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NASCAR cup series

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The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States and owner of 14 of the nation’s major motorsports entertainment facilities. NASCAR sanctions races in three national series (NASCAR Cup Series™, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series™, and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series™), four international series (NASCAR Brasil Series, NASCAR Canada Series, NASCAR Euro Series, NASCAR Mexico Series), four regional series (ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East & West and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour) and a local grassroots series (NASCAR Local Racing Series Powered by O’Reilly Auto Parts). The International Motor Sports Association™ (IMSA®) governs the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship™, the premier U.S. sports car series. NASCAR also owns Motor Racing Network, Racing Electronics, and ONE DAYTONA. Based in Daytona Beach, Florida, with offices in five cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races annually in 11 countries and more than 30 U.S. states.

NASCAR Cup youth movement makes its mark at the Brickyard

July 27, 2026

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Corey Heim and Carson Hocevar are on a collision course—figuratively speaking, that is.

Both drivers made impressive statements this past weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hocevar, 23, won the pole for the Brickyard 400 and held the lead in the race until the first round of green-flag pit stops.

Heim, who turned 24 on July 5, grabbed the top spot after a restart on Lap 27 and kept veterans Christopher Bell and Joey Logano at bay for the final 34 laps.

Heim is the youngest winner of the Crown Jewel race since Jeff Gordon took the checkered flag in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway two days after turning 23 in 1994.

Indeed, Heim and Hocevar are emblematic of a younger generation in NASCAR racing, a group of 20-something drivers already making a mark in the sport and ready to do battle against each other.

All three first-time winners this season—Heim, Hocevar and Ty Gibbs—got their maiden victories when they were 23 years old, the first time in Cup history that three or more drivers that young accomplished the feat.

Gibbs, too, was a presence at Indianapolis, leading 46 laps and winning the first stage before finishing 12th.

But the focus was on Heim and Hocevar, who have a history dating to the Championship 4 Race in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series in 2023, when both drivers were fighting for the title and wrecked each other in the process.

Nor could the drivers avoid a certain degree of controversy in the Brickyard 400. In the second stage, Hocevar steered his car to pit road on Lap 82. He returned to the track right behind the Toyota of Heim, who was leading at the time and running long.

For 10 frustrating laps, Heim kept Hocevar in his wake. When Heim finally ducked onto pit road on Lap 92, Hocevar steered toward him and expressed his displeasure with a one-finger salute.

“I’m just a fan—I wanted to wave at him,” Hocevar quipped after the race. “He’s number one. He won. It’s fun… if we don’t like each other, but we race really hard. His stuff’s super-fast, obviously, with the car he’s in. He does a really, really good job with it.

“I’m looking forward to, when we get our stuff a little better, being in front of him and maybe holding him up.”

Hocevar is an imposing 6-foot-4, and he possesses a megawatt smile that can light up a room. He revels in the unusual and outlandish—witness his outside-the-car victory celebration at Talladega—and has developed a huge social media following eager to jump to his defense during online spats with other drivers.

Hocevar is undeniably aggressive on the race track. His 27 incidents involving 30 different Cup drivers this season are tops in the series.

Heim, on the other hand, is more laid back, but at every level of motorsports he is used to winning. His single-season series-record 12 victories propelled him to the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series title last year as he waited for a full-time Cup ride with 23XI Racing—a career goal that won’t be met until next season.

Nevertheless, Heim wasn’t about to let the byplay with Hocevar on Sunday go unaddressed.

“I was blocking him, not really too bad I thought,” Heim said. “I was trying to just hold my position. I never threw like a bad block. I was just trying to protect my entry. He didn't like it. He lost and I won, so I don't really care.”

Indeed. Heim defied the odds in winning for a second time in a part-time role with 23XI. He also seems to have a penchant for major events, with his first victory coming in the inaugural street course race at Naval Base Coronado, where Hocevar also qualified on the front row before finishing 19th.

In a sport that craves rivalries, Heim and Hocevar were front and center on Sunday, and you don’t need a crystal ball to see the future of NASCAR racing.

It was right before your eyes at the Brickyard.

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NASCAR Weekend Preview: Iowa Speedway

After week off, William Byron heads to Iowa Speedway with confidence

In a season of struggle, and with the Chase approaching, William Byron could use a turnaround—and Iowa Speedway may be the perfect place to find it.

