Posted on by Press Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. and AUSTIN, Texas — NASCAR and FloSports today announced an expanded slate of racing events that will bring FloRacing coverage live
throughout the 2026 season to the NASCAR Channel, further expanding the reach of short-track racing across North America.

The 2026 simulcast schedule includes:

  • Friday, February 6 – World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing – Opening Night
  • Saturday, March 28 – ARCA Menards Series East at Hickory Motor Speedway
  • Saturday, April 4 – ARCA Menards Series East at Rockingham Speedway
  • Thursday, April 30 – High Limit Racing at Texas Motor Speedway
  • Saturday, May 2 – ARCA Menards Series East at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway / ARCA Menards Series West at Shasta Speedway
  • Friday, June 26 – ARCA Menards Series West at Sonoma Raceway
  • Wednesday, July 1 – NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Seekonk Speedway
  • Thursday, August 20 – High Limit Racing at Santa Maria Speedway
  • Friday, August 28 – NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Stafford Speedway
  • Saturday, September 5 – American Flat Track – Night 1
  • Thursday, September 17 – High Limit Racing at Lucas Oil Speedway
  • Saturday, September 26 (Tentative) – ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway (Virginia Triple Crown Finale)
  • Sunday, October 11 – NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Season Finale at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park
  • Saturday, November 7 – Fall Brawl at Hickory Motor Speedway
  • Friday, December 4 – Snowball Derby Qualifying Day and Support Events

*Races and dates are subject to change.

The NASCAR Channel and FloRacing simulcasts will elevate grassroots racing by bringing marquee short-track events to a national audience while maintaining deep roots in local racing communities.

The majority of the simulcasts will be produced by FloRacing and feature its broadcast teams. It is the latest distribution agreement by FloSports aimed at broadening the reach of its coverage and exposing new fans to its portfolio of grassroots racing events. It follows the launch of the FloRacing 24/7 FAST channel on Amazon Prime Video, Fubo and YouTube, alongside a recent agreement with FS1 to bring select High Limit Racing events across its channel this season.

RELATED: Watch The NASCAR Channel now!

“Expanding our simulcast schedule with more races and different forms of racing reinforces NASCAR’s commitment to the local tracks, teams and drivers that are the backbone of our sport,” said Dan Barker, NASCAR Managing Director, Content Strategy & Distribution. “Partnering with FloRacing allows us to deliver high-quality coverage, and make more forms of motorsports and prestigious events accessible to fans everywhere through the NASCAR Channel’s growing free platform.”

“Our goal is to continue to meet our fans where they are, and this distribution partnership with NASCAR does exactly that. We firmly believe that NASCAR Grassroots racing is some of the best on the planet, and our goal is to expose as many people as possible to it, while maintaining that Flo look and feel that short track fans have come to love,” said Michael Rigsby General Manager of FloRacing. “We are very thankful that NASCAR is aligned with us on growth, new fans, and showcasing the stars that might otherwise go unnoticed.”

The NASCAR Channel provides 24/7 programming and content to fans for free, including classic races, delayed broadcasts of the current season, select live events, NASCAR Studios original content, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s The Morning Drive. The NASCAR Channel is available on The Roku Channel, Xumo Play, Tubi, Samsung TV Plus and Prime Video. No subscription or registration is required.

FloRacing fans are encouraged to watch all races on the updated FloSports Connected TV app, which features enhanced discoverability and streaming capabilities, providing the ultimate viewing experience on Samsung and VIZIO smart TV’s, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV devices. FloSports is also available on the web and for download on mobile devices (iOS and Android) via the FloSports app.

To watch all these races and gain access to more than 1,000 races annually, subscribe to FloRacing by visiting https://www.floracing.com/signup.

Posted on by Zack Albert

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The old adage that you never know what you might see at “The Madhouse” now holds truer than ever.

If you’re looking for bloopers, tomfoolery and roughhouse antics from the bizarro side of the stock-car racing world, Bowman Gray Stadium is your ground zero. Wednesday night, the stadium’s voluminous book of oddities added a new chapter, a passage produced by one of the wildest weather stretches in recent memory.

