Spire Motorsports announced Tuesday that it suspended Carson Hocevar for Sunday’s 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Justin Haley will drive the No. 77 Chevrolet this weekend, the team stated.
Hocevar’s suspension came after an on-track incident with Austin Cindric last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. SMT data showed the No. 77 Chevrolet driver brake-checking in front of Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford multiple times during Sunday’s Chase race presented by Mobil 1.
NASCAR also penalized Hocevar for his on-track actions Sunday. He was hit with a $100,000 fine and docked 25 driver points for behavioral conduct in Sections 4.4a of the NASCAR Rule Book: Penalty Options; Actions detrimental to stock-car racing. Per NASCAR, Hocevar has multiple violations of the code of conduct.
As a result of Hocevar brake-checking Cindric, the nose of Cindric’s car was crushed in, resulting in a DNF and 36th-place result for the No. 2 driver.
Spire Motorsports sent out the following in a statement:
“A decision like this has a lot of variables and a cascading effect across an organization like ours,” said Jeff Dickerson, co-owner of Spire Motorsports. “The easy thing would have been to leave this in NASCAR’s hands and let them decide what any penalty should be. To us, however, this isn’t about money or points. We believe in respect. Our integrity matters. This is the right decision for Spire Motorsports.
“Everyone here loves working with Carson, and we’ve enjoyed watching him thrive alongside our team. Sometimes the right decision for someone you care about hurts in the short term. The way Carson conducted himself at Martinsville doesn’t meet the standard we set for our drivers, team members or employees, and there are consequences for that. That doesn’t mean we don’t love him and support him.
“Racing at the Cup level is a privilege, and it comes with an expected level of professionalism from everyone who represents Spire Motorsports. We’ll go to Homestead united and compete as an organization. After that, we can get ready for Daytona in February with the right mindset to contend for a championship.”
“I just think it’s really important that I can be aggressive but still have some sort of respect for the garage, respect for my fellow competitors,” Hocevar said in the video. “I think they have the slogan of ‘protecting the shield’ in the NFL. In NASCAR, it’s actions detrimental. Ultimately, my move at Martinsville is not something that they’re going to put into a commercial. It’s not something I’m going to put into a highlight reel. It’s not something that anybody’s going to do ever that’s cool. It’s not cool to wreck somebody from behind. It’s just embarrassing, and it’s just disrespectful.”
Hocevar explained that he and the No. 77 team track the number of on-track incidents during the season, and he’s working to reduce that number “from 40 to maybe five or 10. That would be an upgrade or a better year or a cleaner year.”
Hocevar is expected to address the media at Homestead on Friday, and his press conference can be seen live at NASCAR.com/PressPass at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Goodyear is set to bring a familiar tire setup to Homestead-Miami Speedway for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Although this particular setup has not been used at Homestead, the left- and right-side tires have been used 11 times during the 2026 season, including four times in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
“As teams prepare for Championship Weekend’s return to Homestead, they have a year’s worth of mile-and-a-half data,” said Justin Fantozzi, Goodyear’s Director of Racing for the Americas. “The track’s variable banking and the rubber put down by our Goodyear Racing Eagles should give drivers multiple lanes to race around the track. We look forward to celebrating all three series’ champions.”
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will use the same tire compound introduced at Darlington Raceway in September – another high-wear intermediate oval similar to Homestead. Craftsman Truck Series teams haven’t used the left- and right-side tire combination yet, but both series have run each side of tires multiple times throughout the season.
It will be a unique weekend for Goodyear as the iconic blimp will fly a special livery over Homestead. The Goodyear Blimp will feature a special “Grand Theft Auto VI” scheme as activation for the highly anticipated game’s release later this month. The game is set in “Vice City,” a parody of Miami and the surrounding area.
Tire allotments for each team competing this weekend:
Cup Series: 12 total sets — 8 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race and 3 for practice.
O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: 8 total sets — 5 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race and 2 for practice.
Craftsman Truck Series: 7 total sets — 4 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race and 2 for practice.
Another busy season of racing at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway concludes Saturday with the facility’s third and final crown-jewel event: the Fall Brawl.
The first edition of the Fall Brawl took place in 1998, when 2014 NASCAR Cup Series championship crew chief Rodney Childers took home a checkered flag. Nearly three decades later, many notable names have become Fall Brawl winners, among them being current Cup Series competitors Denny Hamlin and Josh Berry.
Headlining the evening is the 200-lap Late Model Stock feature, the longest race competitors in that division will experience at the track this year. The notoriously abrasive surface Hickory is known for presents its own challenge, as patience and tire conservation are going to be imperative through all 200 laps if drivers want to have a shot at the victory.
Hickory has its reputation as “The Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars” for a specific reason. Winning a championship or a big race there could be the catalyst toward sustainability at the top levels of stock-car racing. A pivotal opportunity awaits several drivers Saturday, one that could define their careers for years to come.
Below is everything to know ahead of the 2026 Fall Brawl at Hickory Motor Speedway.
Saturday will serve as the 29th edition of the Fall Brawl at Hickory Motor Speedway, a tradition that started in 1998. (Photo: Gardner Street Photography/Hickory Motor Speedway)
Fall Brawl at Hickory: 2026 TV Channel, live stream
Saturday’s Fall Brawl at Hickory Motor Speedway will be shown live on FloRacing, the official streaming home for all NASCAR Regional properties.
The race will not be shown on a traditional TV network.
Accompanying the Late Model Stocks at Hickory Motor Speedway for the Fall Brawl are the Limited Late Models, Mini Stocks and Street Stocks, along with a 100-lap feature for the Carolina Pro Late Model Series.
Each division gets one practice session starting at 1 p.m. ET. One practice concludes, qualifying will commence at 2:30 p.m. ET, with each field being set by the best time each competitor posts after two laps on track.
The championship race for the Mini Stocks kicks off the racing festivities at 4:15 p.m. ET. Immediately following Mini Stocks will be the 100-lap Limited Late Model feature, with the Late Model Stocks serving as the fourth event on the docket.
Wrapping up the night will be the Carolina Pro Late Model Series, with the Fall Brawl also serving as their championship race.
Below is the complete race-day schedule.
Saturday, November 7, 2026
(All times ET)
Time
Event
7:30 a.m.
Pit Sign In Opens
8:30 a.m.
Pit Gate Opens
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Late Model Stock and Limited Late Model Inspection
12:30 p.m.
Drivers Meeting at frontstretch wall
1 p.m.
Practice (Limited Late Model from 1-1:20 p.m., Late Model Stock from 1:20-1:40 p.m., Street Stock from 1:40-1:50 p.m., Mini Stock from 1:50-2 p.m., Carolina Pro Late Model from 2-2:15 p.m.)
2:15 p.m.
Grandstands Open
2:30 p.m.
Qualifying (Street Stock-Mini Stock-Limited Late Model-Late Model Stock-Carolina Pro Late Model, 2 laps apiece)
To follow…
Autograph Session
4 p.m.
Pre-Race Ceremonies
4:15 p.m.
Fall Brawl — Mini Stock (25 Laps), Limited Late Model (100 Laps), Street Stock (30 Laps), Late Model Stock (200 Laps), Carolina Pro Late Model (100 Laps)
Entry list
The complete entry list for the 2026 Fall Brawl will be released later this week.
Analysis: Getting lapped by the teammate who eventually won the race isn’t exactly the ideal prelude to a championship celebration, but Larson still walked out of Martinsville feeling plenty good. Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels gambled on staying out through Stage 1 at Martinsville, and William Byron promptly drove past the No. 5 on fresh tires. Larson eventually got his lap back, scratched out a ninth-place finish and watched the two drivers chasing him in points manage only sixth and 10th. It was hardly a convincing afternoon — NASCAR Insights rated him just 20th in speed — but the championship lead remains a commanding 67 points with one race left. The defending champion now returns to Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he won in March 2025, needing to score just nine points to clinch his third title regardless of what anybody else does. Quite the position for a driver who couldn’t buy a victory for 51 consecutive races earlier this season, and one of the greatest in-season turnarounds the sport’s ever seen.
Analysis: Hamlin started on the pole at his best track, then made it all the way to Turn 3 on Lap 3 before things started going sideways. A missed shift surrendered the lead to teammate Ty Gibbs, and a strategy call to stay on old tires through the opening stage ultimately backfired as the No. 11 dropped through the field. Contact involving Joey Logano and Bell later sent Hamlin spinning, though he eventually recovered to finish sixth. After leading 292 laps there in the spring and entering Sunday with six Martinsville victories and the 5 car not at its best, this was about as disappointing a way to gain three points on Larson as one could imagine. Hamlin’s three Homestead wins are certainly a reason to expect him up front this weekend. They’re not, by themselves, a solution to a 70-point championship deficit.
