Nascar executives and fans alike will be relieved to see the Cup Series season get back underway.
Describing the offseason as tumultuous would be an understatement following several months which included the conclusion of a bruising lawsuit and the resignation of Nascar’s most senior executive from outside the France family.
Now, the hope is that a return to racing will shift attention back to on-track matters for the start of a new era. As the season gets underway, BlackBook Motorsport breaks down the key storylines for 2026.
1. The impact of permanent charters
Last year’s lawsuit was damaging for both Nascar and its teams, but securing permanent charters means it was ultimately worth the risk for 23XI and Front Row.
The development is a huge win for all current Nascar teams, who are likely to see their valuations increase as a result. Shortly after the settlement, Sports Business Journal (SBJ) reported that many executives within the sport believe the value of charters will now top US$50 million.
While it doesn’t appear there will be too much of a financial gain for the teams from a revenue perspective in the short term, the added certainty that comes with permanent charters could attract new investors into the sport.
“It put us on stable ground that next time we’re negotiating, we can’t get told ‘sign it or else,’ so that’s beneficial,” Denny Hamlin said ahead of the Daytona 500, as reported by Motorsport.
“It certainly allows private equity to look at these race teams just like someone would look at Nascar and say ‘okay, that is where I want to put my money in the long term’ because they see growth possibility.
“And there is a lot of possibilities for growth in the sport, both on the team and sport level.”
The deep pockets of National Basketball Association (NBA) legend Michael Jordan allowed his team, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports to absorb the substantial cost of challenging Nascar (Image credit: Getty Images)
2. A Steve Phelps-shaped hole
Just months after being named Nascar’s first ever commissioner in March 2025, Steve Phelps was left with no other choice but to step away from the sport after the release of damaging text messages during the antitrust lawsuit between the series and its rebel teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.
Phelps had his detractors, but few individuals have played as influential a role in how Nascar looks today.
One of his last major contributions was the series’ US$7.7 billion broadcast deal signed in December 2023. In the context of the wider media rights landscape, increasing the annual value of the contract from US$820 million to US$1.1 billion was a financial success.
Phelps also led the sport through the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, ensuring Nascar was the first major US sport to return to competition in the wake of the health crisis.
He also played a central role in the introduction of Nascar’s Next Gen Car, a major technological shift designed to reduce costs for teams and improve competition parity – though fans remain somewhat divided on the overall impact.
The 63-year-old’s departure leaves Nascar president Steve O’Donnell to assume some of Phelps’ responsibilities and establish harmony between the sport’s various stakeholders.
Speaking to The Athletic ahead of the new season, O’Donnell said he was “bullish” about the new season and wants to “put a little fun back into” the sport.
“Not taking advantage of the opportunity we have to grow this sport would really bum me out,” O’Donnell said. “I look at my remaining time here at Nascar, it’s to put people in place to continue to grow the sport and to do my best to bring this industry together and be proud of what we’re building.”
Phelps, who has been with Nascar since 2005, was appointed as the series’ first-ever commissioner in April 2025 and there are no immediate plans to appoint a successor (Image credit: Getty Images)
3. Returning to four premier partners
It flew somewhat under the radar – potentially because a lot of attention was sucked up by the lawsuit – but Nascar finally secured a new premier partner in Freeway Insurance for the 2026 season.
Geico’s departure at the end of the 2024 campaign had left Nascar with three partners in its top sponsorship tier, marking the first time it had fallen below four since its current commercial model was introduced in 2020.
However, the new multi-year agreement with Freeway restores a full complement of premier partners from this year. As part of the deal, Freeway also becomes Nascar’s official insurance partner and will title sponsor the series’ second visit to Phoenix Raceway in 2026.
That has been followed by a renewal of the series’ premier partnership with Coca-Cola North America, which includes the addition of BodyArmor as Nascar’s official sports drink. That activity paints a rosier commercial picture for the organisation, which begins the season with more than 50 official sponsors.
With new chief commercial officer Craig Stimmel now more than a year into the role, finally filling the gap in the premier partnership tier will allow him and his team to potentially turn their attention to driving revenue in other areas.
Freeway Insurance is no stranger to Nascar having sponsored Daniel Suárez for the past five seasons with Trackhouse Racing, and it will move with the Mexican to Spire Motorsports for this year (Image credit: Getty Images)
4. All eyes on viewership
Nascar’s sliding TV audiences have been well documented, and the jury is still out as to whether handing media rights to four broadcast partners will address those challenges.
Average viewership of 2.45 million for the 2025 season represented a disappointing dip of just under 15 per cent year-on-year (YoY), even if Nascar executives maintain that this was an expected outcome.
The playoffs struggled in particular (more on that later) as the postseason averaged 1.87 million viewers, marking the first time in Nascar history that the postseason has averaged fewer than two million viewers.
Interestingly, that drop occurred at a time when all sports saw viewership increase thanks to a change in measurement. For the first time, Nielsen combined insights from its household television viewing panel with big data in order to provide more accurate audience measurements in the streaming era.
Now that audiences have had a year to get used to Nascar’s new broadcast mix, the second season of the partnership will offer a clearer indication of whether the series’ strategy – combined with Nielsen’s new measurement approach – will contribute to an upturn in viewership for the first time since 2022.
5. The evolution of the playoffs
As mentioned, the playoffs did not perform well with audiences in 2025, but this has been a trend with the postseason format for many years. A change was needed, and it came in the form of the Chase, which is both new but familiar.
There is an argument that this evolution wasn’t drastic enough, but it was always unlikely that Nascar would do away with its regular season and postseason competition format.
In defence of the Chase, it is much more likely to crown a deserving champion than the pot-luck lottery that had come to define the championship finale. One only needs to look at how Denny Hamlin’s race unfolded in Phoenix to see why the old playoff format was bad for fair competition.
But this is perhaps an example of Nascar going too far in trying to present the sport as an entertainment proposition. A step back towards a more sporting concept should have a positive impact on both avid fans and drivers.
What remains to be seen is whether this incentivises viewers to return for the duration of the ten-race Chase, especially since it clashes with the National Football League (NFL) regular season.
6. The rise of Formula One
While Nascar navigates a period of uncertainty, Formula One has been going from strength to strength in the US in recent years.
The series has seen its audience expand from just over 500,000 viewers per race in 2018 to 1.32 million last season. Considering Formula One is a global series rather than US-focused like Nascar, the audience growth is impressive.
That has been aided by its annual visits to Austin, Las Vegas and Miami, which mean Formula One visits the US more than any other country. The series averages 1.73 million viewers across those three races specifically, which could be cause for concern for Nascar.
Indeed, that is the smallest audience gap ever between Nascar and Formula One, but it is still too early to say that the championship is a genuine threat to North America’s most popular form of motorsport. The stock car series’ audience may be falling, but it remains on average one million viewers higher per race than that of Formula One.
Plus, Formula One is entering unchartered territory this season through its new media rights deal with Apple. The impressive audience growth since 2018 was achieved with sports broadcasting giant ESPN, and it remains to be seen if this fanbase will follow it onto a streaming platform which doesn’t have the same reach as the Disney-owned network.
The value of the respective contracts also remains weighted in Nascar’s favour. Formula One’s five-year broadcast deal with Apple is estimated to be worth around US$750 million, according to the BBC, which comes in far below the annual US$1.1 billion fee Nascar receives from its various media rights partners.
But the gap in popularity is certainly closing, and Nascar will want to ensure that its off-track turbulence does not give Formula One an opportunity to make further inroads.
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