RELATED: Clash results | At-track photos: Bowman Gray

Ryan Preece emerged as the victor and one of the last drivers standing in Wednesday’s snow-delayed Cook Out Clash that unofficially kicked off the NASCAR Cup Series season. The exhibition showcase at one of NASCAR’s oldest facilities was a story of perseverance, not just by Preece, but by the industry that saw it through and the hardy fans who braved the elements.

That’s not to say it was necessarily pretty. The 200-lap, 50-mile race took roughly three and a half hours to complete, slowed by delays, 17 caution flags and dicey wet-weather competition. But the mailman’s creed of “neither snow nor rain …” easily applied, with more frozen precipitation mixed into the saying.

“I mean, just a wacky day,” said Ryan Blaney, third in his Team Penske No. 12 Ford. “A wacky race, really, from the first 100 laps going dry, and then a sleeting wintry mix right in the middle there, and then firing off, having really no clue what to expect.”

An all-timer winter storm was Round 1 of the unexpected. On the eve of Sunday’s scheduled start, nearly a foot of snow dropped on North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad area, pushing the non-points event to the middle of the week. A herculean effort to clear stacks of snow from the track, bleachers and surrounding grounds finally made the place race-ready.

snow at bowman gray stadium for the cook out clash
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

“I mean, I give NASCAR a lot of credit for getting us in this week, you know?” said Cliff Daniels, crew chief for Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “I mean, look, we’re looking at inches of snow on the ground here still, and they were able to get the track clean. Big credit to the track crew and everybody they had on hand to be able to get the facility and everything that we had here ready to go.”

Come race day, Old Man Winter’s next counterpunch presented a new set of Clash challenges. Rain that occasionally mixed with sleet fell at the race’s halfway break, causing a series of delays and forcing teams to switch to wet-weather Goodyear tires to keep going. Frigid temperatures were a constant, and the multiple thrills and spills posed another disruption with caution laps not counting toward the race’s total. They most certainly did count toward teams’ fuel consumption, though, and as a series of cars’ tanks ran dry, race officials mandated another break to fill up.

Drivers adjusted, too. The tried-and-true preferred lower lane that’s worked for decades at the quaint quarter-mile oval gave way to a higher and eventually drier groove. The spray and the glare from the lights and the slick track surface created another obstacle.

Year 1 of The Clash at Bowman Gray was also cold, hosted on the same January-into-February weekend in 2025. But it was nothing this extreme, prompting some post-race speculation about whether it should return to the historic venue.

MORE: Preece prevails in Clash | Race Rewind

“The weather is the weather. It is what it is,” Blaney said, noting he didn’t have a definitive opinion on the event’s fate in Winston-Salem. “You can’t predict that stuff. I don’t think you can judge a race or a track off of that weird weather circumstance. I think this place honestly, judging off the first half, put on a good show. Just the way calamity is, it would be with any place.”

Bowman Gray typically runs a spring-to-midsummer schedule for its weekly shows, but it’s been no stranger to cold-weather racing, either. Before NASCAR’s modern era, the track hosted the Tobacco Bowl for modified and sportsman cars around the turn of the new year, and the race was a sought-after event for drivers and spectators.

Preece’s opinion might understandably be biased, given his deep-rooted foundation in the Modifieds that form Bowman Gray’s featured division, and that he was left holding the hefty trophy at race’s end. His vote, he said, would be a Clash at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida, where he was headed directly post-race to get cracking on a week’s worth of events in the 60th annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing before Daytona. But his heart, he said, was also with the track that means so much to the sport and the diehard community that supports it — wacky weather races or not.

“Bowman Gray is special,” Preece said. “Here is what I’m going to tell you guys: The fact that this city still came out — like we had a great crowd for 34 degrees with potential for rain. I’m sure a lot of people had to miss work on Monday and Tuesday and couldn’t come out here early enough. They came out for the feature. For me, I can appreciate that. They love racing. I think I want to go to places that want us and love racing.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor gloom of night could keep Ryan Preece from his appointed rounds at Bowman Gray Stadium.

On wet-weather tires, on a track peppered with a wintry mix during the 100-lap break, Preece navigated the glazed asphalt at the historic quarter-mile track to win the second Cook Out Clash staged in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Bowman Gray

Historically heavy snow had already forced postponement of the season-opening NASCAR Cup Series exhibition race twice, but for the 35-year-old driver from Berlin, Connecticut, the victory on Wednesday night was well worth the wait.

