The 2026 NASSCAR racing season may be over, but there is still much to do. The action turns to the race shops concentrate on building the new cars for the new season and shoring up teams and drivers in the hopes of bringing home the championship.
The 2026 “Silly Season” saw a good deal of movement this year with a number of drivers changing teams for 2027.
But the drivers aren’t the only people in the NASCAR garage to make changes, crew chiefs and crew members are also making some moves for 2027…
…Michael McDowell’s crew chief Travis Patterson is taking on a new role within Spire Motorsports. Stephen Doran returns to Spire after two years with Trackhouse Racing to serve as crew chief for Michael McDowell.
…Blake Harris comes to Trackhouse Racing from Hendrick Motorsports and the number 48 car driven by Alex Bowman to take over as crew chief for Shane van Gisbergen.
One of the biggest stories of the season is that Dodge is returning to NASCAR and Kaulig Racing will be running two cars with Ty Dillon and AJ Allmendinger driving the cars. Kaulig ran five Ram trucks last season in the Craftsman Truck Series.
With Brad Keselowski announcing his departure from RFK Racing, Ryan Preece will be taking over the driving duties for the number 60 car. At this time, there is no word as to whether RFK will run the 60 car next season and if so, who will be behind the wheel.
Expressing a desire to continue driving, Keselowski has not yet announced where he will be driving for the 2027 season.
RFK driver Chris Buescher has signed a contract extension to remain in the number 17 car.
New papa, Daniel Suarez has signed an extension with Spire Motorsports after moving over to the team from Trackhouse racing for 2026.
Signing a contract extension that will see him into the next decade, “The Hurricane” Carson Hocevar will continue driving the number 77 car for Spire Motorsports.
Team Penske has retained all three of its drivers – Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Logano for the foreseeable future.
Cole Custer has signed a contract extension with the Haas Factory Team to remain in the number 41 car.
Legacy Motor Club has signed Erik Jones to a contract extension to remain in the number 43 car.
After not resigning John Hunter Nemechek, Josh Berry will move over to LMC to take over driving duties for the number 42 car.
And Adding a third car for the 2027 season, Legacy has signed Riley Herbst to drive the new LMC third car – the number 84 previously driven part-time by Jimmie Johnson.
After the sudden death of Kyle Busch in May, Richard Childress Racing chose their O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Austin Hill to take over the second RCR car for the remainder of the 2026 season. The number eight car was rebranded number 33. RCR has announced that Hill will remain in the 33 car for the 2027 season.
Currently driving for Trackhouse Racing, Connor Zilisch has signed a contract to drive the number 48 car beginning with the 2028 season at Hendrick Motorsports.
During the season, Alex Bowman announced that he would be retiring from full time driving at the end of the 2027 season.
Zilisch will remain at Trackhouse to drive the number 88 car for the 2027 season.
Three time Cup Series champion Kyle Larson has signed a contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports to remain in the number five car for the foreseeable future.
Noah Gragson and Todd Gilliland have signed contract extensions with Front Row Motorsports in 2027. Gragson will continue in the number four car and Gilliland will remain in the number 34 car.
Jesse Love is moving up from the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series to drive the iconic Wood Brothers number 21 car in 2027.
With the departure of Riley Herbst in the number 35 23XI Racing car, Corey Heim will have his first full time season as the driver of the 35 car in 2027. Heim won the Craftsman Truck Series championship in 2025 winning 12 races. He drove part time in the Truck and Cup Series in 2026.
Tyler Reddick has signed a contract extension to remain in the number 45 car for 23XI Racing.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr has signed a contract extension to remain in the number 47 car at Hyak Motorsports.
In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series…
Will Rodgers gets a full time ride with Big Machine Racing driving the number 48 car. Retina specialist Dr. Patrick Staropoli drove the 48 car for the 2026. Staropoli said that he wishes to continue driving but has yet to announce a spot.
John Hunter Nemechek returns to the O’Reilly Series to drive the number 41 car for the Haas Factory Team next season.
Dean Thompson joins Nemechek at the Haas Factory Team to drive the 00 car.