After a rare week off, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the 0.875-mile short track for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (3:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Byron is the defending race winner, but after six straight seasons of at least one victory, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has yet to post a win this year.

Iowa Speedway might just be the ideal place for Byron to end the dry spell, which has reached 23 races. In 2016, he won there in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.

The following year, he picked up his first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory at the Newton, Iowa, track that was the brainchild of leading designer and NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace.

In 22 races this season, Byron has posted just five top fives and nine top 10s. The 28-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., is 12th in the Cup Series standings, a relatively comfortable 88 points above the current cut line for the Chase, with the next four races providing an opportunity to improve that position.

“Iowa is just a track that has always clicked for me and that I really love,” Byron said. “I’ve had success there in all three series, and last year’s win really felt great to complete the sweep.

“I think having the off time, and this being the next track we go to, really gives our team confidence of what we can accomplish. I’m looking forward to it.”

Sunday’s race is the fourth of seven short track contests this season. Byron is the only driver to have won twice in the last 10 short-track races (Iowa and Martinsville last year), but the last six short-track races have been won by six different drivers.

In the two Cup races held at Iowa, five drivers have finished in the top 10 in both events—Byron, who was second in 2024; Ryan Blaney, the winner in 2024; Brad Keselowski; Alex Bowman; and Joey Logano.

Blaney, who was fourth last year, boasts the best average running position at Iowa of 3.9, with Byron second at 5.6. Blaney and Byron each led the most laps in their respective victories, Blaney with 201 of 350 in 2024, and Byron with 141 of 350 last year.

Kyle Larson is another driver who could use a turnaround at Iowa, but in order to break his 46-race winless streak, he’ll have to make a quantum improvement at the track. Larson’s average finish there is a dismal 31.0.

Among the top three drivers in the standings, third-place Blaney holds a decided edge over series leader Denny Hamlin and second-place Tyler Reddick. Hamlin finished 24th in both Iowa races. Reddick, who trails Hamlin by 84 points, posted respective results of 22nd and 19th.

Blaney is 120 points behind Hamlin as the Cup Series heads to Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire and Daytona to complete the regular season.

After a recent review following the NASCAR weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in late July, all three NASCAR Series will race under new stage break procedures for the rest of the season.

If a caution falls within 10 or fewer laps prior to the advertised end of Stage 1 or Stage 2, the stage will be deemed official at the time of caution. The leader will return to the start/finish line to receive the green/checkered flag along with the yellow. The caution process that follows will serve as the stage break.

The finishing order of the stage, with the top 10 scoring points, will be determined using all available resources, just as it is whenever points are paid.

Two-time defending champ Sam Mayer seeks first 2026 win at Iowa

NASCAR Cup Series drivers have raced at Iowa Speedway only twice. For the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, however, Iowa is familiar territory.

The latter series will race at the 0.875-mile short track for the 23rd time in Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 (5 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

After a four-year absence, the O’Reilly Series returned to the short track in Newton, Iowa, in 2024. Sam Mayer won that race and successfully defended his victory last year, giving him a 100-percent success rate at the track.

That puts Mayer in an elite group of drivers in the series who have “batted 1.000” in multiple starts at a particular venue. Christopher Bell triumphed in all four of his New Hampshire starts, and Connor Zilisch has won all three times he has raced at Watkins Glen.

Other drivers who, like Mayer, have gone 2-0 at a particular track are Shane van Gisbergen at the Chicago Street Course and Chandler Smith at Richmond.

Like William Byron in the NASCAR Cup Series, Mayer is winless this season coming to Iowa as the defending winner. His victory last year was the first for the newly formed Haas Factory team. In 2024, he took the checkered flag in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

Mayer and Justin Allgaier (2018) are the only former Iowa winners in the field for Saturday’s race. Allgaier already has clinched top seeding in the Chase, which begins Sept. 5 at Darlington Raceway after events at Iowa and Daytona International Speedway.

Allgaier may have locked up the regular-season title, but the race for the final Chase spots is very much in doubt. Three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers surround the current cut line, with Brent Crews and Taylor Gray 11th and 12th in the standings and William Sawalich (13th) the first driver out.

