re: 2026 NASCAR Season Thread

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There is zero guarantee he wins the Cup once the playoffs start.

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Can you name an American sport where this is not the case?

Jordan Bianchi
@Jordan_Bianchi
Judge rules that Chris Gabehart can continue working for Spire Motorsports, but cannot perform any duties at Spire that he was doing as JGR's competition director -- basically, no overlap. Spire and Gabehart state that this decision has no impact as his role as Spire’s chief motorsports officer is different than that of a competitor director.

Judge does order that Chris Gabehart return any JGR proprietary data or trade secrets he possesses and not copy, use or tranfer any of it. Judge also requires JGR to post a $100,000 bond.

Separate from that is the first 3 races are not normal races.

Plate race
Plate race
Road race

Not one oval yet. This is why I don’t make a big deal about Reddick. He’s a great driver but he won at non typical tracks. Plate races are crapshoots. Road races are limited.

We still don’t know how this car races on normal tracks. They upped the HP (not by engine size but bigger spacers. I don’t think they went far enough. On ovals we want them to have to slow down in corners due to bigger engine. This will put more control on driver and less on just aero. I also wanted less grippy tires, or slightly skinnier ones.

But week 4 is our first normal track.

One can only dream

With ARCA, NASCAR and Indy all on the track this weekend attendees are certainly getting their moneys worth

I like COTA. And agree with the 6 road courses. My note is about hard to tell how the newest changes work because of the plate/plate/road races starting off year.

We have 6 road, 6 plate (counting Atlanta) and then 20+ ovals of varying sizes.

As to Reddick he’s a good driver but once we get to ovals things can change fast. Gotta imagine SVG will win rest of road races. Then it comes down to who masters the ovals and drivers like Chase who is 3rd after surviving the plates and made a great decision at COTA.

Because Fox sucks at coverage Chase was in 19th ish when the 1 wheel came off on track. He happened to be close to pit entrance and saw the wheel and made a pit stop. Then the yellow came out so he cycled to top 8. He did this on his own not his dumb crew chief. Car was crap again. But he finally got it better and at finish he dragged the 12 and got him at the line for 7th.

Will be curious how the field changes on an oval. This week is when the real racing starts.

Me, I don’t want them to leave USA.

Its just a personal preference not based on anything else

The problem with double headers is the current car has to be pre-certified by Nascar. If you lose 2 cars before second race you are cooked.