JR Motorsports is doing a bit of musical cars next season as new drivers come in and returning drivers swap car numbers.
Rajah Caruth drove part time for two different teams last season. Next year he will be in the 88 car full time for JR Motorsports.
JRM owner has signed O’Reilly Series champion Justin Allgaier to a contract extension to remain in the number seven car.
Sam Mayer is making a return to JRM next season and will be driving the number one car.
Carson Kvapil spent the full 2026 season at JRM but drove more than one car. Next season, Kvapil will move over to drive the number eight car full time.
At just 16 years old, Tristan McKee drove part-time in the Craftsman Truck Series last season. JRM has signed McKee to drive part-time for the next two seasons and going full-time in 2029, once he turns 18.
NOTE: NASCAR allows a driver under the age of 18 to drive on tracks 1.25 miles or less, but a driver must be 18 years old in order to drive on the larger tracks.
After seeing a successful year of racing, Viking Motorsports has resigned its drivers to a contract extension with Anthony Alfredo in the 96 car and Parker Retzlaff in the 99 car.
Brennen Poole moves over from Alpha Prime Racing to Jordan Anderson Racing next season to drive the number 31 car.
Daniel Dye has signed a multi-year contract with Jordan Anderson to drive the number 32 car.
Ryan Ellis has signed a multi-year contract with Alpha Prime Racing to drive full-time but did not announce the car number.
Blaine Perkins moves over to Sam Hunt Racing to drive the number 24 car.
Sheldon Creed is moving on from the Haas Factory Team to join Blaine Perkins at Sam Hunt Racing to drive the number 26 car.
Harrison Burton is leaving Sam Hunt Racing and moving over to Peterson Racing where he will drive the number 78 car next season.
Lee Pulliam joins Peterson Racing to drive the number 87 car next season.
After four seasons with Jordan Anderson Racing, Jeb Burton moves over to RSS Racing where he will drive the number 22 car.
Hendrick Motorsports has signed Corey Day to a multi-year contract to continue driving the hendrickcars.com number 17 car. Day will also be doing some part-time Cup Series driving for HMS.
Brandon Jones has announced that he will remain at Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the number 20 car.
William Sawalich has also announced that he will be staying with JGR to drive the number 18 car.
Tanner Gray will also remain at JGR to drive the number 54 car.
With Austin Hill and Jesse Love both moving up to the Cup Series, Richard Childress Racing has signed Chandler Smith to drive the number 21 car and Carson Brown to drive the number two car with multi-year contracts.
In the Truck Series…
The Truck Series gets a new name next season moving from the Craftsman Truck Series to the FedEx Freight Truck Series.
After shutting down his own team, saying that he just wanted to drive; Timmy Hill has signed a full time ride with Team Reaume. Hill has started over 500 races across the three NASCAR racing series.
Daniel Hemric and Christian Eckes will be remaining at McAnally-Hilgemann Racing next season with Hemric in the number 19 truck and Eckes in the number 91 truck.
Tyler Ankrum has left McAnally-Hilgemann Racing but has not announced where he will be driving in 2027.
The family-owned team of Rackley WAR has shut down their operation.
Dawson Sutton and Sammy Smith join Tricon Garage with Sutton driving the number five truck and Smith driving the number 15 truck; joining Gio Ruggiero and Truck Series champion Kaden Honeycutt.
After returning to racing after a long absence last season to drive the number 25 guest truck in a race for Kaulig Racing, Kasey Kahne makes a return to full time racing with Spire Motorsports’ Truck Series team.
Layne Riggs has announced that he will be returning to Front Row Motorsports next season in the number 34 truck.
Jake Garcia has announced that he will be joining Layne Riggs at Front Row Motorsports to drive the number 38 truck next season.
When NASCAR released the 2027 schedule, there were a number of changes…
Diver returns as a points race
North Wilkesboro will host the All-Star race
NASCAR is returning to Naval Base Coronado for a street race
Richmon Raceway and Watkins Glen International join The Chase races
the summer race at Bristol Motor Speedway returns to August
The Truck Series returns to St. Petersburg for the street race and will travel north of the border for a return to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
The Truck Series will have a points race at North Wilkesboro