Analysis: Bell has managed to become Larson’s closest championship challenger while spending much of the past two weeks making life unnecessarily difficult for himself. The Talladega pit-road spin was bad enough, but Martinsville brought a speeding penalty during a green-flag stop, followed by an incident involving Logano and teammate Hamlin that sent both Joe Gibbs Racing cars spinning. Somehow, Bell still scored points in both stages, finished 10th and moved ahead of Hamlin into second in the standings. He won at Homestead in 2023, so there’s at least a reasonable track-history argument for the No. 20 making some noise Sunday. But considering he was only five points behind Larson entering Talladega, it’s a pretty remarkable development that Bell now finds himself 67 back with one shot remaining.
Analysis: Winning consecutive races at Las Vegas and Charlotte seemed like a pretty effective way to announce yourself as a serious championship contender. Briscoe did exactly that, yet he’ll arrive at Homestead mathematically eliminated after following those victories with 33rd at Talladega and 14th at Martinsville. The latter wasn’t particularly encouraging even without the misfortune that defined Talladega, with the No. 19 ranking 19th in speed despite another strong afternoon from the series’ top-rated pit crew. It’s been an undeniably impressive season for Briscoe, with three victories and a legitimate place among NASCAR’s elite, but the last two weeks have exposed just how difficult it is to sustain that kind of run. At least the accomplishments that preceded them aren’t going anywhere.
Analysis: By the time Martinsville reached Lap 303, Byron had led more laps Sunday than he had in the first 34 races of 2026 combined. He wasn’t even close to finished, either. After an early green-flag pit stop helped position the No. 24 to take control, Byron eventually led 362 of 500 laps, swept the stages and cruised to his fourth Martinsville victory, ending a 35-race winless drought dating to the same event last fall. His runner-up finish at Talladega and victory Sunday are now the two best results of a season that had been frustratingly ordinary by Byron’s standards. And while the championship is out of reach, the No. 24 certainly picked an interesting time to start looking like the dominant machine we’d expected to see all year. If nothing else, Homestead suddenly has another very credible contender for the trophy, and the arrow is still pointing up for 2027.
Analysis: Elliott has finished in the top four at Martinsville in six consecutive starts, including a victory this spring and Sunday’s runner-up. That’s a pretty tremendous stretch at one of the sport’s most demanding tracks, particularly considering how difficult it can be to pass there. He was second in speed Sunday, his pit crew ranked first and yet he still never led a lap. That’s what happens when your teammate has a car as thoroughly dominant as Byron’s was, and with No. 24’s consecutive-season win streak at stake. Elliott’s two-win season of his own has occasionally gotten lost in the larger Hendrick Motorsports conversation, especially with Larson about to collect another championship, but the No. 9 has hardly been an afterthought on the track lately.
Analysis: Blaney was running eighth at Martinsville when he drove into the back of Josh Berry on Lap 252, heavily damaging the No. 12 and ultimately winding up 59 laps down in 35th. That followed a 38th-place finish at Talladega, a particularly miserable sequence for a driver who had strung together four consecutive top fives before the superspeedway trip. The absurd part is that NASCAR Insights still ranks Blaney first in season-long speed, passing and second in defense, and he’s no longer in title contention. And if that discrepancy seems familiar, Homestead in March 2025 was a bit of a microcosm of how much of this year went for him: Blaney led a race-high 124 laps before an engine failure ended his afternoon.
Analysis: Homestead is the site of one of the most spectacular moments of Reddick’s Cup career, when he passed Hamlin and Blaney on the final lap in 2024 to steal the victory and advance to the Championship 4. Two years later, he returns with six wins — more than anybody else this season — yet absolutely no chance of claiming the championship. That’s a pretty strange combination, though it accurately reflects a year in which the No. 45’s early dominance eventually gave way to a much less convincing second half before a minor Chase resurgence. His 12th-place finish at Martinsville wasn’t especially memorable, with the car ranking 16th in speed despite Reddick’s second-place passing rating. But if there’s one track where he might be able to conjure up something special to close on a good note, we’ve already seen what he can do at this one.
