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Posted on August 21, 2026 by Staff Report

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Final practice results

Pos	No.	Name	Sponsor	Best Tm	Best Speed	In Lap	Laps	Diff
1	79	Jonathan McKennedy	Stuarts Automotive	29.544	128.92	9	14
2	64	Austin Beers	G&G Electrical Supply	29.582	128.754	2	11	0.038
3	3	Tyler Rypkema	Northeast Drilling; SYP	29.619	128.593	10	14	0.075
4	40	Ryan Preece	Racechoice.com; Mizzy Construction	29.703	128.229	9	13	0.159
5	58	Eric Goodale	GAF Roofing; Riverhead Building Supply	29.722	128.148	4	16	0.178
6	44	Chase Dowling	S&S Paving / Harshaw Paving	29.735	128.091	12	12	0.191
7	82	Andrew Molleur	Horton Ave Materials; Village Springs Water	29.788	127.864	9	10	0.244
8	28	Doug Coby	Nucar	29.801	127.808	7	14	0.257
9	54	Tommy Catalano	FX Caprara; USNE Power	29.803	127.799	13	17	0.259
10	13	Michael Christopher	Mohawk Northeast; USNE	29.804	127.795	3	16	0.26
11	21	Stephen Kopcik	Wanick Construction; Newtown Pools	29.825	127.705	7	19	0.281
12	51	Justin Bonsignore	Dollar Tree	29.834	127.666	14	21	0.29
13	6	Cory Dimatteo*	Manafort Brothers	29.866	127.53	11	11	0.322
14	1	Patrick Emerling	USNE Power	29.867	127.525	9	11	0.323
15	7	Luke Baldwin	Baldwin Automotive	29.87	127.513	5	7	0.326
16	73	Paulie Hartwig III*	Professional Therapy LLC	29.874	127.495	2	18	0.33
17	31	Craig Lutz	Elite Towing	29.896	127.402	9	12	0.352
18	43	Matt Kimball	Birch Financial/Naughton & Sons Recycle/Central Mass Tree	29.946	127.189	2	19	0.402
19	2	Jacob Perry	Klas Motorsports	29.96	127.13	10	11	0.416
20	50	Ronnie Williams	Empower Financial Advisory	29.97	127.087	17	27	0.426
21	36	David Sapienza	Sapienza Enterprises; USNE Power	29.992	126.994	2	17	0.448
22	56	Trevor Catalano	USNE Power	29.998	126.968	18	19	0.454
23	0	Ryan Newman	Ohsweken Speedway	30.015	126.897	9	14	0.471
24	8	John-Michael Shenette	Eighty-Two Services; USNE Power	30.075	126.643	3	15	0.531
25	05	Teddy Hodgdon*	Business Time Motorsports	30.122	126.446	8	25	0.578
26	60	Matt Hirschman	Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; Pee Dee Motorsports	30.146	126.345	8	8	0.602
27	18	Ken Heagy	Merkel Racing Engines	30.781	123.739	4	12	1.237
28	95	Cory Plummer*	Tuckers Fabrication & Welding	30.987	122.916	13	15	1.443

Posted on August 21, 2026August 21, 2026 by Staff Report

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Practice results

Pos	No.	Name	Sponsor	Best Tm	Best Speed	In Lap	Laps	Diff
1	7	Luke Baldwin	Baldwin Automotive	29.65	128.459	17	27
2	70	Andy Seuss	Rockingham Boat	29.673	128.359	18	35	0.023
3	44	Chase Dowling	S&S Paving / Harshaw Paving	29.673	128.359	14	35	0.023
4	79	Jonathan McKennedy	Stuarts Automotive	29.731	128.109	19	26	0.081
5	3	Tyler Rypkema	Northeast Drilling; SYP	29.793	127.842	25	29	0.143
6	40	Ryan Preece	Racechoice.com; Mizzy Construction	29.802	127.804	24	31	0.152
7	58	Eric Goodale	GAF Roofing; Riverhead Building Supply	29.83	127.684	28	37	0.18
8	28	Doug Coby	Nucar	29.857	127.568	18	19	0.207
9	51	Justin Bonsignore	Dollar Tree	29.864	127.538	24	31	0.214
10	64	Austin Beers	G&G Electrical Supply	29.935	127.236	11	39	0.285
11	50	Ronnie Williams	Empower Financial Advisory	29.948	127.18	37	46	0.298
12	17	Anthony Nocella	Keene Towing & Recovery	29.983	127.032	13	20	0.333
13	21	Stephen Kopcik	Wanick Construction; Newtown Pools	29.988	127.011	32	40	0.338
14	54	Tommy Catalano	FX Caprara; USNE Power	29.992	126.994	20	33	0.342
15	13	Michael Christopher	Mohawk Northeast; USNE	30.002	126.952	26	26	0.352
16	60	Matt Hirschman	Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; Pee Dee Motorsports	30.003	126.947	35	37	0.353
17	43	Matt Kimball	Birch Financial/Naughton & Sons Recycle/Central Mass Tree	30.037	126.804	40	40	0.387
18	73	Paulie Hartwig III*	Professional Therapy LLC	30.059	126.711	21	34	0.409
19	1	Patrick Emerling	USNE Power	30.08	126.622	19	29	0.43
20	31	Craig Lutz	Elite Towing	30.082	126.614	13	15	0.432
21	0	Ryan Newman	Ohsweken Speedway	30.089	126.584	14	22	0.439
22	36	David Sapienza	Sapienza Enterprises; USNE Power	30.125	126.433	32	38	0.475
23	05	Teddy Hodgdon*	Business Time Motorsports	30.131	126.408	32	33	0.481
24	2	Jacob Perry	Klas Motorsports	30.163	126.274	11	32	0.513
25	6	Cory DiMatteo*	Manafort Brothers	30.168	126.253	33	35	0.518
26	82	Andrew Molleur	Horton Ave Materials; Village Springs Water	30.187	126.174	30	33	0.537
27	56	Trevor Catalano	USNE Power	30.196	126.136	46	50	0.546
28	18	Ken Heagy	Merkel Racing Engines	30.76	123.823	14	24	1.11
29	8	John-Michael Shenette	Eighty-Two Services; USNE Power	30.891	123.298	10	15	1.241
30	95	Cory Plummer*	Tuckers Fabrication & Welding	31.411	121.257	32	39	1.761

Posted on August 21, 2026 by Dustin Albino

Editor’s Note: Keep tabs on this page for lineup advice following qualifying, including changes you should consider.

Another week, another short, flat track where Team Penske should be the organization to beat once again, this time at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Christopher Bell could be the company’s biggest threat, however, as he’s owned the 1.058-mile oval throughout his NASCAR career, no matter the series. The best drivers and teams tend to dominate the “Magic Mile,” with 13 of the last 17 winners also claiming a Cup Series title.

Returning to Fastlane this year is my weekly NASCAR 36 for 36 pick, where you can play along. It’s a season-long points battle introduced in 2024 where strategy is the primary emphasis. With 36 chartered cars and 36 races on the 2026 schedule, players can choose each car once for the duration of the season.

RELATED: NASCAR Fantasy Live hub | Play 36 for 36

MUST START

Driver: Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing, No. 20 Toyota
Selections remaining: 1
Comment: Since bursting onto the NASCAR scene, Bell has made New Hampshire his personal playground. He is undefeated in four O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts, earning a pair of additional victories in Cup competition, both coming in the last four events. The Oklahoma native also has finishes of first and second in Craftsman Truck Series competition in the Granite State.

