New Cup Practice Rules Coming Just Before the Chase

What’s Happening?

NASCAR is introducing a new Cup Series practice format for its debut at the upcoming New Hampshire Motor Speedway race weekend.

• Practice sessions for the remainder of the season, with the exception of superspeedways, will now be one single 50-minute session, as opposed to two separate 25-minute sessions for different groups. This change is not in effect for the next three race weekends at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, and Richmond Raceway.
• Rumors of expanded practice time have circulated since late 2025 and early 2026. Last weekend, reports surfaced that NASCAR was moving ahead with this new format.
• Following major schedule changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the sport moved away from practice and qualifying almost entirely. In 2021, they were brought back at select tracks, then all tracks with two 25-minute sessions in 2022.
• Still, select weekends have had tweaked practice schedules, such as new venues on the series’ schedule. Furthermore, and still the status quo, all drafting tracks, Talladega, Daytona, and EchoPark Speedway, will still not feature practice with the exception of the Daytona 500.
• There are online rumors that the sport could expand rules further in 2027 to allow for drastic changes during sessions, though these are not confirmed and could be speculative.

What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.