With Ty Dillon having been viewed as merely "expected" to return to Kaulig Racing's NASCAR Cup Series team for 2026 after recording only a single top 10 finish in his first year behind the wheel of the No. 10 Chevrolet, compared to teammate A.J. Allmendinger's seven, there were rumors that his seat might not be safe.
But with Matt Kaulig's team focusing primarily on their new five-truck Truck Series program with Ram Trucks, even shutting down their Xfinity (O'Reilly Auto Parts) Series team to make it happen, a change at the Cup level was not particularly likely, even after the season Dillon had, and specifically his embarrassing incident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Now it has been confirmed that Dillon is indeed set to return to the No. 10 Chevrolet in 2026, and with sponsorship from Jacksonville, Florida-based frozen seafood company Sea Best, which has been his sponsor going back to his 2024 season when he competed part-time for the team.
Ty Dillon returning means only one new driver for 2026
There was one upside to Dillon's 2025 season, aside from the fact that he recorded just his second top 10 finish since 2020, and it's the fact that that result, an eighth place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway, launched a surprising charge to the championship round of NASCAR's inaugural In-Season Challenge.
Dillon took advantage of favorable head-to-head matchups and finished second in the 32-driver tournament despite posting an average finish of 21.25 during the rest of the challenge and finishing no higher than 17th over that four-race stretch.
What Kaulig Racing's confirmation of Dillon also does is solidify the fact that the Cup Series is only set to have one new full-time driver in 2026, and that driver is Connor Zilisch.
Zilisch was unsurprisingly tabbed to replace Daniel Suarez at Trackhouse Racing. Suarez spent the past five seasons behind the wheel of the No. 99 Chevrolet, though Zilisch is set to use the No. 88, with Shane van Gisbergen set to use the No. 97 after using the No. 88 as a rookie in 2025.
Suarez is set to move to Spire Motorsports to replace Justin Haley behind the wheel of the No. 7 Chevrolet. With none of the other Hull-time seats set to change hands, Haley is the only of the 36 drivers who competed full-time during the 2025 Cup Series season but is not set to return in 2026.
Haley is one of three drivers confirmed by Kaulig Racing to be a part of their full-time 2026 Truck Series lineup. The other two are Daniel Dye and Brenden Queen. Two seats are still vacant, and one is set to be run as a "Free Agent Program", with several drivers slated to get behind the wheel at some point during the season.
The only other real silly season action for the Cup Series this past year came in the form of Haas Factory Team announcing that they are set to switch from Ford to Chevrolet for 2026.
The 2025 season was the team's first following the shutdown of Stewart-Haas Racing, as Gene Haas opted to retain one of their four charters to remain in the series. Stewart-Haas Racing had been aligned with Chevrolet until 2016, after which point they switched to Ford. Their 2026 manufacturer change also includes the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, where they still run two cars.