Analysis: While the championship attention at Joe Gibbs Racing remained primarily on Hamlin and Bell, it was Gibbs who delivered the organization’s best performance at Martinsville. He took advantage of Hamlin’s missed shift to grab the lead on Lap 3, paced the field for 44 circuits overall and scored 17 stage points before finishing third. NASCAR Insights rated him first in passing and third in speed, and his fourth-place finish there in March means he’s now recorded top fives in both Martinsville races this season. The two-trophy regular season established Gibbs as a legitimate Cup winner, but the past few months have certainly tested his consistency. Sunday, though, was a pretty convincing reminder that the No. 54 can be one of the best cars in the field on short tracks.
Analysis: Logano managed to get involved in a three-car spin, deal with a loose left-front wheel and leave pit road with a wedge wrench still in the window — all in the same Martinsville race. And this was just a week after flipping at Talladega. The particularly aggravating part for the three-time champion is that the car has been better than the results suggest but all the calamity took him out of contention. Logano ranked seventh in speed and first on restarts Sunday, was running third before the green-flag pit cycle that produced the wheel issue and ultimately finished 18th. Add in the Phoenix stage sweep and Talladega Stage 2 victory, and there’s plenty of evidence that Team Penske has found something recently. The execution, however, hasn’t been quite so convincing.
Analysis: One of the more encouraging details buried in Wallace’s recent results is that NASCAR Insights ranks him third in defense and ninth in speed for the season, which at this point is a tremendous sample size. His eighth-place finish at Martinsville offered a cleaner demonstration of that competitiveness after several races in which accidents or mistakes left the No. 23 with considerably less than it showed it was capable of. He also finished sixth in Stage 2 and had the fifth-rated pit crew Sunday. Homestead could be especially interesting: Wallace led 56 laps there in March 2025 before finishing third behind Larson and Alex Bowman. With the championship pressure gone and a car that has shown legitimate speed lately, he has an opportunity to finish 2026 on a much more satisfying note.
Analysis: Cindric’s Martinsville finishing position is almost completely disconnected from how the No. 2 actually performed. He qualified fourth, finished seventh in Stage 1 and ranked sixth in speed before contact with Carson Hocevar on Lap 210 badly damaged the front end and eventually sent him to the garage. The result was 36th, 278 laps down, following another wreck-marred afternoon at Talladega. After looking so strong at Kansas and Vegas, Cindric has now gone four consecutive races without a top 10. Not exactly the kind of return Team Penske had in mind for its late-season improvement, but Homestead’s worn-out intermediate layout offers one final opportunity to put that newfound speed to better use.
Analysis: For the second consecutive week, Preece was one of the more interesting drivers during the opening stage. He finished second in the first segment at Talladega after helping RFK Racing execute its unusual three-car breakaway, then led 41 laps and finished third in Stage 1 at Martinsville. Unfortunately, Sunday’s promising run ended when a right-rear wheel failure sent the No. 60 spinning from fifth on Lap 225. He eventually finished 23rd, with his pit crew ranking 36th of 37 teams for the afternoon. There was some genuine speed here, and Preece has been showing more of it than the recent finishes suggest. A broken wheel is a pretty lousy way to reward that progress, though.
Analysis: There’s a lot of talent in the No. 77, but Martinsville was another reminder that Hocevar and Co. still have plenty of sharpening up to do. A 16-second green-flag pit stop came from difficulty removing the right-rear wheel, and the afternoon also included a spin in Turn 4 and questionable contact with Cindric that badly damaged the No. 2. Hocevar finished 21st, following yet another super-encouraging Talladega run with a rather forgettable trip to Virginia. More concerning is the pit-road picture: 14 crew mistakes and 112 net positions lost this season — the second-worst total in the series. For a driver who’s already demonstrated winning ability, that’s an awful lot of ground to keep giving away.
Analysis: Talladega at least gave Buescher an interesting story to tell, with 53 laps led, a stage victory and that remarkable RFK Racing strategy before the late wreck ruined his afternoon, but Martinsville offered considerably less to discuss. He started 18th, finished 24th, scored no stage points and never looked particularly threatening despite ranking an above-average 13th in speed. His pit crew continues to perform exceptionally well, sitting fourth in the series for the season, but even that hasn’t been enough to produce the kind of results Buescher was regularly delivering earlier in the year. A sixth-place finish at Homestead in March 2025 is at least a more promising reference point for the finale.