Driver: Joey Logano, Team Penske, No. 22 Ford
Selections remaining: 3
Comment: The three-time Cup champion is white-hot over the last five races, tallying north of 40% of his season points total in that timeframe (264 of 659). The native New Englander is a two-time winner at his home venue, leading a race-high 147 laps last year before taking the checkered flag in fourth.

Driver: Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, No. 12 Ford
Selections remaining: 0
Comment: Blaney will be idle from my lineup this weekend after using my final start with him at Richmond Raceway. But if you have a start left with the No. 12 bunch, use it now. He led 116 laps to win at New Hampshire last year, and he has three flat-track triumphs in the last calendar year.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

DRIVERS TO AVOID

Driver: William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 24 Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 4
Comment: Byron finished on the podium at New Hampshire in 2025, his lone top 10 in eight starts at the 1.058-mile venue. New Hampshire has been a struggle point for Hendrick Motorsports, which has won 118 times at 28 different venues since last hoisting Loudon the Lobster in Victory Lane (Kasey Kahne, 2012).

Driver: Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing, No. 23 Toyota
Selections remaining: 6
Comment: Wallace has yet to find consistent results at New Hampshire, though he placed third in 2022. He has one additional top 10 in eight total starts, with the other six tries being finishes of 22nd or worse.

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

SLEEPERS OF THE WEEK

Driver: Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing, No. 21 Ford
Selections remaining: 10
Comment: Berry is racing for his future, and it’s paid off with three straight top 10s, tying the longest stretch of his career. The No. 21 team finished runner-up to Blaney last year and was hunting the leader down at the checkered flag. In two New Hampshire starts, Berry has finished second and third, respectively.

Driver: Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing, No. 6 Ford
Selections remaining: 6
Comment: Sitting a season-worst 78 points below the Chase cutline, time is running out for Keselowski to make any sort of Chase push. However, he has a pair of wins here, with 16 top-10 finishes in 25 starts. Five of those have come in the last seven visits.

Jacob Kupferman | Getty Images

FEATURED MATCHUPS

Joey Logano vs. Ryan Blaney
Pick: Logano
Comment: This is a tossup between Penske brethren but give me Logano. As he said on the Richmond frontstretch, “Don’t let the boys get hot.” Blaney has been a tad less consistent, comparatively, at New Hampshire, with five top 10s in 13 starts.

Chase Briscoe vs. Josh Berry
Pick: Briscoe
Comment: While Berry is riding high entering New Hampshire, Briscoe is sizzling, too. He considers Richmond and New Hampshire to be among his worst tracks on the schedule, but coincidentally, they have been among the strongest for the No. 19 crew over the years with Martin Truex Jr. It wouldn’t be shocking if this was a battle late inside the top five.

Christopher Bell vs. Denny Hamlin
Pick: Bell
Comment: Bell should be the popular pick this weekend. Hamlin, who I’ve also run out of starts with, is no slouch at New Hampshire, as he leads active drivers in wins (three), laps led (798), top 10s (19), and has an average finish of 9.9. The No. 11 team has 11 consecutive top-five finishes at non-drafting track ovals in 2026. This could be a battle for the win if the JGR duo can outshine Penske.

Shane van Gisbergen vs. Ryan Preece
Pick: Van Gisbergen
Comment: While Preece will get some love this week due to his New England roots, don’t overlook van Gisbergen. The box score shows a 32nd-place finish last year, but he qualified 10th and earned points in Stage 1. He was involved in a pair of incidents later in the race, dropping him in the running order. It’s been apparent of late how well SVG has improved at short tracks.

MY LINEUP

Starting five: Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry, Ty Gibbs.
Garage: Kyle Larson.

36 FOR 36

Pick: Ryan Preece, RFK Racing, No. 60 Ford
Comment: It’s make-or-break time for Preece and the No. 60 team. He sits 50 points below the Chase cutline with two regular-season races remaining. While Preece is praised for his short-track prowess, he recently said Martinsville Speedway is the only track where he feels he can contend for a win every year, no matter the circumstances. RFK will need to put its eggs in Preece’s basket this weekend as it looks to earn multiple Chase berths.

Posted on August 21, 2026 by Nathan Solomon

It’s officially do-or-die in the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series quest for The Chase.

The regular-season finale is on tap Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with four of the 10 postseason positions still up for grabs. Mathematically speaking, 10 drivers remain eligible to claim the final quartet of Chase spots, which will be decided over 175 laps at the 1.058-mile oval.

As the Truck Series shifts northeast for the final time in 2026, take a look at The Chase bubble, including who’s locked in and who needs a strong showing in Loudon.

Who’s locked in

Layne Riggs leads the tailgaters through 17 races, owning a 61-point lead over Kaden Honeycutt in pursuit of the coveted No. 1 seed. Riggs could have clinched the top spot last weekend at Richmond Raceway, but a pair of slow pit stops — along with a perfect 76-point day and victory for Honeycutt — allowed the Tricon Garage driver to chip 39 points off his deficit. It would take a Herculean task to dethrone Riggs at New Hampshire alone, but more importantly for Honeycutt, he brings momentum into the championship fight. Riggs has been solid all year long, and Front Row Motorsports in particular thrives at shorter, flatter ovals like Loudon. He needs just 15 points at New Hampshire to clinch.

Chandler Smith and Christian Eckes are third and fourth, respectively, too far behind to contend for the top seed but constantly the best of the rest. Smith’s two wins this season have all but solidified the No. 3 seed for The Chase, while Eckes continues to search. The No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver is winless since returning to the organization over the winter, a far cry from his eight victories between 2023 and 2024. Don’t count out either driver from making a Chase rally.

Gio Ruggiero sits fifth in points coming off a ninth-place effort at Richmond, recovering from an early lost lap. The No. 17 Tricon Garage driver has made significant strides from last year, improving his average start and average finish and is tracking toward a career high in top 10s amid his first postseason bid. Ruggiero won last fall at Talladega Superspeedway — and more victories could soon be on the horizon. Ty Majeski is sixth, 48 markers behind Ruggiero. He clinched a Chase spot at Richmond despite a flat tire setting him a lap off the pace, resulting in a 19th-place finish. Majeski’s earned back-to-back top 10s just once this year in a season defined by feast or famine — he’s finished outside the top 20 seven times, and remains winless since his championship-claiming triumph in 2024 at Phoenix Raceway.

MORE: Full New Hampshire entry list

Who’s safe

Grant Enfinger is all but officially locked into The Chase, entering New Hampshire 65 points above the cutline. He earned a crucial fifth-place finish at Richmond, attacking the final stage on an alternate strategy that positioned him for a potential victory. That effort marked his best result since taking CR7 Motorsports to a season-altering triumph last month at Lime Rock Park. Regardless of other drivers’ results, a 10-point day in Loudon will confirm his championship aspirations. He finished sixth there in 2025, the series’ first visit to the track in eight years.

ThorSport’s Ben Rhodes maintains the eighth spot, holding 53 points above the cutline. Similarly to Enfinger, he’s safe — and a solid trip to the “Magic Mile” positions him to pursue a third Truck Series title. He’s earned just two top 10s in the last 10 races, though, and has gradually slipped three spots in the overall ranks during that span. Rhodes can clinch a Chase spot with 22 points.

Behind him, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Daniel Hemric is ninth, 35 markers to the good. That’s certainly not a sure thing, but it’s a notable advantage over the cut. The 2021 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion has top 10s in three of his last five contests and seems headed in the right direction after a slow start to 2026. Without help, Hemric can clinch with 40 points.

