Overview
- The change, announced Wednesday, July 22, takes effect August 23 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and will apply to non‑superspeedway Cup events for the rest of 2026.
- Every entered car will share one uninterrupted 50‑minute practice session instead of two 25‑minute split groups so teams get the same track conditions and longer runs.
- NASCAR will supply an extra set of practice tires for each eligible weekend and will keep current impound rules and the existing qualifying metric unchanged.
- Daytona will have no practice and proceed straight to qualifying, Talladega’s fall race will also run with no practice, and Homestead’s planned extended practice is unaffected.
- NASCAR framed the shift as team-driven after a technical meeting and majority support, and it responds to complaints that split groups produced unequal track conditions since on‑track time was cut in 2020.