Analysis: Only eight cars ranked worse than Suárez in speed at Martinsville, where the No. 7 started 24th, finished 28th and failed to score a stage point. There wasn’t a mechanical failure or a major accident to explain away the result, either. It was simply another afternoon without much competitive pace, continuing a Chase that has rarely resembled the season Suárez envisioned after a signature Coca-Cola 600 win in May. That victory was memorable enough to stand on its own, but the overall performance since then has been difficult to comprehend.
Dodge, readying to return to NASCAR Cup Series racing in the 2027 season, can boast a long list of some of the most successful drivers in stock car racing, despite a history that has been interrupted over the decades.
To name a handful: Richard Petty. David Pearson. Bobby Isaac. Lee Petty. Bill Elliott. Rusty Wallace. Bobby Allison. Brad Keselowski. Kurt Busch.
Although Earnhardt would make his mark — and his money — driving Chevrolets, his first start in a Cup race came May 25, 1975, in the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a Dodge. It was a curious choice for a debut, the 600 being one of stock car racing’s most physically demanding races. But the car, a hand-me-down of sorts owned by Ed Negre, was available, and Earnhardt jumped. He finished 22nd, 45 laps behind winner Richard Petty (in a Dodge, by the way), and was so beaten down by the experience that he pitted once simply to get a drink of water.
Still, Earnhardt, at 24 years old, started one of the most successful careers in the sport in a Dodge.
Across the years, with a few pauses, the Dodge brand — from Coronets to Chargers to Road Runners to Intrepids — has been a standout in NASCAR circles. Dodge drivers scored Cup championships and race wins from the sport’s hardscrabble beginnings into the 21st century, although the car manufacturer’s history in NASCAR has been one of both major success and difficult departures. For big chunks of years and for numerous reasons, Dodge has been absent from NASCAR racing lanes.
The 2027 return to stock car racing’s top series follows by a quarter-century a similar decision to put Dodges in Cup in 2001, a move that ultimately gave the car builder its most recent Cup Series championship, scored by driver Brad Keselowski and Team Penske in 2012. After that title, the Penske organization switched to Ford for the 2013 season, and Dodge closed the garage doors on its Cup program again.
Keselowski scored the most recent Cup race win for Dodge on Sept. 30, 2012 at Dover Motor Speedway on his way to the series title.
The most prominent Dodge pairing over the years was Petty Enterprises’ 1970s run with Richard Petty at the wheel of Chargers. Petty made the bright red and Petty blue Charger, which created a silhouette that defined the modern race car, a familiar presence with win after win across the country and Cup Series championships in 1974 and 1975. Although Petty’s years racing Chrysler products often placed him in Plymouths, he carried the Dodge insignia to success from big tracks to small.
As is the case with so many other records in NASCAR, Petty owns the most Dodge Cup driver titles with two. David Pearson, driving Cotton Owens Garage Dodges, won the car builder’s first driver title in 1966. Bobby Isaac won the championship in 1970 in the driver seats of very fast Nord Kraufkopf-owned, Harry Hyde-built Dodges, scoring 10 race wins on short tracks. Keselowski won the title in 2012 to end a 37-year stretch without a Dodge championship.
NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty Images
Lee Petty, Richard’s father and the patriarch of the Petty racing family, scored Dodge’s first Cup win Feb. 1, 1953 in the season-opening race at Palm Beach Speedway, a half-mile dirt track in West Palm Beach, Florida. Petty led 152 of 200 laps and won by two laps.
Lee Petty won the series championship in 1954, but that title was credited to Chrysler, not Dodge.
Pearson thus became Dodge’s first Cup champion in 1966, dominating the short tracks, scoring 15 victories and easily finishing atop the point standings. It was a hometown sort of championship, Pearson and team owner Cotton Owens both living in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The season underscored Pearson’s talents and was the next big step in a career that led to three Cup championships and 105 race wins.
In the 1960s, Chrysler’s racing program became a showcase for the manufacturer’s powerful Hemi engines. The introduction in 1964 of a monster Hemi contributed to engine wars that rattled NASCAR’s top series, dramatically increased speeds at the biggest tracks and kept engine builders working overtime to find more horsepower.
“That Hemi engine had a tremendous amount of torque,” said Dodge driver Dave Marcis. “If you could hook your car up and make the chassis work, the engine could accept anything you could give it. It would certainly move you forward. And if it wasn’t hooked up, you could damn sure spin the tires off of it, too.”
