The2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series will be the 45th season of theNASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, astock car racing series sanctioned byNASCAR in theUnited States. The season will start in mid-February with theUnited Rentals 300 atDaytona International Speedway and will end with theHard Rock Bet 300 atHomestead–Miami Speedway on November 7.

Jesse Love ofRichard Childress Racing enters the season as the2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion.^[1]

This will be the first year under the new title sponsor, asXfinity did not extend their sponsorship.^[2] On August 18, 2025, it was announced thatO'Reilly Auto Parts will serve as the series sponsor in 2026.^[3]

All other teams that ran full-time in the Xfinity/O'Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2025 have yet to announce their 2026 plans.

Not participating

• Kaulig Racing is pausing their Xfinity Series program for the 2026 season.^[33]

Expanding

• Sam Hunt Racing will field two full-time cars in 2026 with the No. 24 expanding from being fielded part-time to full-time.^[29]

Rookies

• Rajah Caruth will move up from theNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2026, driving a full-time split schedule forJR Motorsports^[22] andJordan Anderson Racing.
• Corey Day will run full time in 2026, driving the No. 17 forHendrick Motorsports.^[9]

Moving between series

• Connor Zilisch will move up to theNASCAR Cup Series in 2026 driving full-time forTrackhouse Racing.^[34]
• Leland Honeyman will move down to theARCA Menards Series in 2026, driving forNitro Motorsports. Both him andThomas Annunziata, who will also run full-time in ARCA in 2026,^[35] will not return toCope Family Racing in 2026.^[5]
• After 1 year of running full-time in the series,Daniel Dye andChristian Eckes will both return to the Truck Series full-time in 2026. They both drove for Kaulig Racing in 2025. Dye will continue with Kaulig in the Truck Series with their Ram team while Eckes will return toMcAnally-Hilgemann Racing, the team he drove for full-time for in the Truck Series in2023 and2024.^[36][37]

Moving teams

• Harrison Burton moved fromAM Racing toSam Hunt Racing for 2026.^[38][29]
• Parker Retzlaff moved fromAlpha Prime Racing toViking Motorsports for 2026. Retzlaff replacedMatt DiBenedetto.^[39][26]
• Josh Bilicki will not return toDGM Racing.^[40]
• Josh Williams will return to DGM Racing full-time.^[41]

Moving to part-time schedule

• Connor Zilisch will run part-time forJR Motorsports in 2026, splitting the No. 1 car withCarson Kvapil.^[14]

• Rodney Childers, a longtime Cup Series crew chief who most notably worked withKevin Harvick atStewart–Haas Racing for several years as a crew chief in the series, will join JRM in 2026 as the crew chief of the No. 1 car in which Kvapil and Zilisch will share.^[14]
• Jim Pohlman, who was the crew chief for JRM's No. 7 car driven byJustin Allgaier, moved up to the Cup Series to crew chief the No. 8Richard Childress Racing car driven byKyle Busch.^[18]
• Danny Efland, who was the crew chief of theAM Racing No. 25 car in 2025, will move toViking Motorsports where he will crew chief their No. 99 car in 2026. He replacesPat Tryson, who became the head of the team's shop operations.^[26]
• With JRM hiring Rodney Childers to crew chief the No. 1 car, former No. 1 car crew chief Andrew Overstreet will move to their No. 7 car to replace Jim Pohlman who left the team to crew chief for RCR in the Cup Series.^[19]
• JRM crew chiefs Phillip Bell and Cory Shea switched cars for 2026, with Bell moving from the full-time No. 8 to the part-time No. 9 and Shea moving from the part-time No. 9 to the full-time No. 8.^[19]
• Aeden McHugh moved from the No. 70 withCope Family Racing to the No. 28 withRSS Racing.^[42]

• Haas Factory Team will switch fromFord toChevrolet in 2026, with a technical alliance withHendrick Motorsports.^[7]
• RSS Racing will switch from Ford to Chevrolet in 2026 to continue its existing technical alliance with Haas Factory Team.^[25]
• Jeremy Clements Racing will form a technical alliance with Haas Factory Team.^[43][25]
• Viking Motorsports will form a technical alliance withRichard Childress Racing.^[44]

• NASCAR Cup Series drivers with three or more years of experience can participate in ten (up from five) regular season races. They are still prohibited from the final race of the regular season, playoffs, and thechampionship race.^[45]
• The minimum age to participate in an O'Reilly Auto Parts Series event is lowered to 17 years of age. The new rule applies, as in the case of the Truck Series minimum age rule, to short tracks and road courses only which account for 15 races at 12 tracks.Nashville Superspeedway, at 1.33 miles, and longer circuits still require drivers to be 18 years of age.^[46]

The 2026 schedule was released on August 20, 2025.

Notes: Race names and title sponsors are subject to change. Not all title sponsors/names of races have been announced for 2026. For the races where a 2026 name and title sponsor has yet to be announced, the title sponsors/names of those races in 2025 are listed.

• Homestead–Miami Speedway will return to its traditional date as the finale for all three national series.^[48]
• The series will join theCraftsman Truck Series and theCup Series at theCoronado Street Course.^[49]
• The series will not return toPortland International Raceway,Chicago Street Course, andAutódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for the first time since2021,2022, and2025, respectively.
• The series will return toChicagoland Speedway for the first time since2019, and the secondDarlington race was readded after aone-year hiatus.^[50]

• 2026 NASCAR Cup Series
• 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
• 2026 ARCA Menards Series
• 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour

• NASCAR Xfinity Series seasons
• 2026 in NASCAR
• Scheduled motorsport seasons

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