“I don’t even know what to say,” said Preece, tears in his eyes as he climbed from his car to the cheers of hardy fans who had braved the rain and bone-chilling temperatures. “To be honest with you, it’s been a [freaking] long road.

“It’s The Clash, but, man, it’s been years and years of grinding. … Two years ago, I didn’t think I was going to have a job. I thought I was going back to Connecticut.”

Preece, however, secured a ride in the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford after Stewart-Haas Racing closed its doors at the end of the 2024 season.

On Wednesday night, he led the final 45 laps after taking the top spot on Lap 156, muscling his way past Shane van Gisbergen after a restart four laps earlier.

In a rock ’em, sock ’em free-for-all that featured a Clash-record 17 cautions, Preece pulled away after the final restart on Lap 182 of 200 to beat runner-up William Byron to the finish line by 1.752 seconds.

Preece is the third driver to win The Clash before winning a NASCAR Cup Series points race, joining NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin in that distinction.

The modified star, who started 18th and worked his way forward before and after the halfway break, extended one streak and broke another. He is the ninth straight different driver to win The Clash, but he’s the first to win from outside the first two rows since The Clash went to a quarter-mile format at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2022.

SHOP: Winner’s gear

Ryan Blaney ran third, followed by Daniel Suárez and Denny Hamlin. Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman completed the top 10.

Pole winner and reigning Cup champion Kyle Larson led a race-high 67 laps to Preece’s 46, but Larson’s race fell apart after rain and sleet covered the track, leading to a 16th-place result after the change from slick tires to wet-weather rubber.

For the second straight year, Josh Berry raced into the main event from the Last Chance Qualifier. After passing AJ Allmendinger for the top spot on Lap 18 of 75, Berry led the rest of the way in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford and finished 7.419 seconds clear of runner-up Austin Cindric.

The field for The Clash wasn’t set, however, until AJ Allmendinger shoved Cindric past Corey LaJoie in the final corner, allowing Cindric to secure the second of two spots available through the LCQ.

From Lap 62 on, Cindric and Lajoie had battled for the runner-up position, with Cindric securing the inside position for the final four circuits.

MORE: Relive the 2026 Clash

“You wanted to be on the inside, obviously, but you don’t want to pass the guy, ’cause then he has the opportunity to get back to you,” said LaJoie, who was subbing for injured driver and team co-owner Brad Keselowski in the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford.

“It was exciting. It was fun to be in the fight. I hadn’t been in a fight like that in a long time.”

Allmendinger, who finished fourth behind LaJoie, was in the mix until the finish.

“I had the plan set up perfect,” said Allmendinger, who intended to move both Cindric and LaJoie up the track on the final lap. “I just didn’t execute. I went down in there to kind of shove ’em both out of the way, and we didn’t have enough grip to throttle back up and beat ’em to the line.”

Berry started 21st in the Clash and finished 12th. Cindric started 22nd and ran 21st after a litany of issues.

Bowman started last (23rd) in The Clash field on a provisional as the highest finisher in the 2025 standings not already in the field through qualifying or the LCQ.

Note: Inspection was completed in the NASCAR Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Preece as the winner. 

Posted on by Staff Report

Josh Berry won the Last Chance Qualifier at Bowman Gray Stadium on Wednesday evening to advance to the Cook Out Clash (6 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Austin Cindric outlasted Corey LaJoie for second place to earn the final transfer spot into The Clash in a fantastic, side-by-side battle over the final 15 laps of the 75-lap event.

Alex Bowman will join Berry and Cindric in The Clash, earning the provisional reserved for the highest 2025 points finisher that hadn’t otherwise advanced.

MORE: Clash lineup tracker | At-track photos: Bowman Gray

Berry escaped to win by 7.419 seconds — an eternity on the historic 0.25-mile track. AJ Allmendinger held the final transfer spot for much of the event before he was tracked down by LaJoie and Cindric. LaJoie, substituting for an injured Brad Keselowski in the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, shared plenty of contact with Cindric over the final 15 laps, trading paint and positions before Cindric got the better of LaJoie in the final set of corners. After the checkered flag, LaJoie offered a thumbs-up to Cindric, who was appreciative of a fair fight.