Dodge logged another major accomplishment in March 1970 when Buddy Baker drove a winged Dodge Charger Daytona at an average speed of 200.447 miles per hour in testing at the new 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Baker’s lap was the first measured at more than 200 mph by a stock car on a closed course.
The Dodge Charger Daytona and its sister car, the Plymouth Superbird, are among the most famous, admired cars in NASCAR history. The cars had a needle nose and a huge, intimidating rear wing, and they flew through the air in impressive style. Race fans and car aficionados immediately wanted to own one.
“It was almost impossible to spin the thing out,” said Richard Petty, who drove the Superbird version. “It was so stable. It took us probably half a year to make it turn right. It was a fun car to drive, so much different from anything else. We had been running stock cars. This looked like a race car.”
The winged cars were so aerodynamically superior and race-track stable that they produced lap speeds at Darlington Raceway a full three seconds faster than the previous Dodge entries. The wings could be tilted at various angles. Eventually, the cars proved to be too fast, and NASCAR rules changes legislated them out of existence.
NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty ImagesMarcis enjoyed success in the Kraufkopf-Hyde Dodges in the 1975-76 seasons, winning races at Martinsville, Richmond, Talladega and Atlanta. Hyde, a longtime resident of NASCAR garages, was front and center with innovations and old-school knowledge that put more power in the bright red cars.
“In those days, the mechanics and crew chiefs had a tremendous amount of input into a race car as far as suspension, engine, everything,” Marcis said. “Harry put in all the time for that. I guess he just had an attitude, and he worked hard at trying to be up front and have the fastest race car. He used to go to bed at 6:30 at night, and he’d be the first one at the track the next day, working on the race car, trying to do something different, making the car a little faster in practice.”
Despite Petty’s run of success with the Charger model, his strength declined later in the 1970s with other Dodge models, eventually leading stock car racing’s king to abandon Dodge for Chevrolet in the middle of the 1978 season.
Dodge faded away again.
NASCAR enjoyed some of its best years in the 1990s, filling grandstands across the country and attracting impressive television viewership numbers. The sport’s rising popularity was among the factors that led to Dodge returning to NASCAR’s top series in 2001.
Daimler/Chrysler confirmed in October 1999 in media events in New York City and Talladega, Alabama, that it would return to NASCAR with its Dodge brand for the 2001 season.
Dodge’s rebound attracted some heavy hitters.
Richard Petty, with so many career connections to the manufacturer, brought his team along.
Ray Evernham, who had been ultra-successful as a crew chief for driver Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports, built a new team for the Dodge return and was named to manage the overall Dodge effort, calling it “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Veteran driver and fan favorite Bill Elliott joined Evernham, the new team owner calling Elliott “the perfect guy to be the cornerstone of our new team.” Sterling Marlin, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne joined Dodge and won races. In 2008, Newman drove a Penske Dodge to victory in the Daytona 500. Team owners Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi joined the group, along with Bill Davis, whose team would handle much of the developmental work for Dodge.
The 2012 season marked both the pinnacle and the end of the latest Dodge ride. Keselowski won races at Bristol, Talladega, Kentucky, Chicago and Dover and was either first or second in the point standings for the final 11 races of the year. He finished 15th in the season-ender at Homestead-Miami Speedway, good enough to win the championship.
Keselowski, one of the sport’s rising stars, enjoyed a bizarre sort of celebration, guzzling celebratory beers in Victory Lane even as Dodge was concluding its most recent ride with NASCAR.
Dodge will return to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027 with Kaulig Racing, the manufacturer announced Monday at the 2026 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
The two-car team will field Dodge Chargers in the manufacturer’s reintroduction to NASCAR’s top level after a 14-year hiatus, following its departure after the 2012 campaign.
Brad Keselowski won the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series championship driving a Dodge Charger and earned the manufacturer its 217th and most recent win at the Cup level that fall at Dover Motor Speedway.
“Dodge’s return to the NASCAR Cup Series is a significant milestone for the sport,” NASCAR Chief Executive Officer Steve O’Donnell said. “This commitment speaks to Dodge’s belief in our sport and gives fans another reason to be excited about what’s ahead. The partnership between NASCAR, Tim Kuniskis and the entire team at Stellantis has been nothing short of phenomenal. They have a deep passion for NASCAR and its ability to showcase the world’s top brands, and we can’t wait to see Dodge on the race track for the Daytona 500 and beyond.”
