RCR Confirms 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Plans for Austin Hill
What’s Happening? NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regular Austin Hill is officially slated to run part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series…
One of the best parts of any NASCAR season is the part-time, un-chartered, or “open” cars that make starts throughout the season. These cars feature veterans and rookie drivers and sometimes win a race. Several of these teams plan to enter races in 2026, so here’s who they are.
These part-time teams are unchartered, meaning they do not own NASCAR Cup Series charters. Charters give teams valuable revenue sharing with NASCAR and, most importantly, automatic entry into points races.
Last season, 13 open teams made 73 starts throughout the NASCAR Cup Series season. The best finish amongst these teams came from Jimmie Johnson, who finished third at the Daytona 500 in Legacy Motor Club’s No. 84.
What’s Happening? NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regular Austin Hill is officially slated to run part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series…
UPDATE February 25: Austin Hill will drive the No. 33 at Phoenix in March and, on a “limited schedule” throughout 2026. His first race of the season will be at Martinsville.
UPDATE February 23: Jesse Love will drive the No. 33 at COTA.
In 2025, the No. 33 team made eight starts for Richard Childress Racing’s two full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers, Austin Hill and Jesse Love. Love would finish no better than 29th, while Hill would score the team’s best finish of the year at the Chicago Street Race, bringing home ninth place. RCR announced the car would return with Crew Chief Andy Street back on top of the pit box in January.
What’s Happening? NASCAR Cup Series team Front Row Motorsports is set to attempt to field a fourth car for driver Chandler…
Front Row Motorsports will field a fourth car for the first time this decade in the Daytona 500 as Craftsman Truck Series driver Chandler Smith attempts to qualify for the 500 for a third time. In his previous two attempts, troubles, including a massive crash in 2025, prevented the Georgia native from making the field.
What’s Happening? JR Motorsports will enter its second-ever NASCAR Cup Series race in February as Justin Allgaier and the team’s No….
After years of speculation, JR Motorsports announced that it would finally enter a NASCAR Cup Series race in 2025. With sponsor Traveller Whiskey and Justin Allgaier behind the wheel of the No. 40, JRM brought home a top ten finish in their debut race at the Cup Series level. Though JRM did not race in any more Cup Series races in 2025, they will return in 2026 with Allgaier back behind the wheel of the Traveller Whiskey and No. 40.
The NY Racing Team and its usual driver, J.J. Yeley, will return for the 2026 season after 15 starts in 2025. Much like last season, expect other drivers beyond Yeley to get starts for the team, with three other names accounting for four of the team’s 15 starts.
Burt Myers and the independent Team AmeriVet will return in 2026 for a start in the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. Last year, alongside Myer’s entry at Clash, the team also raced in one point’s paying race with the short track modified legend, starting and finishing the spring race at Martinsville.
UPDATE March 31: NASCAR veteran Casey Mears will drive the No. 62 in five races, starting at Talladega, in an attempt to make his 500th NASCAR Cup Series start.
Fan favorites Beard Motorsports and driver Anthony Alfredo are back for more action in 2026. Just like years past, this will likely be an extremely limited schedule for the team, with Alfredo’s entry into the Daytona 500 the only entry confirmed by the team so far.
UPDATE April 2: Chad Finchum will drive the car at Bristol Spring race.
UPDATE March 10: Timmy Hill will drive the car at the Darlington Spring race.
UPDATE January 26: Josh Bilicki will drive the car at Watkins Glen.
Garage 66 (formerly known as MBM Motorsports) is returning for the 2026 season after an expanded 2026 effort that saw the team enter 18 races with a combined six drivers. Though they did not qualify for the Daytona 500, the team managed to finish a majority of races during the season, scoring only eight DNFs.
What’s Happening? 23XI Racing has finally announced plans for top prospect Corey Heim following an offseason packed with questions for the…
Corey Heim will return to 23XI’s part-time No. 67 car for an expanded 12-race schedule in 2026. Last season, Heim made five starts in the No. 67, including one DNF for the Chicago Street Race. In his second part-time season in NASCAR’s Cup Series, the eventual NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion would score his best career finish of sixth at Bristol Motor Speedway.
UPDATE May 4: Katherine Legge returns to NASCAR and LFM at Watkins Glen International for her first start of the 2026 season.
UPDATE April 20: Daniel Dye will race the No. 78 in four races this season, starting with the Talladega spring race and followed by a summer slate of Pocono and Daytona, and ending with the fall Talladega race date.
UPDATE February 16: McLeod, following his shocking qualification for the Daytona 500, will return for the second race of the season at Atlanta’s Echopark Speedway.
NASCAR Cup Series veteran B.J McLeod will return to attempt to qualify for the 2026 Daytona 500. Last season, the team failed to make the 500, but made 12 other races with team owner McLeod and NASCAR rookie Katherine Legge behind the wheel.
What’s Happening? Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson has announced he will race in the June 21, 2026, NASCAR Cup…
UPDATE December 17: Johnson will also race in the Daytona 500
After entering nine races in the No. 84 during the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Legacy Motor Club owner and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson cut his schedule back to two races in 2025. These would be career starts number 699 at the Daytona 500 and 700 at the Coca-Cola 600. In 2025, Johnson also scored his best finish as a part-time driver (since 2023) with his third-place finish in the Daytona 500.
Despite rumors that he could retire with 700 starts, in November 2025, the team announced that Jimmie Johnson would return in 2026 for at least one race. This race will be NASCAR’s inaugural Street race in San Diego, California, at Naval Base Coronado.
What’s Happening? Trackhouse Racing Owner Justin Marks claims in a new report that the team is “pretty close” to finalizing plans…
After not racing during the 2024 season, Trackhouse Racing’s Project91 entry, perhaps the most successful unchartered entry in NASCAR history, made its return to the 2025 Daytona 500. After having to qualify for the race using NASCAR‘s then-new Open Exemption Provisional, driver Hélio Castroneves would crash out and finish 40th.
In late November 2025, team owner Justin Marks claimed that the team is likely to return in the 2026 season.
What’s Happening? NASCAR veteran Corey LaJoie is officially joining RFK Racing, driving the No. 99 as their fourth entry in the…
RFK Racing will expand to four cars, at least for the 2026 Daytona 500, as Corey LaJoie will pilot the No. 99 in the Great American Race. While this is not the first part-time car for RFK, having entered the No. 60 part-time in 2024, this is the first time since 2016 that the team will field the No. 99 part-time.
This list will be updated as teams make car and driver announcements throughout the season.