Who has work to do

This is where the plot thickens.

Tyler Ankrum holds the final provisional Chase spot by 20 points over Stewart Friesen — who suffered a brutal blow to his postseason aspirations with a crash last weekend at Richmond. The Halmar Friesen Racing driver suffered a tire issue during the final stage and pounded the Turn 1 wall, resulting in a last-place finish. That dropped him 28 points, surrendering the 10th position to Ankrum — who banked 29 points and came home 11th. He can now clinch a Chase spot with 55 points.

MORE: Enfinger, Ankrum firm up Chase footing

Friesen’s 11th in points by just one marker over Jake Garcia, who’s searching for a second-consecutive postseason berth. He gained 11 points to the cutline with a sixth-place Richmond effort, his first top-10 finish in five races.

Should Friesen — who missed last year’s Loudon race due to a dirt modified injury — overcome this deficit, it would be his fifth postseason appearance. He made the Championship 4 in 2019 and most recently made the playoffs in 2022. Both Friesen and Garcia need to earn 75 points without help Saturday to clinch Chase spots.

Four other drivers remain Chase-eligible, but all need help. Brenden Queen leads the Kaulig Racing Ram brigade in 13th, 47 points below the cut. Andrés Pérez is minus-49, followed by Tricon’s Tanner Gray (minus-59) and Kaulig’s Justin Haley (minus-70). Queen, Pérez and Gray are all searching for their first career postseason appearances.

Additionally, four full-time drivers are eliminated: Dawson Sutton, Cole Butcher, Mini Tyrrell and Kris Wright.

Posted on August 20, 2026 by Pat DeCola

Richmond Raceway did not “fix” Hendrick Motorsports’ summer.

It did, however, give the organization something it had been missing for months: four cars pointing in the same direction.

No. 9 Chevrolet driver Chase Elliott finished fifth under the lights on Saturday night, his best result since winning at Texas Motor Speedway in May, ending a career-long nine-race streak outside the top 10. Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson followed in sixth, snapping his own run of four consecutive races off the lead lap and scoring his first top 10 since Sonoma Raceway in June. A somehow winless William Byron came home ninth for his second straight top 10; his first consecutive pair since March, while Alex Bowman finished 10th for the first time since Chicagoland Speedway in July.

Individually, none of those results qualify as a breakthrough.

Collectively, they might.

Richmond marked the first time all four Hendrick cars finished in the top 10 since Talladega Superspeedway in April 2025. More importantly, it came immediately after a four-race stretch in which 16 Hendrick starts produced zero top fives, one top 10, five top-15 finishes and just 27 laps led.

At Richmond, though? Four starts, four top 10s.

A modest spark, perhaps, but with only Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and next weekend’s Daytona International Speedway cutoff remaining before The Chase, there is little time left to determine whether there is any actual heat behind the flame.

MORE: Weekend schedule | Entry list

That makes the “Magic Mile” an unusually useful test for a team that by now typically already has its sights set on paving a path to a championship in the fall rather than wondering if it’ll go a whole summer winless.

Daytona will settle the regular season a week later, but drafting tracks tend to introduce their own variables. Loudon offers Hendrick one final conventional look at itself before The Chase begins — 301 laps around a flat, technical 1.058-mile oval where speed, balance, track position and execution tend to have enough time to reveal themselves.

If Richmond was simply a pleasant one-night reprieve from an uneven summer, New Hampshire could expose it. If something is genuinely beginning to click again across the Hendrick campus, this is where the evidence can start stacking up.

And there is plenty to prove.

Even with two early-season victories from Elliott, Hendrick’s 2026 numbers remain almost unrecognizable compared with the organization’s production through the same 24 races last season.

The championship team had six wins at this point in 2025, and its top-five total has fallen from 32 to 21, with top 10s dropping from 52 to 37. The most dramatic gap is up front: Hendrick led 2,328 laps through 24 races last year compared with 1,073 this season — a decline of 1,255 laps. Meanwhile, DNFs have climbed from eight to 13.

The unfortunate flip side for the team is that, in the process, its greatest competitors have moved in the opposite direction. Joe Gibbs Racing has led 2,067 laps this season and Team Penske 1,287 (split between just three drivers, as opposed to Hendrick and JGR’s four apiece), both ahead of Hendrick. JGR has seven wins (with another seven tacked on by Toyota affiliate 23XI Racing), while Penske has four itself, and three in the last four races alone.

This is not to suggest Hendrick suddenly became an also-ran. Elliott is already locked into The Chase, Larson sits eighth in points and Byron is 12th. Bowman would likely be in the mix for a Chase spot as well, had he avoided injury earlier this season. Larson, to his credit, remains one of the sport’s most prolific lap leaders, even while riding a career-long Hendrick winless streak, and ranks just behind season stalwarts Denny Hamlin (880) and Ryan Blaney (708) for third best in the series.

By its own recent standards, though, the organization has spent much of 2026 producing isolated flashes rather than the sustained, four-car pressure we’ve grown accustomed to.

But Richmond looked different — and New Hampshire now gets to determine whether it actually was.

There is some irony in choosing Loudon as the proving ground, because Hendrick’s relationship with the track has been simultaneously productive and maddening for more than a decade. That’s also what makes it a perfect location for a late-summer barometer.

The stat has been repeated ad nauseam at this point, but, in case you’re unaware, it was Kasey Kahne who delivered the organization’s ninth and most recent New Hampshire victory. The same Kasey Kahne who last drove in the Cup Series in 2018 and not for Hendrick since ’17.

The team has won 118 Cup races at 28 different tracks since the former No. 5 driver claimed a lobster in 2012 just weeks after the team’s current driver, then a spry 19-year-old, made his NASCAR debut with a top 10 in a Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

It has won five championships since, two of them going to that 19-now-34-year-old.

At New Hampshire, Hendrick cars have finished in literally every position from second through 15th since Kahne’s victory — but never first. Clearly, not the profile of an organization incapable of competing at Loudon, but almost the opposite, as Hendrick has repeatedly gotten close enough to make the absence conspicuous and perhaps down to just peculiar circumstances.

Last year was a prime example.

Byron finished third, Elliott fifth and Larson seventh, while Bowman came home 15th. Byron essentially spent the entire afternoon near the front, with a 4.7 average running position, while Larson’s was 6.0. Elliott charged from 27th to fifth and spent three laps out front.

The ingredients were there. The trophy went elsewhere. Again.

No current Hendrick driver illustrates that relationship better than Larson. Among drivers with multiple New Hampshire starts, Larson’s 10.93 average finish ranks behind only Josh Berry’s absurd two-race sample (2.5) and Denny Hamlin’s 9.94. Larson owns six top fives and nine top 10s in 15 starts and carries an active streak of three consecutive top-10 finishes at the track.

He has also finished second three times — the most runner-up results in New Hampshire history by a driver who has never won there.

The stranger number might be “26,” though.

That is how many laps Larson has led in those 15 starts, his fewest at any active oval where he has raced multiple times. For a driver who has led 11,001 Cup laps overall and routinely measures his best afternoons in chunks of triple-digit dominance, Loudon has produced a peculiar brand of Larson success: close to the front of the pack, but rarely leading the charge.

It also arrives at a telling moment for the No. 5 team.

Larson’s current 48-race winless streak is his longest since joining Hendrick in 2021. Before the drought began with his most recent victory at Kansas in May 2025, he had won exactly one of every six races during his Hendrick tenure.

