The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule was released back in August 2025, and two tracks on the 2025 schedule were replaced, one of which by a new addition and another by a track that hasn't hosted a race in seven years.
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was removed from the calendar after just one season, but NASCAR replaced it with a brand-new street race at Naval Base Coronado. That race weekend hasn't changed; the event is still set to be contested on Father's Day in June.
NASCAR's original street circuit, however, was removed. After three seasons, the Chicago Street Course was replaced by Chicagoland Speedway, which most recently hosted a Cup Series race in 2019. It was scheduled to do so again in 2020 but was unable to do so after a number of COVID-19 restriction-related changes were made to the calendar.
Now a third track, and another non-oval at that, appears to be a thing of the past.
From 1960 to 2017, Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted two races per year, with the only exception being 1961 when it hosted four. But in 2018, NASCAR shifted the Concord, North Carolina venue's playoff race to the track's interior road course, known as the "Roval".
The Roval has been on the schedule ever since. The oval did host two races in 2020, but that was because of the aforementioned COVID-19 restriction-related changes; it hasn't actually been scheduled to host two races since 2017.
But that has changed in 2026, as the oval is reportedly set to replace the Roval in October.
NEWS: Charlotte NASCAR playoff race to shift off the Roval and will return to the oval beginning this season, sources tell @TheAthletic. https://t.co/MtkGDipxxz
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) January 26, 2026
The change follows NASCAR's decision to scrap the four-round, 10-race playoff format that had been in place since 2014. The postseason, once again known as the Chase for the first time since 2013, is now set to feature 10 oval races and no road course events.
After the 2025 schedule featured five road courses and a street course, the 2026 schedule is set to feature just three road courses – Circuit of the Americas, Watkins Glen International, and Sonoma Raceway – and a new street course.
Four non-oval races is the fewest since there were just two, one at the Charlotte Roval and the other at the Daytona International Speedway road course, in 2020. When the Charlotte Roval was initially added to the schedule in 2018, it joined a schedule that featured only two non-oval races at Watkins Glen and Sonoma,
The 36-race 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, February 15 with the 68th annual Daytona 500, which is set to be shown live on Fox from Daytona International Speedway starting at 2:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action from the "World Center of Racing"!