The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is the series' 77th season, and in the first 76 years, there was never a race in which every single driver entered was a full-time driver.
That changed this past March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in what was the first race of the 2025 season to feature only the 36 chartered cars.
With the 2025 season marking the first time since the charter era began (2016) in which all chartered cars are driven by full-time drivers, that race became the first race ever to feature exclusively full-time drivers.
It's only happened once since, that being at Michigan International Speedway back in early June, but it's set to happen again this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Only full-time NASCAR drivers to run Gateway playoff race
Neither the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet nor the No. 66 Garage 66 (MBM Motorsports) Ford, which were driven at Darlington Raceway this past Sunday by Derek Kraus and Timmy Hill, respectively, will compete in Sunday's 240-lap Enjoy Illinois 300 around the four-turn, 1.25-mile (2.012-kilometer) Madison, Illinois oval, and no other part-time non-chartered (open) entries are on the entry list.
Through the first 27 races of the season, only one full-time driver has missed a race. Denny Hamlin missed the June race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico after the birth of his third child, and he was unsurprisingly granted a playoff waiver so that his four wins, tied for the series lead, kept him eligible to compete in the postseason.
Ryan Truex filled in for him behind the wheel of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that weekend.
Tune in to USA Network at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, September 7 and don't miss live coverage of the Enjoy Illinois 300 from World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. If you have not yet had the opportunity to begin a free trial of FuboTV, do so now and don't miss the second race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs!