Daytona 500 NASCAR
The DAYTONA 500 is coming up, the race will be on Sunaday Feburary 15, 2026, at 2:30 PM. This marks the season opener at the Daytona 500, which officially marks the season as begun. There have been many changes to the rules and regulations for how the playoffs will work this year, where the last race of the season will take place, and who will become this year’s NASCAR Champion. One of the changes is the horsepower of the cars; they increased the horsepower to 750 hp for short tracks, road courses, the new San Diego street race, and a return to the Chicagoland street race and the championship finale, moving to Homestead-Miami. The other changes are to the Championship and race format. The original playoff format returns “The Chase”; this means the playoffs will be a 10-format race, where all 16 playoff drivers qualify based on regular-season points rather than just winning a race. The points structure also changes, so that the race winners receive 55 points, and bankable playoff points are removed. Also, not really a change but a continuation of the in-season challenge will continue this year (formerly named as In-Season Tournament), with the finale for the in-season challenge to be the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (The Brickyard 400). So, those are the changes and what’s to be expected for this year’s NASCAR Season for 2026, while we wait impatiently for the days to be counted and marked off as the days get closer to the season opener of the NASCAR season with the DAYTONA 500.