The only yellow flag of the contest waved at Lap 5 when Riley Herbst and Cody Ware went spinning in Turns 3 and 4. John Hunter Nemechek took nose damage to his No. 42 Toyota when he struck the side of Herbst’s No. 35 car with Cole Custer, incurring slight contact to the nose of his No. 41 Chevrolet. Custer later collided with Herbst, sending Herbst sliding right-rear first into the outside SAFER barrier, but Herbst continued without drawing a caution.

Second-place starter Michael McDowell leaped to the lead on the initial start, but under the Lap 5 caution, NASCAR ruled McDowell jumped the start, penalizing the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet by dropping McDowell to the rear of the field on the ensuing restart. He ultimately finished 11th in the 18-car field.

Berry will start 21st in the 200-lap main event with Cindric starting 22nd. Bowman takes the 23rd and final spot on the grid for the exhibition Cook Out Clash.

Posted on by Staff Report

Defending series champion Kyle Larson topped the leaderboard in Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session to claim the pole position for the 2026 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium at 63.663 mph in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series title winner will lead the field to green in the main event at 6 p.m. ET on FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Right behind him was Hendrick stablemate William Byron in the No. 24 Chevrolet at 63.645 mph.

MORE: Lineup Tracker | Full Clash schedule

Rounding out the top five were Ty Gibbs in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 JGR Toyota and Christopher Bell in the No. 20 JGR entry. Rookie Connor Zilisch qualified for the main event in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, placing 19th on the board. The points provisional went to No. 48 Hendrick driver Alex Bowman, who can still race his way in via the Last Chance Qualifier.

The top 20 cars from qualifying locked into the main event. The Last Chance Qualifier to finalize the 2026 Clash field is set for 4:30 p.m. ET (FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell posted the fastest lap in cumulative practice sessions that preceded qualifying with a best speed of 63.411 mph. No. 12 Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney was second on the board at 63.295 mph.

The practice and qualifying sessions marked the first official on-track activity since the 2025 season finale at Phoenix Raceway, after The Clash was initially scheduled for Feb. 1 but was postponed several days due to historic North Carolina snowfall.

MORE: Drivers aid snow removal at Bowman Gray | Snow-covered scenes at Bowman Gray

Posted on by Zack Albert

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Denny Hamlin disclosed Wednesday that he recently aggravated a shoulder ailment and that he plans to weather the injury as the start of the NASCAR Cup Series season draws near.

Hamlin’s remarks came in a Wednesday afternoon news conference, hours before the snow-plagued Cook Out Clash preseason exhibition was set to begin at Bowman Gray Stadium (6 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 45-year-old driver’s health update comes after he experienced both personal tragedy and professional heartbreak in the final two months of last year.

RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Clash TV times, schedule

An elusive first NASCAR Cup Series championship slipped away in the painful closing laps of the Nov. 2 season finale, a race he’d hoped to win for his father, Dennis, who had been in declining health. Dennis Hamlin died Dec. 28 in a house fire, a blaze that also injured his wife, Mary Lou, Denny’s mother.

Hamlin said he had recently fallen as he sifted through his parents’ belongings in the debris left by the fire, but added that the pain in his right shoulder, which he’d had surgically repaired in November 2023, had been lingering before that spill. He noted that the window for potential surgery and months-long recovery for this new injury before the dawn of the Cup Series season has closed.

“So I’m gonna have to go the rest of the season the way I was before there,” Hamlin said. “I don’t think that it ever healed properly. Just noticed some issues, really kind of right after the season. It just was nagging me a little bit. Took a little fall at my mom’s house, going through all the rubble and stuff and just didn’t feel right. Got it re-scanned and re-tore it again.”

Hamlin said that managing the shoulder ailment could present a challenge through the season, and that he’ll be taking care to keep as healthy as possible until he can potentially have surgery after the 2026 campaign.

“If you can look into a crystal ball, I would think as the year goes on, it just kind of depends on making sure I’m doing the things out of the car, working, keeping the range good, keeping the strength good to kind of get to that November date where I can work on it and get it fixed again,” Hamlin said. “Limiting, honestly, the things I love to do. That’s not going to be a priority during the season, unfortunately. So I’m just going to miss out on a lot of the fun things, but I can’t do some things I like to do, simply because that aggravates it, and it certainly causes the tear to get worse. It’s kind of hanging on. It’s torn, but it’s still got a little few parts and pieces hanging on that I need to keep intact for the full year.”