Sawalich trails Gray by seven points, with JR Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth 20 points back in 14th. Caruth, however, returns to his preferred No. 88 JRM ride for the rest of the season after driving the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet for the last time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"I'm really happy to get back with (crew chief) Mardy (Lindley) and everyone on the No. 88 team for the rest of the season,” Caruth said. “I haven't raced at Iowa since the repave (before the 2024 race), so it'll definitely be a different challenge than the last time I was there.

“The track has changed quite a bit, so we'll spend practice learning what it wants and making sure we're ready for the race. We've had speed on tracks like this all season, and if we can execute all day, I think we'll have a good shot at a strong finish and gaining some ground in the points.”

--30--

nascar cup series

NASCAR Cup Series schedule 2026

(All times Eastern)

Date	Race	Track	Time
Feb. 1	Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray	Bowman Gray Stadium	8 p.m.
Feb. 12	Duel 1 at Daytona	Daytona International Speedway	7 p.m.
Feb. 12	Duel 2 at Daytona	Daytona International Speedway	8:45 p.m.
Feb. 15	Daytona 500	Daytona International Speedway	2:30 p.m.
Feb. 22	Autotrader 400	EchoPark Speedway	3 p.m.
March 1	DuraMax Grand Prix	Circuit of the Americas	3:30 p.m.
March 8	Straight Talk Wireless 500	Phoenix Raceway	3:30 p.m.
March 15	Pennzoil 400	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	4 p.m.
March 22	Goodyear 400	Darlington Raceway	3 p.m.
March 29	Cook Out 400	Martinsville Speedway	3:30 p.m.
April 12	Food City 500	Bristol Motor Speedway	3 p.m.
April 19	AdventHealth 400	Kansas Speedway	2 p.m.
April 26	Jack Link's 500	Talladega Superspeedway	3 p.m.
May 3	Wurth 400	Texas Motor Speedway	3:30 p.m.
May 10	Go Bowling at the Glen	Watkins Glen International	3 p.m.
May 17	All-Star Race	Dover Motor Speedway	3 p.m.
May 24	Coca-Cola 600	Charlotte Motor Speedway	6 p.m.
May 31	Cracker Barrel 400	Nashville Superspeedway	7 p.m.
June 7	FireKeepers Casino 400	Michigan International Speedway	3 p.m.
June 14	Cup Series race at Pocono	Pocono Raceway	3 p.m.
June 21	Anduril 250	Naval Base Coronado	4 p.m.
June 28	Toyota/Save Mart 350	Sonoma Raceway	3:30 p.m.
July 5	Cup Series race at Chicagoland	Chicagoland Speedway	6 p.m.
July 12	Quaker State 400	EchoPark Speedway	7 p.m.
July 19	Window World 400	North Wilkesboro Speedway	7 p.m.
July 26	Brickyard 400	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	2 p.m.
Aug. 9	Iowa Corn 350	Iowa Speedway	3:30 p.m.
Aug. 15	Cook Out 400	Richmond Raceway	7 p.m.
Aug. 23	Cup Series race at New Hampshire	New Hampshire Motor Speedway	3 p.m.
Aug. 29	Coke Zero Sugar 400	Daytona International Speedway	7:30 p.m.

NASCAR Cup Series playoff race schedule 2026

(All times Eastern)

Date	Race	Track	Time
Sept. 6	Southern 500	Darlington Raceway	5 p.m.
Sept. 13	Enjoy Illinois 300	World Wide Technology Raceway	3 p.m.
Sept. 19	Bass Pro Shops Night Race	Bristol Motor Speedway	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 27	Hollywood Casino 400	Kansas Speedway	3 p.m.
Oct. 4	South Point 400	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	5:30 p.m.
Oct. 11	Bank of America ROVAL 400	Charlotte Road Course	3 p.m.
Oct. 18	Freeway Insurance 500	Phoenix Raceway	3 p.m.
Oct. 25	Yellawood 500	Talladega Superspeedway	2 p.m.
Nov. 1	Xfinity 500	Martinsville Speedway	2 p.m.
Nov. 8	Cup Series Championship Race	Homestead-Miami Speedway	3 p.m.

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