The laps led indicate that the speed has hardly disappeared completely; it’s just that the conversion rate, for whatever reason, has.

A strong Loudon afternoon would not erase 48 races, of course, but it could, however, provide another useful data point — along with a lobsterman’s boatload of mojo — after Richmond finally interrupted a rough recent stretch.

The same applies elsewhere in the building, too.

Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

Elliott’s fifth-place Richmond finish carried particular weight because of what preceded it. After opening 2026 with seven top 10s and two wins in the first 11 races, he went nine straight without another top 10 before Richmond.

New Hampshire has not traditionally been one of the “automatic” tracks for him — four top 10s in 12 starts are his fewest at any venue where he has raced more than 10 times — but he has shown winning-level pace there on occasion. Elliott finished second in 2022, led 41 laps from the pole in 2024 and rallied through the field last year at a track that’s notoriously hard to pass on.

Byron’s recent progress is a bit quieter but no less relevant.

His ninth at Richmond gave him back-to-back top 10s for the first time since March, after a stretch in which he recorded only four top 10s across 11 races and a notable public radio spat with his longtime crew chief. His overall New Hampshire record is thin — one top 10 in eight starts — but that lone result came last year, when he finished third, scored points in both stages and posted the 4.7 average running position.

Bowman remains the biggest question mark. Richmond gave him his first top 10 in more than a month, but New Hampshire has produced only one top 10 in 14 career starts and no laps led. While he’s out of the running for a Chase bid, the No. 48 team is looking to string together strong weeks to carry momentum into 2027, which will be Bowman’s final year in the Cup Series before handing the reins to Connor Zilisch for 2028.

No one is demanding a Hendrick victory Sunday, and it’s nowhere near a ‘must-win’ for the team. This is more about examining the shape of the performance after showing cohesive vitality at Richmond. A win would obviously end a remarkable and baffling New Hampshire drought, but another afternoon with three or four cars consistently inside the top 10, collecting stage points, creating passing speed and inserting themselves into the late-race conversation could be just as informative for what comes next.

Because Hendrick’s problem this summer has not simply been a lack of trophies, but an overall concerning scarcity of weekends when all four teams looked like meaningful factors at once.

Richmond finally supplied one. New Hampshire is uniquely set up for Hendrick drivers to prove it wasn’t a flat-track fluke.

Loudon has been good enough to Hendrick over the years to make contention realistic, yet difficult enough to keep Victory Lane locked away since 2012, conveniently positioned as the final non-drafting checkpoint before The Chase.

Short of an entirely dominant race weekend, we may not have firm, undeniable evidence that Hendrick is “back” by Sunday evening.

But if Richmond was the beginning of something rather than the exception, Loudon will highlight it.

Or perhaps the “Magic Mile” might expose the illusion altogether.

Posted on August 20, 2026 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series head to the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend for a pair of races in Loudon, New Hampshire. The Cup Series enters the penultimate race of its regular season before The Chase, while the Truck Series will set its 10-driver Chase field in Saturday’s regular-season finale. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from qualifying orders, practice speeds, pit stalls and more.

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Ten total sets — seven new sets for the race, one for qualifying that transfers to the race and two for practice. Four wet-weather sets will also be available as needed.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five total sets — three new sets for the race, one for qualifying that transfers to the race and one for practice. Three wet-weather sets will also be available as needed.

Posted on August 20, 2026August 20, 2026 by Neil Paine

What a difference seven weeks can make — just ask Joey Logano.

Back on June 28, Logano was coming off a 24th-place finish at Sonoma Raceway, his eighth finish that low (or worse) in 18 races. He had zero wins on the season, with just a pair of top-five finishes and five top 10s — just the second time he’d gone winless through the first 18 races of a season since 2013. And perhaps most concerning, the mediocre run in California’s Wine Country dropped Logano to 20th in the Cup Series point standings, his worst position of the season with just eight races remaining before The Chase.
In the first season of NASCAR’s renewed Chase postseason format, Logano appeared to be doing little to dispel the notion that the three-time champion under the old playoff system would be less suited to winning titles in this new era — or even survive the regular-season cutline at all.

But then, something began to shift in the No. 22 car’s performance. While his Driver Rating remained slightly below average (67.7) the following week at Chicagoland, Logano still managed to finish 12th, his best showing in a month, to improve to 18th in the points — still below the cutline but drawing closer.

Even at the time, we expressed concern Logano could end up being the odd man out of a crowded Chase picture, despite calling for improved form for the Penske cars going forward. But few outside the No. 22 team foresaw exactly how much Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe would improve from there: Starting at EchoPark Speedway (a recurring Logano favorite that has seen him win twice in the Next Gen era), Joey has strung together four top 10s in five races — including a pair of wins — and five straight Driver Ratings of 91.4 or higher, with an average of 113.8 over that span.

Not coincidentally, Logano has gone from sitting below the Chase cutline to rising all the way to ninth in the standings, 142 points clear of elimination. What once seemed like an uncertain championship future suddenly looks a lot rosier.

Maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised that, when backed against the wall with his postseason prospects dwindling, Logano responded with a series of elite performances. After all, this is one of the best clutch drivers of his generation. As we detailed during last year’s playoffs, Logano always has a tendency to elevate his game when the stakes are highest, outperforming his regular-season metrics in all but a few of his postseason runs and maintaining a triple-digit average Driver Rating when actively in a championship pursuit.

But even by Joey’s standards, this recent stretch has turned the clock back to a level of dominance we hadn’t seen in a while. The last time we saw him produce a five-race streak this strong — with an average Driver Rating of at least 113.8 and an Adjusted Points+ index of 268 — was in November 2020, when he closed out the season with five straight top 10s (four of which were podium finishes). Before that, his last such stretch was late in the 2018 campaign, and before that, late in 2016. (Are we sensing a pattern of elite late-season performances here?)
If anything, a run like this in July and August is on the early side for Logano. But what does it mean for his chances of making a true bid at his fourth Cup Series title?

Well, as good as Joey has been recently, he probably has a bit more work to do over the next two races at New Hampshire and Daytona. Much has been made of the importance of finishing in the top six of the final regular-season standings if a driver wants a legitimate chance to win the championship. That’s the line at which a driver begins The Chase within 50 points of the No. 1 seed, and it also happens to be the lowest position from which a hypothetical eventual champ ended the regular season when we reconstructed the current Chase rules for the playoff era (2017-2025):
While there may be some wiggle room to work with around where the true barrier of realistic contending sits — my simulation-based forecast model gives about a 5% chance to drivers who enter The Chase outside the top six seeds — it is also true that no driver in the playoff era rose any higher than fourth in the final rankings from Logano’s current perch at No. 9 in the standings, and the vast majority of them ended up finishing sixth or lower.

But that’s if we think Logano is going to keep driving like the typical No. 9 seed in the regular-season standings. And lately, there has been nothing typical about the way the No. 22 has been performing. Just seven short weeks ago, the question was whether Joey would make The Chase at all. Now the question is whether the rest of the field should be as scared to have him there under the current format as they perennially were during the playoff era.

Posted on August 19, 2026August 19, 2026 by Staff Report

As tracks and race dates for the 2027 NASCAR schedule are revealed, NASCAR.com will collect each announcement here, with the newest development at the top. Check back for updates throughout the schedule-release process, and view the complete list of confirmed dates in our 2027 NASCAR schedule tracker.

MORE: How your dream 2027 schedule stacks up | Pick a track to put on your 2027 bucket list

Aug. 19: Truck Series heads north of the border for first time since 2019

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will return to Canada for the first time in eight years with a trip to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on tap in 2027. The race is slated for Sunday, Sept. 5, with coverage on FOX Sports. It will serve as the key regular-season finale, solidifying the 10 drivers competing in The Chase.

The Truck Series visited the 2.459-mile road course in Bowmanville, Ontario, from 2013 to 2019. NASCAR planned for another trip to the Toronto suburb in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic put the annual north-of-the-border event on pause.

Five of the seven Canadian Tire winners currently drive in the Cup Series, headlined by Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney – who won the first two renditions.

IMSA and the NASCAR Canada Series also make regular stops at the high-speed 10-turn circuit.

Aug. 19: Two Heartland trips on tap in 2027

NASCAR will again make two stops at Kansas Speedway in 2027, headlined by a Chase tripleheader in early October.

All three series will host key postseason races at the 1.5-mile oval, with Race No. 4 of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase slated for Oct. 3 on USA Sports. The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is slated for Oct. 2 on The CW, while the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opens the weekend on Oct. 1 with coverage on FOX Sports.

Kansas’ springtime weekend will feature a doubleheader with the Cup and Truck Series. Cup Series stars will duke it out on May 9 with coverage on FOX Sports – the 11th points-paying event of the season. The Truck Series race is scheduled for May 8, also on FOX Sports.

NASCAR returns to Kansas Sept. 26-27 this fall for Cup and Truck Series Chase races.

Aug. 18: ‘Tricky Triangle’ trip on tap for June

NASCAR is back at one of its most historic venues in 2027, with a June trip to Pocono Raceway on tap. The Cup Series race is slated for June 13 and will be broadcast on Prime Video.

Both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series will also visit the Pennsylvania mountains in 2027. O’Reilly Series drivers will look to tame “Tricky” on June 12 (The CW), with the tailgaters racing June 11 on FOX Sports.

The Cup Series first visited Pocono in 1974 and subsequently once each summer. The 1982 season marked the first year the 2.5-mile triangular track hosted two race weekends, and it remained a twice-annual stop through 2019. Pocono hosted Cup Series doubleheader weekends in 2020 and 2021 before fully transitioning to a single date and race in 2022. The 2026 Cup race marked the fourth grandstand sellout and the sixth-straight camping sellout.

Aug. 18: Chicagoland returns to NASCAR calendar for second straight season

NASCAR’s annual race weekend in the Chicago market will take place at the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway for the second year in a row. The Cup Series event is slated for June 27, with coverage airing on Prime Video — the streaming platform’s final race of 2027.

Like 2026, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series will join the fold to round out a three-race weekend. The O’Reilly Series is slated for June 26 with coverage on The CW, while ARCA will go to battle June 25.

Chicagoland first opened its doors to racing in 2001 and remained at least a once-a-year stop on the calendar until 2019. The track sat vacant until this year, when NASCAR returned over Independence Day weekend. Chase Briscoe won a sold-out Cup race, while Brandon Jones visited Victory Lane in the O’Reilly Series.

Aug. 18: Homestead-Miami Speedway confirms return as season-finale host in ’27

All three national series will return to South Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway in November 2027 to crown champions. It’ll be the second consecutive season the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wrap their campaigns at the 1.5-mile oval.

The Cup Series race is slated for Nov. 14 with coverage from USA Sports. The O’Reilly Series finale is slated for Nov. 13 on The CW, while the Truck Series concludes its season Nov. 12 with coverage airing on FOX Sports.

Homestead-Miami welcomed Cup Series action starting in 1999. It hosted Championship Weekend for the first time in 2002, and all three series ended their seasons at the track each year through 2019. Beginning in 2020, Championship Weekend shifted to Phoenix Raceway, where it remained through 2025. Homestead-Miami’s date fluctuated between springtime and the playoffs during that six-year pause.

But beginning this fall, the season-finale races are back in South Beach for The Chase, where the Nov. 6-8 weekend will determine who lifts the championship trophies.

Aug. 13: Richmond rolls into Chase as Cup, O’Reilly Series postseason openers

For the first time since 2021, Richmond Raceway will return to the NASCAR Cup Series Chase, serving as the 2027 opener. The River City showdown is slated for Saturday, Sept. 11, with coverage on USA Network.

Richmond’s summer race long marked the final regular-season event during the previous iteration of The Chase and the playoffs, doing so from 2004 to 2017. It first moved into the postseason in 2018. Next year will mark the third consecutive season that the 0.75-mile short track hosts NASCAR once.

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will return to Richmond next season after a two-year hiatus, with the Sept. 10 race also slated as the series’ Chase opener. The O’Reilly Series raced at the venue at least once annually from 1982 to 2024.

The Cup Series competes at Richmond this Saturday (7 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as just three regular-season races remain. Austin Dillon is the two-time defending winner.

Aug. 13: World Wide Technology Raceway shifts to mid-August date

World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway will move to August in 2027 after two seasons as a NASCAR Cup Series postseason race. The 1.25-mile oval is slated for the Cup Series’ Enjoy Illinois 300 on Aug. 22, with television coverage on USA Network. It will mark the third-to-last regular-season race.

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will additionally visit the St. Louis-area track for the third consecutive season, with the preliminary Nu Way 225 slated for Aug. 21 on The CW.

Next year’s stop at Gateway marks the sixth time the Cup Series will visit the Midwest track. The O’Reilly Series first competed there in 1997, while the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series visited for the first time in 1998 and remained a near-annual stop for the tailgaters until 2024.

The Cup Series visits Gateway later this year on Sept. 13 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with the O’Reilly Series competing Sept. 12 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Tickets

Aug. 12: ‘Monster Mile’ goes back to being a points race

After a one-year hiatus when it hosted the NASCAR All-Star Race, Dover Motor Speedway will return to points-paying status in the NASCAR Cup Series for 2027. The concrete behemoth known as the “Monster Mile” will run its Cup Series event on May 16, televised on FOX Sports.

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will make it a doubleheader weekend with its race occurring on May 15 and being broadcast on The CW.

Denny Hamlin was the winner of the All-Star Race in 2026 at Dover and was the victor in 2025 and 2024 in the previous points-paying Cup races at Dover. The 2027 season will be a chance to see if Hamlin can pull off a unique style of four-peat at the revered Delaware venue.

Aug. 12: All-Star Race returns to North Wilkesboro

The NASCAR All-Star Race will be on the move yet again in 2027, returning to a fan-favorite spot, North Wilkesboro Speedway. The 0.625-mile asphalt oval in the picturesque North Carolina foothills hosted the NASCAR Cup Series’ exhibition event from 2023-2025 before putting on a points-paying race this season when Dover Motor Speedway was the site of the All-Star Race.

But it’s back to Wilkes County for the midsummer classic, with the May 23 prime time event to be televised on FOX Sports. As part of a national-series tripleheader slate, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will race at the track for the first time since 1985, doing so on May 22 and airing on The CW. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, meanwhile, will run on May 21, on FOX Sports.

Kyle Larson (2023), Joey Logano (2024) and Christopher Bell (2025) were past winners of the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, with each taking home the $1 million prize. Logano was also the winner in this season’s Window World 450 in the first points-paying race at the track since 1996.

Aug. 11: More in store for Martinsville Speedway in 2027

The NASCAR schedule is set again to make two visits to historic Martinsville Speedway in 2027, with a springtime showdown bookended by a now-traditional return in the fall as the next-to-last race of the season for all three national series.