Hamlin had said days after the disappointment from the season-ending event at Phoenix Raceway that “I don’t even think about the race car right now. Just yeah, I’m gonna need some time on this one.” He was back at the track Wednesday with his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team for The Clash, a non-points event he’s won four times.

“Like I said, it’s just gonna take a little while to kind of get back in the swing of things,” Hamlin said. “… You know, it certainly has not been an easy offseason by any means, and I’m sure I’m probably in a different headspace than most of the competitors that have been rip-roaring, ready to go racing the last month or so. I’m probably in a different spot than that. I would certainly appreciate a few more months, but I don’t have that. But we’ll just kind of see how it goes.”

The senior-most driver on the circuit says he’s emerged with perspective as he gets set for his 21st full season in NASCAR’s top tour. Hamlin said that his mother, Mary Lou, had been in improving health in the weeks since the fire and that he’s been quick to note his blessings as he navigates the recent round of hardships.

How he reacts, he said, will go a long way toward telling the story of the No. 11 team’s season.

“The easy thing to say is ‘poor me,’ but it’s like, I still have a fantastic life, a great family,” Hamlin said. “A lot of people go through tragedies. I mean, I can’t tell you — while what happened with my family in the offseason was highly publicized, there’s probably tons of those stories of crew members that happen in their family this offseason, that happens to them during the season that no one really knows about. So everyone has their times where they have to go through tough moments, and I think that those are really kind of building moments of your character. It’s how you respond to it.

“I think certainly that this season for me could certainly go one of two ways, and I think there’s not much of a middle road. It’s going to go really one way or really the other way, and it’s up to me which way I decide to turn. So I think that right now, my focus is keeping this thing on the right track and making sure I spend these last couple years accomplishing everything that I want to before my career is over.”

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series hits the track for the first time in 2026 in exhibition fashion with a return to Bowman Gray Stadium for the Cook Out Clash. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to the entry list, average practice speeds, results and more.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | TV listings

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET on FOX. The categories listed below will be populated with links as information becomes available.

Tires: Five sets for the event, including one set for practice and one set for qualifying. The practice and qualifying sets transfer into the race. Four total wet-weather sets will additionally be available to each team as needed. Update: Heat races were canceled due to winter weather.

Entry List
Practice/Qualifying Results
Last Chance Qualifier Results
Starting Lineup
Race Results

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR Cup Series drivers took to the track at Bowman Gray Stadium for two 8-minute practice sessions, followed by a group qualifying session on Wednesday (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports App, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Drivers had four minutes to set a qualifying time, running as many laps as they wanted during this time window.

With the heat races canceled due to winter weather, the top 20 fastest drivers from qualifying automatically advanced to Wednesday’s 200-lap main event, the Cook Out Clash (6 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The top two finishers in the 75-lap Last Chance Qualifier Race (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) also transferred to the main event, making up starting positions 21st and 22nd, respectively. The 23rd and final starter went to the highest driver in the 2025 final standings who did not transfer from the LCQ finishing position.

See how things unfolded in the following charts:

Practice Groups

GROUP 1GROUP 2GROUP 3
AJ AllmendingerAlex BowmanKyle Larson
Todd GillilandAustin CindricDenny Hamlin
Zane SmithAustin DillonChase Briscoe
Connor ZilischJosh BerryWilliam Byron
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Chris BuescherChristopher Bell
Daniel SuárezCody WareRyan Blaney
Cole CusterTy GibbsJoey Logano
Ty DillonCorey LaJoieChase Elliott
Noah GragsonKyle BuschTyler Reddick
Riley HerbstMichael McDowellRoss Chastain
Ryan PreeceCarson HocevarBubba Wallace
Chad FinchumErik JonesShane van Gisbergen
Burt Myers (i)John Hunter Nemechek

Qualifying Groups

GROUP 1GROUP 2GROUP 3
Cole CusterTy GibbsJoey Logano
Ty DillonCorey LaJoieChase Elliott
Noah GragsonKyle BuschTyler Reddick
Riley HerbstMichael McDowellRoss Chastain
Ryan PreeceCarson HocevarBubba Wallace
Chad FinchumErik JonesShane van Gisbergen
Burt Myers (i)John Hunter NemechekKyle Larson
AJ AllmendingerAlex BowmanDenny Hamlin
Todd GillilandAustin CindricChase Briscoe
Zane SmithAustin DillonWilliam Byron
Connor ZilischJosh BerryChristopher Bell
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Chris BuescherRyan Blaney
Daniel SuárezCody Ware

Qualifying Results

FINISHCARDRIVER
15Kyle Larson
224William Byron
354Ty Gibbs
419Chase Briscoe
520Christopher Bell
611Denny Hamlin
723Bubba Wallace
817Chris Buescher
91Ross Chastain
1045Tyler Reddick
119Chase Elliott
1277Carson Hocevar
138Kyle Busch
1422Joey Logano
153Austin Dillon
1612Ryan Blaney
1797Shane van Gisbergen
1860Ryan Preece
1988Connor Zilisch
207Daniel Suárez
2121Josh Berry
2271Michael McDowell
232Austin Cindric
246Corey LaJoie
2548Alex Bowman
2635Riley Herbst
2751Cody Ware
2816AJ Allmendinger
2941Cole Custer
3042John Hunter Nemechek
3134Todd Gilliland
3210Ty Dillon
334Noah Gragson
3447Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3538Zane Smith
3643Erik Jones
3766Chad Finchum
3850Burt Myers

Last Chance Qualifier Lineup

STARTCARDRIVER
121Josh Berry
271Michael McDowell
32Austin Cindric
46Corey LaJoie
548Alex Bowman
635Riley Herbst
751Cody Ware
816AJ Allmendinger
941Cole Custer
1042John Hunter Nemechek
1134Todd Gilliland
1210Ty Dillon
134Noah Gragson
1447Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
1538Zane Smith
1643Erik Jones
1766Chad Finchum
1850Burt Myers

Last Chance Qualifier Results

FINISHCARDRIVER
1
21Josh Berry
22Austin Cindric
36Corey LaJoie
416AJ Allmendinger
542John Hunter Nemechek
638Zane Smith
74Noah Gragson
810Ty Dillon
947Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
1043Erik Jones
1171Michael McDowell
1241Cole Custer
1366Chad Finchum
1450Burt Myers
1551Cody Ware
1635Riley Herbst
1748Alex Bowman
1834Todd Gilliland

Cook Out Clash Lineup

STARTCARDRIVERHOW DETERMINED
15Kyle LarsonFastest in qualifying
224William ByronSecond in qualifying
354Ty GibbsThird in qualifying
419Chase BriscoeFourth in qualifying
520Christopher BellFifth in qualifying
611Denny HamlinSixth in qualifying
723Bubba WallaceSeventh in qualifying
817Chris BuescherEighth in qualifying
91Ross ChastainNinth in qualifying
1045Tyler Reddick10th in qualifying
119Chase Elliott11th in qualifying
1277Carson Hocevar12th in qualifying
138Kyle Busch13th in qualifying
1422Joey Logano14th in qualifying
153Austin Dillon15th in qualifying
1612Ryan Blaney16th in qualifying
1797Shane van Gisbergen17th in qualifying
1860Ryan Preece18th in qualifying
1988Connor Zilisch19th in qualifying
207Daniel Suárez20th in qualifying
2121Josh BerryLCQ winner
222Austin CindricLCQ second place
2348Alex Bowman2025 final standings
Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

For the first time since 2017, NASCAR’s fall weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway will return to the oval in 2026.

Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith confirmed Tuesday on the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast that the classic 1.5-mile oval will host the NASCAR Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series Oct. 9-11, shifting away from the Charlotte Roval after eight seasons on the road course-oval combination. The news was first reported by The Athletic.

MORE: Full 2026 Cup Series schedule | Charlotte Motor Speedway moments

Charlotte has hosted NASCAR at least twice annually since the facility opened in 1960, featuring the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend in May in addition to a fall weekend in October. For 57 years, all of those events were held on the 1.5-mile oval until the Roval debuted on the sport’s calendar in 2018.

In a year earmarked for a return toward NASCAR’s roots as the sport returns to The Chase, Smith and his team determined the time was right to retire the Roval and return to the oval.

“Charlotte Motor Speedway has always been about innovations and opportunity,” Marcus Smith, president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, said in a release. “The Roval delivered dramatic racing when many fans were calling for a road course in the playoffs. Now there’s an energy around the return of The Chase and fans are seeing the excitement that oval racing continues to generate on mile-and-a-half tracks. This feels like the time to bring the fall race back to the legendary oval at a place where NASCAR history is made every year.”

The Bank of America 400 on Sunday, Oct. 11 will be the site of the Cup Series’ sixth race in The Chase, a return to the championship format that will determine the series’ title winner by points accumulated over the final 10 races of the season. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Blue Cross NC 250 on Oct. 10 and the Truck Series’ EcoSave 250 on Oct. 9 will also serve as events in the respective series’ championship Chase.

The Roval event debuted in 2018, using most of the oval-track configuration with portions of the infield road-course layout that had been used in sports-car competition. The 2.32-mile circuit arrived during a road-racing boom for NASCAR’s top series, and the Roval became a fixture as an elimination race each year under the previous postseason format.

RELATED: The Chase is back | How it works

A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct. 5, 2025 in Concord, North Carolina.
David Jensen | Getty Images

The 2022 debut of the Next Gen car that’s currently used in the Cup Series, however, brought newfound vibrance to the racing on intermediate-sized ovals such as Charlotte. That sentiment led to NASCAR competition officials working with Speedway Motorsports to adjust the 2026 schedule.

“The voice of the passionate NASCAR fan is the starting point of every decision we make, and Marcus, Speedway Motorsports and NASCAR heard them loud and clear – with the return of The Chase, let’s return to the oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway,” Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR president, said in a release. “As The Chase returns, we are putting a spotlight on performance while honoring the tracks and traditions that have defined championship moments. Charlotte Motor Speedway’s historic oval has played a central role in some of the sport’s most memorable races, so bringing The Chase back to the 1.5-mile configuration for our fans simply felt right.”

Those feelings are reciprocated by the competitors themselves. Brad Keselowski (2013) and Joey Logano (2015) are the only two active drivers who have won a fall race on the Charlotte oval. Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series title winner, championed the move back to the 1.5-mile oval.

“Moving the fall Charlotte race back to the oval really brings the sport back to its roots,” said Keselowski, the 2020 Coca-Cola 600 winner. “That race has so much history, and winning there is a big deal that I’ve been fortunate to do. The racing with the Next Gen car at Charlotte has been some of the best we’ve seen anywhere, and I think putting it back on the oval is going to create an incredible show. It’s the kind of race our fans expect and deserve.”

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson each won two Cup Series races during the eight-year run for the Roval layout. Shane van Gisbergen was the most recent Cup winner, where he roared to victory by a whopping 15.160 seconds over Larson.

AJ Allmendinger savored the most national-series success during the Roval era, winning four times in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and notching the most recent of his three Cup Series wins in 2023.

Tickets for the fall NASCAR weekend are available now. According to a track press release, fans looking for the best value can purchase NASCAR season ticket packages which include both the Coca-Cola 600 and Bank of America 400 tripleheader race weekends with discounted tickets, free preferred parking, gift shop discounts and free O’Reilly Auto Parts Series tickets to the Blue Cross NC 250.

Fans who have already purchased fall race weekend tickets and have further questions should contact the ticket office by calling 800-455-FANS (3267). For ticket information, schedule updates and more, visit www.charlottemotorspeedway.com.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Staff Report

