The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule expands to 38 races running February through November and includes two off weekends. A new San Diego street course on a military base in Coronado is added and Chicagoland Speedway reopens in suburban Joliet after a six-year hiatus. The All-Star race moves to Dover so North Wilkesboro becomes a points-paying Cup race. The season finale returns to Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 8, with Phoenix moved to a different playoff date and the finale expected to rotate among venues. Watkins Glen shifts to Mother's Day weekend and New Hampshire becomes the regular-season penultimate race.
NASCAR in 2026 will race on a new street course in San Diego, return Chicagoland Speedway to the schedule, move the All-Star race to Dover, Delaware, and end its 38-race season back at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The schedule released Wednesday includes two off weekends on a calendar that stretches from February to November. It begins with the exhibition Clash on Feb. 1 at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem for the second consecutive year, with the season-opening Daytona 500 to follow on Feb. 15.
The season ends Nov. 8 in Florida at Homestead, which hosted the championship-deciding finale for 18 consecutive years before NASCAR shifted it to Phoenix Raceway in 2020. The race at Phoenix was given a different date in the playoffs and NASCAR is expected to rotate the season finale to various venues in ensuing years. Chicagoland is reopening after a six-year hiatus and a switch back to the track located in suburban Joliet after three seasons on a temporary street circuit in downtown Chicago.
The San Diego event will be held on a military base in Coronado. To add Chicagoland and San Diego, NASCAR dropped the Chicago street race and will not return to Mexico City, where it held the first international Cup Series points race since the 1950s. A return to Mexico City in 2026 became difficult to schedule because of soccer's World Cup.
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