The 0.526-mile Virginia track will again tee up NASCAR championship weekend with the penultimate races of 2027 slated Nov. 5-7 for the Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. The Cup and O’Reilly Series will also convene for a doubleheader Martinsville meet on April 17-18.

Martinsville is due for a tripleheader NASCAR weekend this year on Oct. 30-Nov. 1, one week before national-series champions are crowned in the season finales at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

RELATED: Martinsville memories | Tickets

Aug. 11: Double dates due up for Darlington, including 2027 regular-season finale

Darlington Raceway is back on the 2027 NASCAR schedule for two dates, including a crucial event that will determine the Cup Series’ Chase field.

The historic 1.366-mile oval will keep its cherished Labor Day weekend slot next year, with the Southern 500 to be run Sunday, Sept. 5. The traditional date also coincides with the end of the Cup Series’ 26-race regular season, with the crown-jewel event primed to set the 16-driver grid in next year’s Chase.

Darlington’s 2027 calendar opens with a tripleheader weekend April 2-4, with the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series joining the Cup Series on the springtime bill. The O’Reilly Series returns to the South Carolina venue to take part in the Labor Day festivities, with its regular-season finale scheduled Sept. 4.

This year’s last remaining trip to Darlington will open The Chase for both the Cup and O’Reilly Series, with the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday, Sept. 6 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and the Fleetio 200 on Saturday, Sept. 5 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Southern 500 all-time wins | Tickets

Aug. 10: Las Vegas doubles down with early test, Chase date in 2027

Las Vegas Motor Speedway returns to the 2027 schedule rotation with two NASCAR weekends next year, providing an early-season challenge and a prime spot in The Chase postseason.

The 1.5-mile Nevada track is slated for the fifth Cup Series race of the season on March 21, then returns to the schedule in the 10-race Chase on Oct. 10, slotting in as the fifth event of the NASCAR Cup Series postseason. Both races replicate the Las Vegas track’s placement on the 2026 calendar.

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will stage preliminary races at each Las Vegas weekend, with the Oct. 9 visit serving as that circuit’s fourth Chase event.

Both series have postseason dates at Vegas coming up on the 2026 schedule – the South Point 400 for the Cup Series on Oct. 4 (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), preceded by the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Focused Health 302 on Oct. 3 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Aug. 6: Star-spangled return to Iowa set for July 4 weekend

Iowa Speedway, site of this weekend’s races, got a jump on next year by announcing that NASCAR will return for a July 4th weekend special in 2027.

The midseason showdown means an Independence Day celebration in the heartland, with the Cup Series hitting the 0.875-mile oval for the 18th of a scheduled 36 points-paying races next year. The circuit will be joined by the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for a preliminary event.

The 2027 visit will mark the fourth time the Cup Series has raced at Iowa Speedway. NASCAR’s premier series convenes at the Newton, Iowa track this weekend for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Additionally, a full repave of the racing surface will begin shortly after the checkered flag falls on this Sunday’s Cup show.

Aug. 6: Talladega two-fer on tap for NASCAR in 2027

NASCAR returns to Talladega Superspeedway for a pair of race weekends next season, including a critical date in the Chase postseason for all three national series in 2027.

A springtime showdown for the Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is set April 24-25, with the ARCA Menards Series also making its annual Talladega visit. That weekend culminates with the ninth race of the Cup Series season, the Jack Link’s 500.

The Craftsman Truck Series joins the other two NASCAR tours for a Chase tripleheader Oct. 29-31, with the YellaWood 500 creating a Halloween bash as the eighth event in the 10-race postseason. The 2027 calendar marks the second consecutive year that Talladega fills a role as the third-to-last race in the season.

This year’s second Talladega trip is scheduled Oct. 23-25. The 2.66-mile Alabama track produced a pair of first-time winners earlier this year, with Carson Hocevar (Cup Series) and Corey Day (O’Reilly Auto Parts Series) breaking through in April.

Aug. 6: New Hampshire returns to Chase rotation next season

NASCAR will soak in fall in New England next year, placing New Hampshire Motor Speedway back in the Chase postseason with a Sept. 25-26 race weekend on the 2027 schedule.

The 1.058-mile oval in Loudon, New Hampshire, will host the third Chase race for the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2027, with broadcast coverage from USA Network. That race follows the opening Chase event for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which has the EJP 175 slotted for Saturday, Sept. 25.

Next year will mark the 16th time that New Hampshire has hosted a postseason Cup Series race.

This year’s NHMS stop comes Aug. 23 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the next-to-last race in the Cup Series regular season.

RELATED: New Hampshire winners | Tickets

Aug. 6: Traditional dog days of August beckon for Bristol Night Race in 2027

Bristol Motor Speedway will return to a traditional date for its under-the-lights showdown next year, setting the annual night race for Aug. 14 on the 2027 NASCAR schedule.

The nighttime event will be the 23rd of 26 races in the Cup Series regular season, capping a tripleheader NASCAR weekend. The 0.533-mile Tennessee track will also host the three NASCAR national series April 9-11 for its yearly springtime event.

Bristol has been part of the postseason rotation since 2020, including this year’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19 (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The evening event has been a fixture on the schedule since 1978, typically occupying a mid- to late-August slot on the NASCAR calendar before its recent shift to a playoff position.

Both race weekends in 2027 will be tripleheaders, with the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series joining the bill with the Cup Series next year.

RELATED: Full announcement | Tickets

Aug. 5: Chase return, IndyCar combo part of Phoenix’s packed 2027 slate

Phoenix Raceway established its dates for a pair of packed NASCAR weekends next season, with a key crossover event and a pivotal autumn date in The Chase postseason returning to the desert oval in 2027.

The NASCAR Cup Series will share the bill with the NTT IndyCar Series at Phoenix for the second straight year, all during an activity-filled weekend of four races March 12-14. The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (Saturday, March 13) and ARCA Menards Series (Friday, March 12) also join the card, which culminates Sunday, March 14, in the fourth race of the Cup Series season.

All three NASCAR national series will visit the 1-mile Arizona track for Chase events Oct. 22-24, 2027. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opens the action Friday, Oct. 22, with the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series West combining for a Saturday doubleheader on Oct. 23. Phoenix’s fall weekend wraps with the Freeway Insurance 500 on Sunday, Oct. 24, when the Cup Series holds the seventh of 10 races in The Chase championship battle.

Phoenix joined the Cup Series schedule in 1988, when Hall of Famer Alan Kulwicki scored his first Cup victory. The Avondale, Arizona, facility has been a part of the Cup Series’ 10-race postseason every year since The Chase format first began in 2004.

RELATED: Phoenix winners | Tickets

Aug. 5: Two Lone Star State trips set for 2027 as COTA, Texas return

NASCAR will make two visits to the Lone Star State next season, with race weekend dates announced Wednesday for Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas and Texas Motor Speedway outside of Fort Worth.

The COTA road course returns for the seventh consecutive year for a March 5-7 weekend with the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in action. The doubleheader concludes with the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix, the Cup Series’ third race of the 2027 season with broadcast coverage by FOX Sports.

The intermediate track, meanwhile, will host the Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in an April 30-May 2 tripleheader weekend. The Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly at the 1.5-mile oval — a regular Cup Series venue since 1997 — will serve as the 10th race of the Cup Series campaign, with FOX Sports also providing coverage.

Aug. 4: Two race weekends on tap for EchoPark Speedway in 2027

EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta will host a pair of NASCAR race weekends next season, with Cup Series events scheduled for Feb. 28 and July 18 in 2027.

The 1.54-mile track, which features superspeedway-style racing on an intermediate-sized circuit, will again be slotted as host of the Autotrader 400, the second points-paying race of the Cup Series schedule with coverage from FOX Sports. Its summertime date, capped by the Cup Series’ Dollar Tree 400, is set to be part of TNT Sports’ Cup Series broadcast schedule.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will join the Cup Series for both Atlanta weekends for the first time since 2008. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is set to visit EchoPark Speedway in February, creating a tripleheader weekend for all three NASCAR national tours. The track indicated that start times will be announced at a later date.

The high-speed Georgia venue has been entrenched on NASCAR’s major-league schedule since 1960. After a 10-year stretch of hosting one Cup Series weekend each season, EchoPark has been the site of two annual stops on the schedule each year since 2021.

RELATED: EchoPark winners | Buy tickets!

Aug. 4: Clash returning to Daytona Speedweeks with new title sponsor

Daytona International Speedway announced its complete 2027 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, including the return of The Clash and dates for the Daytona 500 and Coke Zero Sugar 400.

The newly named Wheatley Vodka Clash will open Speedweeks presented by AdventHealth on Sat., Feb. 13. The preseason exhibition returns to Daytona for the first time since 2021, when it was last run on the road-course configuration.

The 69th annual Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sun., Feb. 21, while the Coke Zero Sugar 400 will return as Daytona’s summer Cup Series event on Sat., Aug. 28. The Clash’s format and eligibility standards will be announced at a later date.

RELATED: Full announcement | Past winners of The Clash | Tickets

July 23: Craftsman Truck Series returning to St. Petersburg

Street racing will return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2027.

The series will compete Sat., March 6, on the 1.8-mile temporary circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida, sharing the weekend with the NTT IndyCar Series’ Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 7.

The announcement follows the Truck Series’ inaugural visit to the street course in 2026, when Layne Riggs scored the victory. Event promoters indicated that ticket sales will begin in the fall.

RELATED: Full announcement | Tickets

May 7: Watkins Glen moving into The Chase

Watkins Glen International will return to a more traditional portion of the calendar in 2027.

The track’s NASCAR Cup Series weekend will move from its May placement to September and one of the earliest positions in the 10-race Chase. An exact race date has not yet been announced.

The move will also return a road course to the postseason after the Charlotte Motor Speedway fall race shifted from the Roval to the oval configuration for 2026.

RELATED: Full announcement | Watkins Glen tickets

February 9: Homestead expected to retain championship weekend

Homestead-Miami Speedway is expected to remain the site of NASCAR’s championship weekend in 2027.

NASCAR has indicated that it eventually plans to rotate the season finale, but NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said in February that the plan was to return to Homestead next season before considering a rotation in future years.

Posted on August 19, 2026August 19, 2026 by Staff Report

The 2027 NASCAR national-series schedules are beginning to take shape.

NASCAR.com will update the tables below as race dates and venues are officially announced for the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Start times, broadcast information and additional event details will be added when they become available.

MORE: See the latest schedule developments | How your dream 2027 schedule stacks up | Pick a track to put on your 2027 bucket list

NASCAR Cup Series

DATE	RACE / TRACK	BROADCAST PARTNER
Sat., Feb. 13	Wheatley Vodka Clash (Daytona International Speedway)	FOX Sports
Thu., Feb. 18	Duel at Daytona (Daytona International Speedway)	FOX Sports
Sun., Feb. 21	Daytona 500 (Daytona International Speedway)	FOX Sports
Sun., Feb. 28	Autotrader 400 (EchoPark Speedway)	FOX Sports
Sun., March 7	DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix (Circuit of The Americas)	FOX Sports
Sun., March 14	Phoenix Raceway	FOX Sports
Sun., March 21	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	FOX Sports
Sun., April 4	Darlington Raceway	FOX Sports
Sun., April 11	Bristol Motor Speedway	FOX Sports
Sun., April 18	Cook Out 400 (Martinsville Speedway)	FOX Sports
Sun., April 25	Jack Link's 500 (Talladega Superspeedway)	FOX Sports
Sun., May 2	Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly (Texas Motor Speedway)	FOX Sports
Sun., May 9	Kansas Speedway	FOX Sports
Sun., May 16	Dover Motor Speedway	FOX Sports
Sun., May 23	All-Star Race (North Wilkesboro Speedway)	FOX Sports
Sun., June 13	Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISIT PA (Pocono Raceway)	Prime Video
Sun., June 27	Chicagoland Speedway	Prime Video
Sun., July 4	Iowa Speedway	TNT Sports
Sun., July 18	Dollar Tree 400 (EchoPark Speedway)	TNT Sports
Sat., Aug. 14	Bass Pro Shops Night Race (Bristol Motor Speedway)	USA Sports
Sun., Aug. 22	Enjoy Illinois 300 (World Wide Technology Raceway)	USA Sports
Sat., Aug. 28	Coke Zero Sugar 400 (Daytona International Speedway)	USA Sports
Sun., Sept. 5	Southern 500 (Darlington Raceway)	USA Sports
Sat., Sept. 11	Richmond Raceway	USA Sports
Sept. 2027 — date TBD	Watkins Glen International	USA Sports
Sun., Sept. 26	New Hampshire Motor Speedway	USA Sports
Sun., Oct. 3	Kansas Speedway	USA Sports
Sun., Oct. 10	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	USA Sports
Sun., Oct. 24	Freeway Insurance 500 (Phoenix Raceway)	USA Sports
Sun., Oct. 31	YellaWood 500 (Talladega Superspeedway)	USA Sports
Sun., Nov. 7	Xfinity 500 (Martinsville Speedway)	USA Sports
Sun., Nov. 14	Homestead-Miami Speedway	USA Sports

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

DATE	RACE / TRACK	BROADCAST PARTNER
Sat., Feb. 20	United Rentals 300 (Daytona International Speedway)	The CW
Sat., Feb. 27	Bennett Transportation and Logistics 250 (EchoPark Speedway)	The CW
Sat., March 6	Circuit of The Americas	The CW
Sat., March 13	Phoenix Raceway	The CW
Sat., March 20	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	The CW
Sat., April 3	Darlington Raceway	The CW
Sat., April 10	Bristol Motor Speedway	The CW
Sat., April 17	Martinsville Speedway	The CW
Sat., April 24	Talladega Superspeedway	The CW
Sat., May 1	Texas Motor Speedway	The CW
Sat., May 15	Dover Motor Speedway	The CW
Sat., May 22	North Wilkesboro Speedway	The CW
Sat., June 12	Pocono Raceway	The CW
Sat., June 26	Chicagoland Speedway	The CW
Sat., July 3	Iowa Speedway	The CW
Fri., Aug. 13	Bristol Motor Speedway	The CW
Sat., Aug. 21	Nu Way 225 (World Wide Technology Raceway)	The CW
Fri., Aug. 27	Daytona International Speedway	The CW
Sat., Sept. 4	Darlington Raceway	The CW
Fri., Sept. 10	Richmond Raceway	The CW
Sat., Oct. 2	Kansas Speedway	The CW
Sat., Oct. 9	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	The CW
Sat., Oct. 23	Phoenix Raceway	The CW
Sat., Oct. 30	Talladega Superspeedway	The CW
Sat., Nov. 6	Martinsville Speedway	The CW
Sat., Nov. 13	Homestead-Miami Speedway	The CW

