When NASCAR introduced the Cup Series charter system ahead of the 2016 season, a new limitation of 40 cars was placed on all races. The limit had previously been 43, and prior to 2016, you have to go all the way back to 2001 to find a race in which there were not 43 cars.
But only 36 charters were issued, so each race was only guaranteed to have 36 cars. That wasn't a problem in 2016 or 2017, but in 2018, one race was run with exclusively chartered entries and no non-chartered (open) cars. In 2019, that number increased to four, but it dipped back to zero for 2020 and 2021.
But for 2022, year number one of the Next Gen era, a whopping 22 races saw only 36 cars. And in 2023, that number jumped to 23. In 2024, it dipped to eight, and the season's final 12 races all featured at least one open car.
Through the first four races of the 2025 season, there has always been at least one open car on the entry list. But for the first time since the race at Michigan International Speedway last August, there are no open cars on the entry list for this coming Sunday afternoon's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It ends a 16-race streak of NASCAR Cup Series races featuring more than 36 cars.
The previous long streak during the Next Gen era was only five (twice). And before 2024, no more than three straight races had been run with more than 36 cars in the Next Gen era.
The only open car that appeared at Phoenix Raceway this past weekend, the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, is not on the entry for the 267-lap Pennzoil 400 around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Las Vegas, Nevada oval, and no other open cars took its place. Katherine Legge made her Cup debut in the car at Phoenix.
Prior to the charter era, no Cup Series race had featured only 36 cars since the race at Martinsville Speedway in September 1996. No race has featured fewer than 36 cars since the race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in October 1993.
Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 16 for the live broadcast of the Pennzoil 400 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If you have not yet started a free trial of FuboTV, now would be a great time to do so!