.8-mile street course the last four years. The companion Truck Series race should provide an extra level of exposure to a new motorsports crowd, all while making that series’ schedule more closely resemble its NASCAR national-series counterparts.

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“Obviously, with the street races that we have now at the Cup Series, racing in San Diego, racing at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, we want to make sure that our development series are racing at track types that allow them to advance and be prepared for the Cup level,” said Jusan Hamilton, NASCAR managing director, competition operations. “So, making sure we have a street race at the Truck Series level was something that we evaluated. Obviously, they have the first two street races they’ll have in their 30-year history, kicking off with the St. Pete Grand Prix, so it allows us to evaluate that market. Tampa/St. Pete is another huge media market.

“It’s also conducive for the Craftsman Truck Series teams to keep them on the East Coast for the early part of their season. It’s not a long trip for them to get down to Tampa, and it allows us to gain experience with another street course as we continue to develop and advance on our end with the new street course that we’re working on at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.”

Both series will return to Rockingham Speedway in 2026 after a successful revival of racing at the historic mile track earlier this year. The doubleheader will be held April 3-4 of Easter weekend, which will be the first of two idle weekends for the NASCAR Cup Series.

NASCAR racing returned to Rockingham in April for the first time in 12 years, and Saturday’s Xfinity Series race in the North Carolina sandhills was a sellout.

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“I think everyone saw the fan response to racing on Easter weekend at Rockingham,” Hamilton said. “It really allowed us to highlight both the drivers and teams in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, as well as the Craftsman Truck Series on a separate weekend without Cup racing, also giving the teams and industry Sunday off to celebrate Easter with their families. So, saw a great fan response last year, saw some really great racing, and the return to Rockingham is going to keep building that tradition with those two series on an off weekend for Cup.”

Another return trip is scheduled for the Truck Series at Lime Rock Park, the picturesque Connecticut road course that hosted the circuit for the first time in June. Fan turnout was robust for the debut at the longtime sports-car venue, and the second edition will be one of four “stand-alone” events next year for the Trucks, separate from the Cup Series schedule.

“Going through those venues, it always allows us to explore new areas, to reach areas of the country that we’re maybe not reaching as much with the Cup Series,” Hamilton said. “So we saw a great turnout at Lime Rock Park last year. That passionate New England fan base up there really came out strong for that one. Again, that’s another one that, given that positive response, we’d like to keep building on that tradition of taking the Craftsman Truck Series to Lime Rock. We’ll continue to evaluate racing in different areas and using our support series as a method to do that. That’s always something that’s that we’re going to look at as we build the schedule.”

Other notable shifts to the 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts and Craftsman Truck Series schedules:

• Both series will end their seasons in early November at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which returns as the host track for NASCAR Championship Weekend for the first time since 2019. Phoenix Raceway, the season-finale host from 2020-25, will move to the Round of 8 opener for all three national series.
• The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will end its regular season at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis for the second consecutive year, with the seven-race playoffs set to begin again at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 18. Las Vegas Motor Speedway replaces Kansas Speedway as the middle race in the Round of 12.
• The Craftsman Truck Series will have a new site for the regular-season finale at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Aug. 22. The new-look playoffs will begin on Sept. 17 at Bristol Motor Speedway, and Kansas will join the Truck Series postseason rotation on Sept. 26.
• Portland International Raceway will drop from the calendar next season after a four-year run on the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule.
• Two tracks will hold tripleheader weekends with significantly earlier dates in 2026. Watkins Glen International shifts from early August to May 8-10, and Dover Motor Speedway — which will become the newest host of the Cup Series’ All-Star Race next year — moves to May 15-17. The Truck Series will be making its first Dover appearance since 2020 next season.

NASCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES