NASCAR Fantasy Live is open for the 2026 Cup Series season. All players can sign up now to create their accounts and team names, plus activate their leagues for the new year. Players will also have the option to start a league from scratch. To play, users must log in to their accounts on NASCAR.com or via the NASCAR Mobile App.
New players can earn 200 Fan Rewards points for signing up. Players will earn an additional 10 Fan Rewards points per week for setting a lineup. Another way to earn points is through streaks. Players will get 50 points for five straight weeks of making a lineup, and if you make it 10 in a row, you earn 100 points. Twenty consecutive weeks will give you 200 points, and 30 consecutive weeks will net 300 points. Should a player complete the full season of setting a lineup, 500 Fan Rewards points are coming their way.
Fan Rewards points can be exchanged for exclusive prizes, including race tickets, VIP experiences and autographed NASCAR merchandise.
Rules and regulations are akin to years prior. Players will select five drivers to fill their weekly lineup, with a sixth driver placed as their garage pick. Players can adjust their lineup through the conclusion of Stage 2. Once the final stage begins, the garage will close, and picks are locked. At that point, the drivers in your lineup will get credited as a use, and their performances will reflect your weekly points. Picks for each race week will open on Tuesday.
The unpredictable head-to-head matchups — four per week — will return for the 2026 season. Players will have the opportunity to choose between a pair of drivers who will have the better heads-up finish during a given race. Should the participant choose the correct driver, they will receive an additional 10 bonus points.
The scoring system will coincide with NASCAR’s championship format. For example, if you have the race winner in your lineup, you will receive the points that the winner earns for the race weekend. Should drivers in your lineup place within the top 10 during the two stage breaks, you will net those points as well. Official points won’t be determined until post-race inspection is clear, approximately two hours after the conclusion of each race, and the finishing order is confirmed. In the unfortunate event that one of your starters fails post-race inspection, NASCAR Fantasy Live will reflect the points.
Show me the money! The player who tabulates the most points for the season-opening Daytona 500 will earn a $10,000 reward. For the duration of the 36-race season, whoever accumulates the most points will lock up a $25,000 prize. Second place will receive $10,000, with $5,000 going to the player who finishes third.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is rapidly approaching, and that means it’s almost time to begin setting weekly NASCAR Fantasy Live lineups. With the 2026 edition of the game now live, it would be fitting to reflect on standout performers from the 2025 campaign to help inform those early-season lineups.
The 2025 Cup season was dominated by the sport’s juggernauts, with Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske combining to win 75% of all points-paying races. Five of the nine races that they didn’t capture checkered flags were road courses (hello, Trackhouse Racing). There were a few surprises along the way, though.
Rookie Shane van Gisbergen achieved near perfection when turning left and right, while two-time and reigning series champion Kyle Larson upped his ante at superspeedways. Chase Briscoe also emerged as a championship threat in his debut season with JGR. Then, there’s Austin Dillon, who converted a Hail Mary late in the regular season at Richmond Raceway in a runaway victory.
It’s time to unveil the 2025 fantasy MVPs for each type of track configuration: intermediates, short tracks, road courses and drafting tracks. Will these trends continue in 2026?
Intermediates: Kyle Larson Larson will enter the 2026 season on a 24-race winless drought, his longest streak since joining Hendrick in 2021. He was, however, the last one celebrating in Phoenix after banking a second Cup Series championship, and is now one of just three multi-time champions in the Cup field to begin the new season.
Larson and the No. 5 team were the only ones to visit Victory Lane multiple times at intermediate tracks in 2025. The site of his most recent victory — Kansas Speedway — was the most dominant performance ever in a 400-mile race on an intermediate track, leading 221 of 267 laps (82.8%). Consider Larson a fan of moving the final race of the season to Homestead-Miami Speedway, as well, after winning two of the last four races in South Beach — including last year.
What really stands out, which is crucial for fantasy, is that Larson tallied 69 more points than any other driver in those seven intermediate events. His 314 points earned, 555 laps led, six top-10 finishes, 5.71 average starting position and 8.57 average finishing position were all top of the chart.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Short tracks: Ryan Blaney Consistency is key with fantasy, and no driver was more stable at short tracks in 2025 than Ryan Blaney. The surprising statistic, though, is that Blaney went winless at the tight, confined venues in 2025, ultimately scoring a victory in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway, which isn’t considered a short track, measuring 1 mile in length.
For years, Team Penske’s strongest suit has been short-track performance and that continued last year. Blaney collected 256 points, 41 more than William Byron, who won a pair of short-track events and could have a real argument to be the best short-track driver in 2025. Blaney’s five top-five finishes were the best of the bunch, however, tying Penske teammate Joey Logano with the most top 10s (five). He also paced the field for 323 circuits, trailing only Byron (445) and Larson (420). The real kicker, though? He had an average finishing position of 4.83 — nearly half of the next driver on the list (Byron, 9.0).
Photo by James Gilbert | Getty Images
Road Courses: Shane van Gisbergen This might be the easiest selection of all time for any category known to mankind. Van Gisbergen was a menace at road courses in his freshman season, at times toying with his competition without abusing his car. It resulted in a handful of victories, and he will look to tie Jeff Gordon’s six consecutive road course triumphs in the opening month of 2026 at Circuit of The Americas.
Doing a deeper dive, van Gisbergen’s performance was otherworldly. The No. 88 team won three poles and had an average starting spot of 2.17 across the six road courses, including the Chicago Street Race. His average finishing position improved to 1.83, with a sixth-place outing at COTA being the dampener. The New Zealand phenom put on a clinic by leading 301 laps, while Blaney and Kyle Busch were tied for second with 42 laps led apiece. The 293 points scored were 73 markers more than Christopher Bell, placing runner-up in a second category. Only Bell, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott were within 100 points of SVG.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Drafting tracks: Tyler Reddick Let’s transition to the most challenging selection — drafting-track MVP. When thinking of drafting tracks, Team Penske immediately jumps to the top of the board, as both Blaney and Austin Cindric were able to get into the win column in 2025 at superspeedways. Logano logged 263 laps led, more than double the amount of any other driver (Cindric, 127), but compiled an average finishing position of 27.5. Eight drivers had multiple top-five finishes, including Larson, who ranked second in points scored (197). Carson Hocevar accumulated the most top 10s with four, including a nail-biting defeat in the second race of the season at EchoPark Speedway in a three-wide finish.
If we’re basing this on points, though, Reddick was the man on top in 2025, with 199 markers earned. The No. 45 team earned the best average finish at 11.2, more than a full position better than Larson (12.3). Giving him the nod was missing the last-lap chaos of the Daytona 500, gaining 11 spots in the process to place runner-up. It’s safe to say there could be co-MVPs here, adding the likes of a Hendrick Motorsports trio in Larson, Chase Elliott (Atlanta win, third-most points scored) and Byron (Daytona 500 win, fourth-most points scored).
NASCAR’s new 750-horsepower rules configuration for the majority of Cup Series tracks is set for its first major rehearsal, with teams tuning up Tuesday for an organizational test session at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway.
One team from each chartered Cup Series organization is expected to participate in the one-day preseason test. The historic 0.625-mile oval, brought back to life to host the NASCAR All-Star Race the last three years, will hold its first points-paying Cup Series race in 30 years on July 19 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, HBO Max).
NASCAR officials announced Oct. 8 that the baseline horsepower output for Cup Series road courses and oval tracks measuring less than 1.5 miles would increase from 670 to 750. Those venues will use the aerodynamic rules configuration that debuted on short tracks in 2024, a package that reduced downforce with three-inch rear spoilers and fewer strakes on the rear diffuser.
Tuesday’s test session is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. North Wilkesboro’s grandstands will be open to fans from noon-5 p.m. with free admission, and tickets for the Cup Series’ Window World 450 will go on sale from the track’s box office during that five-hour timeframe — one day before ticket sales open up to the general public.
Teams and drivers scheduled to participate in Tuesday’s test:
Niece Motorsports announced Friday that Ross Chastain will return to the team for a partial schedule in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2026, with plans to drive the No. 45 Chevrolet in more races this season.
Chastain, a Cup Series regular for Trackhouse Racing, has scored all five of his Truck Series victories with the Niece organization. He competed in five races last season, but new competition guidelines for Cup Series veterans announced last November will permit him to enter as many as eight races in other national series. While his schedule has not been finalized, Chastain indicated that he intends to maximize his opportunities.
“It’s great to be back with Niece Motorsports in a larger capacity this year,” Chastain said in a team release. “When I heard about the rule change, I knew we had to run more races together. We’ve got a great core group of people here in Salisbury (N.C.), and I want to bring them all back to Victory Lane. I’m thankful to have the opportunity and appreciate the ownership group and our partners for making it happen, along with everyone at Trackhouse for allowing me to run in the Truck Series.”
Veteran Phil Gould will be the No. 45 Chevy team’s crew chief. Chastain will split time in the No. 45 seat with 19-year-old newcomer Landen Lewis — the CARS Tour Late Model Stock champion — and a third driver to be named later. The organization also said that primary partners for the No. 45 team will be announced later.
The Craftsman Truck Series begins the 2026 campaign on Feb. 13 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Daytona International Speedway.
Ram Trucks laid out plans for the fifth and final seat on its NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series operation Friday, announcing that a full-season ride with Kaulig Racing in 2026 will go to the winner of a reality-show competition.
Billed as “15 Drivers. 10 Challenges. 1 Seat,” the “Race for the Seat” program will debut Sunday, Jan. 25 on FOX, with subsequent episodes airing on Ram’s YouTube channel through Feb. 6. The contest’s winner is set to be in one of the five Kaulig-Ram entries when the manufacturer returns to NASCAR competition in the Craftsman Truck Series opener Feb. 13 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Daytona International Speedway.
UFC CEO Dana White and Thrill Sports Productions will be executive producers of “Race for the Seat,” which will feature commentary from White, Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis and Kaulig Racing team principals Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice. The eight-episode audition will take place at tracks including Virginia International Raceway and South Boston (Va.) Speedway.
“We promised Ram would approach NASCAR differently — and Race For The Seat is proof,” Kuniskis said in a Ram release. “Sometimes raw talent isn’t enough. Many successful careers start with an opportunity, a lucky break — or in my case, a good old-fashioned kick in the ass.”
The five-team lineup for Kaulig Racing’s first Truck Series voyage is now complete, with three full-time drivers set to compete alongside two wild-card Ram entries. Brendan “Butterbean” Queen (No. 12), Daniel Dye (No. 10) and Justin Haley (No. 16) will drive Ram 1500s full-time for the organization. A fourth entry — the No. 25 — will go to a rotating group of drivers each race through Ram’s Free Agent Driver Program, with the fifth roster slot — No. 14, according to the show’s promotional images — reserved for the “Race for the Seat” champ.
Ram announced its return to NASCAR competition June 8 at Michigan International Speedway, with officials promising a new, full-throttle approach to the sport. The automaker’s partnership with Kaulig Racing was formally revealed Aug. 23 with plans for a five-truck operation in 2026.
Front Row Motorsports solidified its personnel roster for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, announcing that Grant Hutchens will be crew chief for the No. 4 Ford and driver Noah Gragson.
Hutchens, a longtime race engineer, will be in his first full season as a crew chief at the NASCAR national-series level. He replaces Drew Blickensderfer, who was paired with Gragson the last two seasons — first with the former Stewart-Haas Racing team and last year under the Front Row banner. Blickensderfer will transition into the role of competition director for the organization, working alongside current technical director Seth Barbour.
Hutchens was most recently rostered as the lead race engineer with Wood Brothers Racing in 2024, after previous stints with Team Penske and Richard Childress Racing. He has been a crew chief for nine Cup Series races in an interim or fill-in role, with his best result a runner-up finish with Austin Cindric on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 2022.
The rest of Front Row Motorsports’ driver-crew chief lineup will carry over from 2025. Chris Lawson returns for his second season as crew chief for the No. 34 Ford and driver Todd Gilliland, and Ryan Bergenty is back for his fourth year as crew chief of the No. 38 team, and his second season working alongside Smith.
Front Row also announced that it has hired Jonathan DeHart as aerodynamics manager. He arrives after stints with Hendrick Motorsports as body production manager and with General Motors’ IndyCar operations as aero car chief.
Those roster pairings will be in place when the Cup Series opens its 2026 campaign next month, first with the Cook Out Clash exhibition at Bowman Gray Stadium on Feb. 1 (8 p.m. ET) and then with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15 (2:30 p.m. ET). Both events will be broadcast on FOX, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, and HBO Max.
Front Row will aim to regain its stride this season after a two-year absence from the Cup Series Playoffs. Gilliland was 27th, Smith 28th and Gragson 34th in the final 2025 standings.
Editor’s note: Today’s Spire Motorsports preview continues NASCAR.com’s countdown of team previews for the 2026 Cup Series season.
SPIRE MOTORSPORTS
Manufacturer: Chevrolet Engine: Hendrick Motorsports Driver-crew chief pairings: Daniel Suárez-Ryan Sparks (No. 7); Michael McDowell-Travis Peterson (No. 71); Carson Hocevar-Luke Lambert (No. 77)
Team outlook: Anyone within the Spire Motorsports camp would probably tell you 2025 was a disappointment. The team showed speed throughout the season and competed for wins, but couldn’t close the deal with any of their three cars. None of their drivers reached the playoffs, but that could and should change in 2026, as Spire understands what they are capable of, attempting to shatter the glass ceiling and make a big statement in the year ahead.
DANIEL SUÁREZ, NO. 7 CHEVROLET
Experience: 9 full-time seasons in NASCAR Cup Series; 323 starts 2025 stats: 29th in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 2 top fives, 7 top 10s, 0 poles, 35 laps led
Driver outlook: Suárez had his worst final result in the standings last year since his 2020 campaign with Gaunt Brothers Racing. Going into 2026, he replaces Justin Haley in the No. 7 Chevrolet, and all signs should point toward a far better year for the 34-year-old veteran. Paired with McDowell, the two should be forces to be reckoned with on road courses this year, and Suárez’s recent history at EchoPark Speedway could line him up for a breakthrough multi-win campaign.
Experience: 18 seasons in NASCAR Cup Series (full-time the last nine seasons); 537 starts 2025 stats: 22nd in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 3 top fives, 6 top 10s, 2 poles, 96 laps led
Driver outlook: Texas and Chicago were ones that got away from McDowell as the long-time veteran was passed by Logano for the lead in the closing laps before crashing with two laps to go from second in the Lone Star State. At Chicago, McDowell started on the front row and led 31 laps before a mechanical failure ruined the No. 71 team’s day. Even at age 41 with many miles logged, the hunger and drive are still there for McDowell and should be in contention for victories this year, maybe even having an outside shot at a championship run.
Experience: 2 full-time seasons in NASCAR Cup Series; 81 starts 2025 stats: 23rd in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 2 top fives, 9 top 10s, 1 pole, 122 laps led
Driver outlook: Hocevar lived by the moniker of “checkers or wreckers” last season, and it bit him more times than it rewarded. Consistent, race-contending speed is there in the No. 77 Chevrolet, but the goal for Hocevar is to have the discipline to complete the grind of a full race. He showed that at Nashville, finishing runner-up to a dominant Ryan Blaney, but other races got away from him. If he can hone it in consistently and balance aggression through a 36-race calendar, there’s no telling what Hocevar could achieve in his third Cup season.
Corey LaJoie will drive the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford in the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in place of team co-owner and driver Brad Keselowski, the team announced Thursday and as first reported by FOX Sports.
Keselowski, the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion, is recovering from a broken right femur suffered in a fall exiting his vehicle on a Dec. 18 ski trip, FOX Sports reported. LaJoie is RFK Racing’s reserve driver and will make his first start for the organization in the Feb. 1 exhibition race (8 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Keselowski intends to be back behind the wheel in time for the 68th annual Daytona 500 on Feb. 15 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I didn’t want to rush back,” Keselowski said. “The team and I made the decision together that if all the rehab went absolutely perfect, we’d be ready like, literally, the day of The Clash.
“And that seemed super foolish and didn’t give us any time to do any testing on myself or anything like that.”
LaJoie has 276 Cup Series starts to his credit, last running a full season in 2024 before a four-race schedule in 2025 with Rick Ware Racing. The Concord, North Carolina native is a past winner at Bowman Gray, taking first place in the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame 150 in an ARCA Menards Series East race.
“Happy to be of service,” LaJoie shared on social media. “Wishing BK a speedy recovery. Let’s go get another trophy at The Madhouse.”
Keselowski added that his rehabilitation process is six to eight hours per day and that the normal recovery time is approximately between eight and 12 weeks. Per the report, Keselowski hopes to have a medical evaluation test Feb. 5 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to gain medical clearance to return to competition.
“It’s a really painful thing to break,” Keselowski said. “It’s the biggest bone in your body, which is kind of the bad part about it. The good thing is it’s also one of the fastest healing parts of your body, so I’m just really dealing with the pain and trying to recover as fast as I can.”
Keselowski, who joined RFK Racing as a driver and co-owner in 2022, told FOX Sports he slipped and fell on ice after returning to the ski resort, shearing his femur and needing emergency surgery in Boone, North Carolina.
“I’ve broken a lot of different bones and parts of my body,” Keselowski said. “I will tell you, none of them come close to hurting as bad as breaking your femur. It’s a very painful injury, but the recovery is actually fairly similar in time and so forth. So I’ve just got to be tough and get through it. …
“It’s kind of a freak accident. I just fell perfectly on a spot that broke my leg. I wish it was some cooler story than that, like jumping or doing something on the slopes. I think everybody thinks I did it on the slopes, which sounds a lot cooler than the actual story I have, but it just was a freak accident.”
Keselowski has not missed a points-paying NASCAR Cup Series race since October 2009 — a stretch of 581 consecutive races. Because The Clash is an exhibition race, Keselowski’s streak is not in jeopardy unless he were to miss the season-opening Daytona 500.
NASCAR will announce the championship format for 2026 and beyond in a Monday, Jan. 12 press conference that will be live streamed from Concord, North Carolina.
Live video coverage will be available to stream at 3:30 p.m. ET on NASCAR.com, The NASCAR Channel and NASCAR YouTube.
Additionally, a special “Inside the Race” studio show will be streamed following the formal press conference at the NASCAR Production Facility.
The announcement comes ahead of the 2026 racing season, which is set to begin with the exhibition Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 1 (8 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The NASCAR Cup Series campaign begins in earnest with the 68th running of the “Great American Race,” the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Stewart Friesen will return to the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota for the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Friesen confirmed in a Thursday interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Friesen, a four-time winner in the Truck Series, was injured in a July 2025 crash while racing a dirt modified in Quebec, Canada, fracturing his pelvis and right leg in a crash that sent his No. 44 car flipping before catching fire in a Super DIRTcar Series event.
The crash sidelined him for the rest of the 2025 season, with Cup Series regular Christopher Bell filling in for Friesen at Watkins Glen International before Kaden Honeycutt substituted for the conclusion of the season, earning a Championship 4 berth in the process. On Dec. 5, Friesen posted a video to his X account showing his first steps without assistance since his accident, bouncing back from a reconstructed pelvis, right tibia and fibula, and recovering from a fractured C7 vertebra and fractured left hip.
Friesen told SiriusXM’s “The Morning Drive” that his recovery has gone well and that he’s ready to climb back behind the wheel of his No. 52 Toyota after multiple sessions on the manufacturer’s simulator as he prepares for competition.
“It’s going very well,” Friesen told SiriusXM of his recovery. “The last month, I’ve been making some leaps and bounds. No more crutches, no more cane, walking pretty normal and just trying to work out as much as I can. Still doing a lot of physical therapy and anticipating a return at Daytona here in just over a month.
“I feel great. I’ve done some sim over at TRD in Salisbury, (North Carolina) a few times. I had another session yesterday morning that went really well and really, really looking forward to getting back into action and getting back to normal and getting rolling here to start the season.”
Friesen said his time spent in recovery has allowed him time to reflect on making his dirt modified race cars safer, but the 42-year-old Canadian has no intentions of slowing down either.
“It’s been a long process, but at the end of the day, I’m a racer. It’s what I love to do,” Friesen said. “I’ve wanted to do this since I was probably 8, 9 years old, growing up around a race track and then racing my whole life. It’s just something that we do, and I don’t think I could go through life the same way not being in the seat or not wanting to be in the seat. I feel like I’ve still got a couple more decent years in my prime left before I gotta hang up the Simpsons (seat belts). But right now, that’s the goal — get back to what I love to do and what our family does and go back racing.”
Friesen anticipates getting back behind the wheel of a big-block dirt modified in early February at All-Tech Raceway as well as Volusia Speedway Park before climbing back into his No. 52 Toyota, but admitted his prior commitment of 50 to 60 dirt races per year may be scaled back in 2026.
HFR will also field the No. 62 Toyota full time in the new year, Friesen said, with multiple drivers filling out the 25-race schedule.
The No. 52 truck finished third in the 2025 owners points standings, the team’s best result since going full time in 2018. Friesen credited Honeycutt for his professionalism and talent leading to a Championship 4 berth.
“What a great race car driver and great person, first off,” Friesen said. “Young racer, super passionate about racing. I mean, you see him run almost every division he could at the Snowball Derby. Comes from a dirt-racing background in East Texas. And I think the Toyota guys made a really, really good pick in Kaden to jump in and replace Corey (Heim, defending series champion) in the 11 truck over at Tricon. …
“It was cool for him to jump in my seat and work with him. I was logged into every sim session that he did, and all the races, obviously listening on the radio, and just a great race-car driver. And it really helped our team to develop and make a championship push. That was awesome. That was all we could ask for. He did a great job and got us another, maybe, rung up the ladder with the building of this race team.”
The 2026 Truck Series season begins with the Fresh from Florida 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, Feb. 13 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