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

DATE	RACE / TRACK	BROADCAST PARTNER
Fri., Feb. 19	Fresh From Florida 250 (Daytona International Speedway)	FOX Sports
Sat., Feb. 27	EchoPark Speedway	FOX Sports
Sat., March 6	Streets of St. Petersburg	FOX Sports
Fri., April 2	Darlington Raceway	FOX Sports
Fri., April 9	Bristol Motor Speedway	FOX Sports
Fri., April 30	Texas Motor Speedway	FOX Sports
Sat., May 8	Kansas Speedway	FOX Sports
Fri., May 21	North Wilkesboro Speedway	FOX Sports
Fri., June 11	MillerTech Battery 200 (Pocono Raceway)	FOX Sports
Sat., July 17	EchoPark Speedway	FOX Sports
Thu., Aug. 12	Bristol Motor Speedway	FOX Sports
Sun., Sep. 5	Canadian Tire Motorsport Park	FOX Sports
Sat., Sept. 25	EJP 175 (New Hampshire Motor Speedway)	FOX Sports
Fri., Oct. 1	Kansas Speedway	FOX Sports
Fri., Oct. 22	Phoenix Raceway	FOX Sports
Fri., Oct. 29	Talladega Superspeedway	FOX Sports
Fri., Nov. 5	Martinsville Speedway	FOX Sports
Fri., Nov. 12	Homestead-Miami Speedway	FOX Sports

Posted on August 19, 2026August 20, 2026 by Staff Report

Editor’s Note: John Hunter Nemechek will run the No. 40 this weekend in New Hampshire in honor of Legacy Motor Club sponsor Dollar Tree’s 40th anniversary.

The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series next trek to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for a New England doubleheader. For the Cup Series, the contest will be the penultimate event before the 2026 Chase field is cemented. The Truck Series, meanwhile, will set its postseason field after this weekend’s New Hampshire race. See qualifying orders for both series this weekend.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Cup Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 11:35 a.m. ET on Saturday, with practice at 10:30 a.m. ET (truTV).

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC
1	51	Cody Ware	34.9
2	10	Ty Dillon	32.6
3	38	Zane Smith	32.4
4	41	Cole Custer	30.2
5	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	29.8
6	16	AJ Allmendinger	29.7
7	77	Carson Hocevar	29.2
8	88	Connor Zilisch #	28.0
9	34	Todd Gilliland	27.9
10	71	Michael McDowell	25.9
11	33	Austin Hill	25.4
12	43	Erik Jones	24.9
13	35	Riley Herbst	24.6
14	6	Brad Keselowski	23.9
15	40	John Hunter Nemechek	23.8
16	4	Noah Gragson	22.2
17	3	Austin Dillon	20.8
18	23	Bubba Wallace	18.2
19	17	Chris Buescher	17.7
20	60	Ryan Preece	17.0
21	48	Alex Bowman	15.7
22	7	Daniel Suárez	15.1
23	21	Josh Berry	14.6
24	97	Shane van Gisbergen	14.6
25	1	Ross Chastain	13.8
26	54	Ty Gibbs	11.4
27	24	William Byron	9.9
28	12	Ryan Blaney	9.7
29	45	Tyler Reddick	8.9
30	20	Christopher Bell	7.0
31	2	Austin Cindric	6.6
32	5	Kyle Larson	6.6
33	9	Chase Elliott	5.3
34	22	Joey Logano	3.4
35	11	Denny Hamlin	3.1
36	19	Chase Briscoe	2.9

Craftsman Truck Series
Single-truck qualifying will occur at 5:05 p.m. ET on Friday, with practice at 4 p.m. ET.

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC
1	74	Dawson Cram	40.0
1	72	Michael Christopher Jr.	58.7
2	69	Derek White (i)	42.8
3	27	Dawson Sutton	40.4
4	93	D.L. Wilson	40.1
5	71	Connor Zilisch (i)	39.2
6	2	Luke Baldwin	34.7
7	56	Timmy Hill	33.9
8	76	Spencer Boyd	33.1
9	81	Kris Wright	30.4
10	52	Stewart Friesen	30.3
11	33	Frankie Muniz	30.0
12	25	Colin Braun	29.9
13	4	Connor Hall	29.2
14	14	Mini Tyrell	28.7
15	20	Mason Massey	28.6
16	22	Patrick Emerling	26.7
17	26	Toni Breidinger	26.0
18	16	Justin Haley	25.5
19	13	Cole Butcher	23.5
20	44	Andrés Pérez	22.1
21	10	Corey LaJoie	21.9
22	12	Brenden Queen	19.7
23	42	Parker Eatmon	18.1
24	99	Ben Rhodes	16.5
25	88	Ty Majeski	16.3
26	15	Tanner Gray	15.4
27	62	Christopher Bell (i)	15.2
28	18	Tyler Ankrum	12.5
29	45	Landen Lewis	12.2
30	19	Daniel Hemric	11.5
31	34	Layne Riggs	10.8
32	1	Gavan Boschele	9.9
33	98	Jake Garcia	9.6
34	17	Gio Ruggiero	8.4
35	77	Tristan McKee	8.3
36	9	Grant Enfinger	7.1
37	38	Chandler Smith	6.1
38	5	John Hunter Nemechek (i)	5.6
39	91	Christian Eckes	3.9
40	7	Connor Mosack	3.7
41	11	Kaden Honeycutt	1.3

* Required to qualify on time
# denotes series rookie
(i) denotes ineligible for driver points

Mohegan Sun 100

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Mohegan Sun 100

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

MUST START

DRIVERS TO AVOID

SLEEPERS OF THE WEEK

FEATURED MATCHUPS

MY LINEUP

36 FOR 36

Who’s locked in

Who’s safe

Who has work to do

NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Aug. 19: Truck Series heads north of the border for first time since 2019

Aug. 19: Two Heartland trips on tap in 2027

Aug. 18: ‘Tricky Triangle’ trip on tap for June

Aug. 18: Chicagoland returns to NASCAR calendar for second straight season

Aug. 18: Homestead-Miami Speedway confirms return as season-finale host in ’27

Aug. 13: Richmond rolls into Chase as Cup, O’Reilly Series postseason openers

Aug. 13: World Wide Technology Raceway shifts to mid-August date

Aug. 12: ‘Monster Mile’ goes back to being a points race

Aug. 12: All-Star Race returns to North Wilkesboro

Aug. 11: More in store for Martinsville Speedway in 2027

Aug. 11: Double dates due up for Darlington, including 2027 regular-season finale

Aug. 10: Las Vegas doubles down with early test, Chase date in 2027

Aug. 6: Star-spangled return to Iowa set for July 4 weekend

Aug. 6: Talladega two-fer on tap for NASCAR in 2027

Aug. 6: New Hampshire returns to Chase rotation next season

Aug. 6: Traditional dog days of August beckon for Bristol Night Race in 2027

Aug. 5: Chase return, IndyCar combo part of Phoenix’s packed 2027 slate

Aug. 5: Two Lone Star State trips set for 2027 as COTA, Texas return

Aug. 4: Two race weekends on tap for EchoPark Speedway in 2027

Aug. 4: Clash returning to Daytona Speedweeks with new title sponsor

July 23: Craftsman Truck Series returning to St. Petersburg

May 7: Watkins Glen moving into The Chase

February 9: Homestead expected to retain championship weekend

NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series