Beginning of NASCAR The season is always a great time. No disrespect to the snowy showdown a week ago, I’m talking about the actual start of the actual Cup Series season when the green flag is thrown on the 68th edition of the Great American Race this Sunday.
Let’s hope this is the great American reset button.
The best part of every season start is looking around the sunny Daytona starting grid and seeing every uniform, every pit box and every car shining. As Rusty Wallace once said, “The Daytona 500 prerace is the happiest and cleanest place on the planet. And that lasts about a lap.” Because then begins all those rubs and pit stops and rain delays and fuses being lit and fist fights that spend the next nine months blotting out sweat and oil stains, with a little bit of blood and champagne mixed in.
However, it’s hard for this old press-box mind to recall a more eagerly shared desire among every inhabitant of a NASCAR garage to use this year’s first official green flag as a washcloth, wiping away an offseason of anxiety that everyone is equally eager to forget and move on from.
That’s why this season, more than any in recent memory – or, well, any memory – feels like a momentous year for NASCAR. The chance to bring back the good vibes and perhaps restore the trust lost between the grandstands and the people they pay good money to watch compete at 200 mph, and that starts with mending the fences between those fans and the people who govern them.
For some perspective, just think about what this game was like when the final checkered flag showed up at the 2025 season finale in Phoenix, barely 100 days ago, versus what it will be like when racing resumes this weekend.
Last time, team charters were not permanent. Last time, everyone was just speculating about the outcome of the antitrust case that had been going on for almost two years and was still a month away, denny hamlin And with Michael Jordan’s 23XI taking over the sanctioning body to work on those charters, most people were hoping for a solution before it all came crashing down in court. Last fall, we had yet to read the text NASCAR officials called ownership of their teams royalty, which included several unflattering comments as well as one silly comment. Last fall, NASCAR still had a commissioner in Steve Phelps. Last fall, the decade-old postseason elimination playoff format was still in existence. In hindsight, Hamlin’s father Dennis was mostly known among fans only for his role as paternal inspiration, fighting poor health to publicly support his son’s down-to-earth battle to once again win a Cup championship.
Last time, Greg Biffle was still alive.
Now, our friends Biff, his family and a beloved member of the Garage family are gone. Team charters are now truly permanent. That settlement actually happened, but after such a terrible court battle, Phelps is no longer in the game. The sentiments of many people were hurt in and around that courtroom And still are. After days, Hamlin lost his father in a house fire. Since Hamlin himself had suffered a shoulder injury. But now Denny Hamlin shows no signs of losing the drive that forced NASCAR to court as he prepares to make another run at that elusive championship. His upcoming campaign already looks like a journey of revenge. The playoffs are over and the chase format is backDue in no small part to the efforts hamlin’s heartbreak.
And we haven’t even mentioned Charlotte leaving the Roval, North Wilkesboro Speedway, to host a regular season Cup race for the first time since 1996, or Homestead-Miami Speedway returning to its old spot at the end of the season, even if temporarily. Or that the Xfinity Series is now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. or that Connor Zylisch Heading to the Cup and swapping numbers with new Trackhouse Racing teammate shane van gisbergento replace Daniel SuarezJoe moves to Spire Motorsports. There is also going to be an increase in horsepower in 20 of the 38 Cup races, mostly shorter tracks and road courses. And speaking of road courses, a 16-turn, 3.4-mile event will come to San Diego’s Naval Base Coronado in June, with racecars weaving between aircraft carrier docks and fighter jet tarmacs.
All this comes as another garage generational shift begins to feel imminent. Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, kyle buscheven Joey Logano – all future NASCAR Hall of Famers – are much closer to the end of their careers than the beginning. Meanwhile, two-time defending Daytona 500 winner William Byron Still to reach 30. Zilisch is 19 years old!
There’s a lot to keep track of, but thankfully it covers most of the track. No ill-advised lessons. No billable hours. There is no outcry over artificial scoring systems, nor are there any committee meetings to discuss whether or not to reform those systems.
Jim France, NASCAR president and the uncomfortable face of the sanctioning body’s antitrust battle, said it best in December, as he stood beside Jordan, who had just dunked on France behind him on the court as if France was a thick-thighed center who had been caught flatfooted on the court somewhere else.
Said France, a man who doesn’t like to speak publicly but is now speaking on behalf of the entire NASCAR public: “We can focus on what we really love. And that’s racing.”
No one knows how good the racing will be in 2026. Honestly, when we all descend upon the World Center of Racing in the coming days, it won’t feel like anyone cares. They’re willing to take on any kind of race, desperate to take advantage of that “happiest place on the planet” feeling in the hopes of feeling clean again, even if just for that first trip.
Is NASCAR back? This is a big question and we will not be able to answer it until at least nine months later. But NASCAR racing is actually back under some new management and with a significant new title format.
A green flag is the washcloth reset button that couldn’t get here fast enough.