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  • Entry list
Car No. Driver Organization Crew Chief Chassis Mfg Sponsor
1 Patrick Emerling USNE Motorsports Dale Hedquist LFR USNEPower Motorsports
02 Joey Coulter IV Coulter Motorsports Harold Holly FURY Race Cars SRI Performance; Bilstein Shocks; Swift Springs; Brembo; Simpson; Stilo; Molecule
2 Jimmy Blewett Team Gershow Mike Bologna LFR Gershow Recycling; John Blewett Scrap
3 Tyler Rypkema BRE Racing Greg Fournier Boehler Racing Northeast Drilling; SYP
4 Ryan Newman Connolly Racing Tim Connolly FURY Race Cars Aggressive Hydraulics; RounTree; USNE; Southwest Mobile Mechanic; Acme Aero; Lucas Oil
05 Teddy Hodgdon IV Teddy Hodgdon Racing Ted Hodgdon LFR Business Time Motorsports; The Landau Team of Re/Max; Montanari Fuel
7 Luke Baldwin Tommy Baldwin Racing Tommy Baldwin PSR Products Baldwin Automotive
8 John-Michael Shenette Eighty-Two Autosport Scott Morin LFR USNE Power; Eighty-Two Services General Contractor
16 Ron Silk Haydt Yannone Racing Phil Moran FURY Race Cars Blue Mountain Machine; Future Homes
18 Ken Heagy Heagy Motorsports Greg Gorman FURY Race Cars Merkel Racing Engines
20 Max Zachem John Morgan Ryan Morgan Troyer Lu-Mac’s Package Store; Mama MZ Crafts
21 Stephen Kopcik Wanick Motorsports Nick Kopcik Troyer Wanick Motorsports
22 Kyle Bonsignore Kyle Bonsignore Cam McDermott FURY Race Cars ChaLew Performance; MTT/Munns Automotive
24 Andrew Krause Supreme Racing Steven Reed LFR Supreme Mfg. Co.
29 Mike Marshall TLC Performance Doug Tisdell Troyer MLM Diagnostics; Jusczak Electric
31 Mike Christopher Jr. Elite Motorsports Eugene Orlando LFR Elite Towing; Baker Racing
36 Dave Sapienza Sapienza Racing Greg Kleila FURY Race Cars Sapienza Enterprises; Eastport Feeds
38 Bobby Labonte PSR Racing Phil Stefanelli PSR Products Cook Out
39 Conner Jones PSR Racing Eddie Harvey PSR Products PSR Products
40 Ryan Preece Ryan Preece Racing Jeff Preece FURY Race Cars Racechoice
46 Craig Lutz Goodie Racing Douglas Ogiejko FURY Race Cars Riverhead Building Supply
51 Justin Bonsignore Kenneth Massa Motorsports Ryan Stone FURY Race Cars Phoenix Communications
54 Tommy Catalano Catalano Motorsports Rick Kluth Troyer FX Caprara; USNE Power
55 Jeremy Gerstner GMR Enterprises Keith Wheeler Troyer Garage Doors of the Triad; Cherokee Underground; JTS Service & Racecar Engineering
56 Trevor Catalano Catalano Motorsports David Catalano Troyer USNE Power
58 Eric Goodale Goodie Motorsports Rob Hyer FURY Race Cars GAF Roofing
60 Matt Hirschman Pee Dee Motorsports Mike Stein Troyer Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; Pee Dee Motorsports
64 Austin Beers KLM Motorsports Ron Yuhas Troyer G&G Electrical Supply; Dell Electric; Lumiere Electrical; Fastrack Electric; AP Marquadt & Sons; Andrew James Interiors
66 Timmy Solomito Timothy Solomito Jerry Solomito Sr. LFR USNE Power; Kennedy Realty; FX Caprara
71 Jimmy Zacharias Zacharias Motorsports Austin Kochenash LFR Kevo Motorsports; Starfursky Paving; BA Motorsports
73 Carson Loftin Hartwig Racing Robert Geiger FURY Race Cars Jersey Shore Contracting; Professional Therapy Associates; First Horizon Realty; LBI Pest Control; Lavalette Hardware
79 Jon McKennedy Jonathan McKennedy Racing Patrick Walsh FURY Race Cars Stuart’s
81 Mark Stewart Turbush Racing Chris Turbush FURY Race Cars Keith Grimes Excavating; Cromers Market; Eastern Fuel; Eastside Building
95 Cory Plummer Apex Racing Bill Barnett Jr. Apex Race Cars Tuckers Metal Fabrication & Welding; Apex Race Cars; Apex Racing; Croteau Machine & More
99 Sam Rameau JT Motorsports Charlie Barham Troyer FNO Racecars
111 Norman Newman Newman Motorsports Norman Newman LFR Family Funland; D3 Offroad
140 Luke Fleming Frank Fleming Motorsports Chris Fleming PSR Products William E. Smith Trucking; Autos by Nelson; Simmons Power Sports