Trackhouse Racing moved on from Daniel Suarez, replacing him with JR Motorsports sensation and Trackhouse development driver Connor Zilisch, following the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
And then Spire Motorsports moved on from Justin Haley, making room for Suarez in their three-car lineup for 2026.
But while those two teams made the necessary and expected changes to improve their respective driver lineups heading into next year, two other teams whiffed on the opportunity to make what would have been massive upgrades.
Two NASCAR teams that could have upgraded for 2026
First and foremost, there's 23XI Racing. Everybody knew when they signed Riley Herbst that they did it for the money he brings from his family's gas station chain through the Monster Energy sponsorship. He was never particularly impressive in the Xfinity Series, despite spending year after year in top-tier equipment, and his 2025 rookie Cup season went exactly as expected.
His best finish of 14th place was the worst best result among the 36 full-time drivers, placing him even below Rick Ware Racing's Cody Ware. He also finished 35th in the point standings, ahead of only Ware, while teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick not only made it to the playoffs but advanced to the second round.
The fact that Corey Heim, 23XI Racing's development driver who entered 2025 with two full seasons of Truck Series experience already, wasn't named the driver of the No. 35 Toyota was seen as a bad decision.
His ensuing 12-win Truck Series championship-winning season further backed that up, as did the fact that he ran four Cup races in a fourth 23XI Racing car, beat Herbst's best finish of the year in two of them, and finished as the highest of the team's four drivers in those same two races.
The fact that Heim was once again not named the driver of the No. 35 Toyota was seen as an even worse decision, and it's even led to the suggestion that he should look to leave Toyota. He's already believed to be blacklisted by Joe Gibbs Racing simply because of his ARCA feuds with Ty Gibbs, so the longer 23XI Racing put off a promotion, the more likely he is to get away.
Then there is Kaulig Racing. One of the great mysteries NASCAR fans can't seem to figure out is how Ty Dillon continues to hop from team to team at the sport's highest level, year after year after year.
No disrespect intended here toward Austin Dillon, who is a Daytona 500 winner, a Coca-Cola 600 winner, and always seems to find himself in or near the playoffs, but Ty is somehow doing it despite not driving for his grandfather's team.
He is always well off the performance of his teammates, and his Las Vegas Motor Speedway crash, in which he took out an innocent bystander (and championship contender) in William Byron, was one of the single-most embarrassing moments of the entire season.
For him to act relieved over team radio that he was put out of his misery because his race was over says everything you need to know and more.
I get the fact that Matt Kaulig's team is primarily focused on their move to the Truck Series; their new five-truck program with Ram Trucks even led to the shutdown of their Xfinity (O'Reilly Auto Parts) Series team.
But they dropped Daniel Hemric after only one full season in 2024, and he performed better than the far more experienced Dillon did in 2025. Surely they could have at least tried to make a change for 2026.
At this point, you sort of have to wonder how invested they really are in their Chevrolet Cup program amid the new Ram Truck deal and rumors that they could be the team to bring Dodge back to Cup in 2028.