The entry list for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 has slowly but surely been coming together over the offseason, with four non-chartered (open) cars having been confirmed to bring the car count to 40 as we inch closer the one-month countdown.
This year's running of the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval is set to feature a 41-car field rather than a 40-car field, as the world-class provisional has been granted to Legacy Motor Club's Jimmie Johnson.
Unlike in 2025, when the same provisional was granted to Trackhouse Racing's Helio Castroneves, Johnson is committed to using the provisional to qualify, meaning he is ineligible for any of the four open spots designed for the non-chartered cars. His No. 84 Toyota is effectively being treated as a 37th chartered car as it pertains to being locked into the starting lineup.
Castroneves, on the other hand, had that opportunity, which would have kept the field at 40 cars, but he was unable to lock in on speed or his Duel result, so he was added as a 41st driver. Two drivers got in on speed, and two more got in on Duel result, as it set to be the case yet again in 2026.
There are still several other cars, four to be exact, expected to join 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 in the battle for the four open spots.
But one team that successfully locked up one of those spots in 2025 is unlikely to be back next month.
One NASCAR team unlikely to return to Daytona 500
Tricon Garage, which compete full-time in the Truck Series, made their Cup Series debut with 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr. behind the wheel of the No. 56 Toyota in the 2025 Daytona 500. Truex had initially planned on running a partial schedule (primarily in the Xfinity Series) throughout the rest of the year, but the Daytona 500 ended up being his only appearance.
He is not expected to return this year, and with Corey Heim expected to run a fourth 23XI Racing entry in next month's running of the "Great American Race", rather than Tricon Garage, the team with which he recorded a 12-win championship winning Truck Series season in 2025, Tricon Garage are not expected to be back.
Aside from Heim's No. 67 Toyota, expected additions to this year's Daytona 500 entry list include the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for Austin Hill, the No. 44 NY Racing Chevrolet, and the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet.
Also not expected back on this year's entry list are the No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, driven in 2025 by Castroneves, and the No. 01 Rick Ware Racing Ford, driven in 2025 by Corey LaJoie. Trackhouse Racing still run three cars full-time, and Rick Ware Racing still run one.
The 41-car Daytona 500 starting lineup is set to be determined over two days in February, first with the single-car qualifying session on Wednesday, February 11, and then with the two America 250 Florida Duel races on Thursday, February 12. Fox is set to provide live coverage of the race itself from the "World Center of Racing" beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 15.