John Probst, president of NASCAR Event Management, views Dodge’s re-entry to the sport as a signal both to the sport’s rising status as well as that of the automobile industry, particularly the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) currently in the sport as Dodge rejoins Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.
“I think it shows not only the strength of the North American car market, but also the value that NASCAR plays with these OEMs in that market as the premier motorsports in North America,” Probst said in a Monday teleconference.
Dodge’s latest tenure in the Cup Series spanned from 2001 through 2012 with 57 victories over that time. Its return marked the first new manufacturer to enter NASCAR’s top ranks since 2007, when Toyota first entered the Cup Series. Stellantis, Dodge’s parent company, re-entered NASCAR in 2026 by partnering with Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The organization fielded five full-time trucks and featured stars like three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, 2010 Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 champion Jamie McMurray and 2008 Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman behind the wheel.
Dodge has been on the fast track to returning to the NASCAR Cup Series — something Kuniskis, head of Stellantis North America’s American Brands, SRT Performance and Direct Connection division, has embraced in the high-octane world of racing.
“Everyone said it was impossible to get back in one year. We said, ‘watch this,’ ” Kuniskis said in a press release. “Sure, we could spend three years planning, testing and perfecting … or we could do all three in real time, on the track. It’s going to be exponentially harder this way. But slow has never been part of Dodge DNA. LFG.”
According to Stellantis, Kaulig Racing will serve as the anchor team to both Dodge and Ram, re-establishing “a factory-backed presence at the track” and creating a foundation for the next phase of the company’s commitment to American motorsports. Dodge SRT Racing will lead the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR. Dodge SRT Racing also oversees all the manufacturer’s North American racing efforts, including NASCAR, NHRA and elsewhere.
“This is a very exciting moment for (team CEO) Chris Rice and me,” Kaulig Racing owner Matt Kaulig said in a statement. “We launched Kaulig Racing a decade ago and have overcome so many challenges together, which makes it even more remarkable to be announced as the anchor team for Dodge’s return to the NASCAR Cup Series. What a monumental time to be a member of Kaulig Racing.
“We realize what a responsibility this opportunity presents to the men and women of Kaulig Racing, and we are ready to rise to the occasion. I am proud of the stability and support this partnership brings to our organization, which allows us to build a winning program for many years to come.”
To add a fourth manufacturer alongside Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota has been a priority for NASCAR executives. Knowing Dodge will rejoin the grid for Speedweeks in 2027 at Daytona International Speedway is an accomplishment that NASCAR’s Probst took pride in. But he also acknowledged the job is not done.
“It’s something that we’ve talked about for a long time, and sometimes we talk about it so much and it didn’t happen that you almost feel like you lose credibility at some point,” Probst told NASCAR.com. “But it’s certainly a proud moment for us, for our industry to welcome Dodge back. And I think that’s the key: Welcome them back. And I think that even through the process of looking at which OEM should we target, it was never a doubt that Dodge was always number one. Dodge belongs over here, and it’s good to welcome them back.”
The process to approve the body of Dodge’s NASCAR Cup Series entries was no different than current OEMs’ submissions for new body panels, Probst added. The difference for Dodge, however, is that there was no previous template to modify.
“When an existing OEM submits a new model or a brand-new OEM submits a brand-new car, that involves about an 18-month process of CFD testing and wind tunnel testing,” Probst said. “And then once they fit in the box of the performance characteristics, we then go one step further and we get the actual production panels for that car and make sure that with the actual production panels, they’re still in the box. So that’s this exact same process that we went through with this one.”
Probst said Dodge and NASCAR have passed the wind tunnel portion of testing and that production panels should come in the middle of November, a part of the process Probst anticipates being a routine checklist item rather than any cause for apprehension.
Details surrounding the expected engine configuration for Kaulig’s Dodges were not revealed on Monday, but Probst stated, “The engine that they will run is compliant with our rule book,” opting to allow Kaulig and Dodge SRT Racing to announce its plans later.
While the plans to bring Dodge back to the NASCAR Cup Series appeared to materialize quickly, Probst explained a years-long process that led to Monday’s announcement.
