A restructuring of the Championship format is just one of the changes in NASCAR’s three racing series this season.  The competition committee has mad a number of changes in the NASCAR rule book for 2026.

NASCAR awards a point to the driver who runs the fastest lap during a race.  However, last season, there were a number of instances where a driver was involved in an incident, had repairs made to the car, and came back out to run the fastest lap.  In two separate occasions last season, champion driver Kyle Larson earned the fastest lap award despite being several laps down.

NASCAR now says that only drivers who remain on the track with no crash damage will be eligible for the fastest lap reward.

Managing director of communications Mike Forde spoke on the change on the “Hauler Talk” podcast saying, “it was something that we talked a lot about last year, and it didn’t feel exactly right or fair that teams working on the car in the garage for a while specifically just to lay down that fastest lap.  It didn’t feel super in the spirit of competition, so we decided to change it.”

In further explanation, Forde added, “if Larson ripped off a fastest lap and wrecks, he gets to keep that fast-lap point. He just can’t get it after working on his car in the garage after an incident.”

The “crash clock” returns this season with teams having seven minutes to make repairs to the cars in the pits.  After that time, they must move the car to the garage for further repairs.

There is an alteration to the “lug nut” rule in the O’Reilly Auto Parts and Craftsman Truck Series…
If a single lug nut is improperly secured, the team will lose their pit stall selection for the next race. 
If two lug nuts are improperly secured there will be a fine of $5,000 in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and a $2,500 fine in the Craftsman Truck Series.  There will also be a one race suspension for one crew member.
If there are four lug nuts improperly secured, the car or truck is disqualified.

Mike Forde explained, “it’s a lot to help the teams and make it a little bit more consistent between the trucks and O’Reilly and Cup.  We want to standardize the rulebooks as often as we can.”  The Cup Series no longer has a lug nut rule with the single lug hubs.

With the addition of Ram trucks in the Craftsman Truck Series this year, NASCAR has chosen to add four OEM provisional spots for the first three races of the season – Daytona, EchoPark (Atlanta), and street race in St. Petersburg, FL –  As a result, there could be as many as 40 trucks in the field with the Ram trucks starting at the back of the field as a provisional start.

Mike Forde noted the ruling was for Ram to,“get their sea legs under them.  You have Chevy, Toyota, and Ford who have years and years of experience and data and notebooks filled with how to go fast, and Ram right now doesn’t have any, and so we want to help them get their feet wet.”

NASCAR has made a slight change in the minimum age requirements for driving on tracks 1.25 miles or less (short tracks) to 16 for Craftsman Truck Series, 17 for O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and 18 for Cup Series.

Mike Forde said, “we look at the truck and the O’Reilly Auto Parts series as ladders to get to the Cup series, so it felt from a consistency’s sake kind of like a literal ladder.  Plus, we did get some team feedback that there were a couple of young drivers that had the talent to be in the O’Reilly Auto Parts but just couldn’t because of the age restriction. So some teams came to us and asked if this would be something that we’d look at, and it made sense to go 16, 17, 18. So it felt like the right time to do it.”