There are less than four weeks remaining until the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to get underway with the 68th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, and the entry list for that race is slowly but surely coming together.
Four non-chartered (open) cars have been confirmed, though with one of them, Jimmie Johnson's No 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota, being locked into the race via the Open Exemption Provisional, there are effectively three cars confirmed to be in the battle for the four open spots.
Those cars include Justin Allgaier's No. 40 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Casey Mears' No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, and B.J. McLeod's No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet.
Four more are expected to be added to create a seven-car battle for those four spots, with two spots set to be awarded based on single-car qualifying speeds and the other two set to be awarded based on America 250 Florida Duel results, while three drivers ultimately fail to qualify.
Expected additions include the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for Austin Hill, the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet for J.J. Yeley, the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet (driver TBD), and the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota for Corey Heim.
Trackhouse Racing, a three-car team, and Rick Ware Racing, a one-car team, each fielded an extra car in 2025, but neither one is expected to do so again in 2026. Additionally, just like JR Motorsports, Tricon Garage moved up to the Cup Series for the first time in 2025 and ran the Daytona 500, but unlike Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team, they are unlikely to make a second attempt in 2026.
One more team unlikely to make Daytona 500 return in 2026
Another team unlikely to make a Daytona 500 comeback is Team AmeriVet, the team formerly known as The Money Team Racing.
Despite being one of the popular picks to miss the race entirely, Team AmeriVet successfully qualified for the race both times they've attempted it. Kaz Grala pulled off a last lap pass his 2022 Duel race to qualify instead of MBM Motorsports' J.J. Yeley, and Conor Daly overcame a mechanical issue, thanks to carnage in front of him, to qualify via his Duel result in 2023. The 2022 Daytona 500 was the team's first ever Cup Series race.
Team AmeriVet's plans for the 2026 season have not been announced. In total, they have only made nine Cup Series starts, but they have quietly competed in the series on some level for four consecutive years since making their 2022 debut as The Money Team Racing.
Their rebrand from The Money Team Racing to Team AmeriVet took place in 2024, before Ty Dillon ran the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Jeb Burton ran the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
In 2025, their only race came at Martinsville Speedway, where Burt Myers made his Cup Series debut, though Myers did also compete for the team in the preseason exhibition Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
That race is set to be contested this season at the same quarter-mile venue on Sunday, February 1.
Grala and Daly each lead the way with three starts for the team, with Daly being the only driver to compete for them across two seasons (one start in 2022, two in 2023).
Daytona 500 qualifying is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 (time TBD) from Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday, February 11. The two America 250 Florida Duel races are set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, Febraury 12, and the 68th running of the Daytona 500 itself is set to be shown live on Fox beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 15.