“It certainly looks like that, but I can tell you that it’s been a lot of trips to Detroit with Steve O’Donnell, [Chief Operating Officer] Ben Kennedy, myself, trying to talk to all these OEMs and show them the strength of our sport,” Probst said. “But I think that also it shows that once an OEM makes the decision to get in, it really doesn’t have to take that long until they’re on the race track. So, I hope this is encouragement for some of the others that may be still looking to go ahead and just make the commitment because it can happen quicker than some of our OEMs have taken in the past.”
In a release, Stellantis stated that Kaulig Racing will announce its 2027 driver lineup at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the NASCAR Cup Series championship will be awarded on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Dodge will reveal the race car that Kaulig Racing will use to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series on Dec. 4 at the 2026 Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, where the feature race is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 6. Coverage of the reveal will be live-streamed on FloRacing and the NASCAR Channel.
Dodge will also hold “The Dodge Sno-Brawl,” an event in which celebrity drivers will race head-to-head in equally prepared Dodge Charger late-model stock cars with additional race details to be announced later.
Dodge is slated to make its first points-paying start in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2012 when the 2027 season begins with the 69th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 21 on FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Justin Allgaier will return to JR Motorsports on a multiyear deal beginning in 2027 to continue driving the team’s No. 7 Chevrolet in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, the team announced Monday evening on social media.
Allgaier, the 2024 series champion, is currently the series points leader and carries a 22-point lead into the 2026 season finale, seeking his second title at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday (5 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Allgaier had previously indicated the 2026 season would be his last behind the wheel with JR Motorsports, but that tone began to change late in the spring. Now, the perennial championship contender sets his sights further down the road.
“At the beginning of the year, I knew that it was the year I was going to retire,” Allgaier said in a video posted to JRM’s social media Monday night. “But … I wasn’t quite ready yet.”
Allgaier’s 34 career wins in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series rank sixth all-time behind only Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards. The 40-year-old Illinois native dominated the regular season in 2026, collecting a career-high six victories that earned him the No. 1 seed in The Chase presented by Mobil 1. Allgaier has won at least once each season since 2017, earning nine multi-win campaigns in that 10-season stretch.
Allgaier is one of five drivers mathematically eligible to win the championship Saturday at Homestead. Defending series champion Jesse Love sits 22 points behind Allgaier, with Corey Day 23 points back, Carson Kvapil 31 points back and Sheldon Creed 42 points back.
One last race. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series concludes its 2026 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race will be the seventh and final race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1 and the 25th points-paying event of the season.
Following Chandler Smith’s Martinsville Speedway victory, only two Chase drivers remain in the title hunt: Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs (minus-20). Both drivers are searching for their first career Truck Series championship crown.
Thirty-five race trucks are entered into Friday’s event.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series transitions from the short-track Virginia confines of Martinsville Speedway to the intermediate high lines of Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday (5 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race will be the 2026 season finale and the ninth Chase presented by Mobil 1 contest overall. The 200-lap contest will be the season’s 33rd and final points-paying event. Justin Allgaier is the defending Homestead winner, doing so on March 22, 2025.
Following Carson Kvapil’s Martinsville victory, five O’Reilly Chasers mathematically remain in the 2026 championship hunt: Allgaier, Jesse Love (minus-22), Corey Day (minus-23), Kvapil (minus-31) and Sheldon Creed (minus-42). Allgaier and Love are each seeking their second O’Reilly title, with the latter aiming to become the first O’Reilly pilot since Tyler Reddick to capture back-to-back title triumphs (2018-2019). The remaining three drivers are looking to capture their first championship crown.
Thirty-eight race cars are entered into Saturday’s event.
The season finale is here. The NASCAR Cup Series caps off its 2026 campaign with a trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is the 10th and final Chase presented by Mobil 1 contest of the 2026 campaign and the 36th points-paying event overall. Kyle Larson is the defending Homestead winner, doing so on March 23, 2025.
Despite an “average day” at Martinsville Speedway, Larson enters Homestead with a 67-point lead in The Chase standings. Only two other drivers remain in title contention: Christopher Bell (minus-67) and Denny Hamlin (minus-70). Both Joe Gibbs Racing drivers will look to capture their first Cup Series championship, while Larson will look to clinch his third and become the first back-to-back title victor since Jimmie Johnson won five consecutive titles from 2006-2010.
As announced by the team Tuesday, Carson Hocevar will not drive the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet due to on-track actions at Martinsville Speedway, and Justin Haley will drive the entry instead.
Forty race cars are entered into this weekend’s event.
