The ‘New’ NASCAR Is 1 Week Old

The NASCAR season has officially taken the green flag for 2026.

The Clash was an appetizer that provided an entertaining evening that would have had fans in a uproar if it were a points-paying event. This past week, we started racing for real and people pocketed points toward their respective season ending Chase.

In the Truck and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races, it was a typical event with racing quite reminiscent of years past. Some stupid moves, some bold efforts and exciting finishes. The end of the O’Reilly race was actually wreck-free on the last lap, which caught many people completely off guard.

And then there was the Cup Series race. The beginning was the culmination of the anticipation and excitement that three months without racing always brings.

We talked about it last week. The offseason exposed the ugly underbelly of the leadership of the sport. The fans were given a look behind the curtain that let them see just how poorly the leadership of the sport looked at them. The result was their new effort to get back to where they used to be. We’ll have to wait and see what that actually means, but Sunday (Feb. 15) was a fabulous look at NASCAR’s new “Hell Yeah” campaign.

One of the biggest complaints of the sport in the last decade or more has been its hair trigger on caution flags. We have seen a myriad of races, especially at the superspeedways, coming down to an amazing finish, only to have it ripped away by an incident that involved a minor mishap that would have put no one in harms way if it had held the yellow. Racers had chances at victory wrenched from their grasp because of video evidence of a light bulb illuminating. On Sunday, those bitter memories became a bit more of the hazy past when the Cup race crossed under the white flag. In the blink of an eye, a car went sideways, two others spun and tire smoke billowed into the air. Anyone who had watched the sport in the past few years immediately thought “Crap, there goes the finish!” We all knew the yellow rag was going to end it.

But wait, it didn’t come out. Oh my God, they let the wreck play out, no one was too damaged or upside down. We stayed green heading to the finish. At that moment, the entire NASCAR fan base embraced the new advertising campaign. From sea to shining sea, the entire nation screamed, “Hell yeah!”

It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t scripted, there wasn’t some goofy billboard in the middle of a city that couldn’t care less about the sport that we all love. It was a simple act by the people in race control that resonated across the whole sport. They had actually let a race play out organically. There was no video review, no ridiculously long delay before someone finally announced who the actual winner of the race was. People were allowed to make moves and runs and the cars that made it through the carnage still had a chance to win.

While that magnificent scene played out, another more subtle development of the “new” NASCAR was unfolding in the back of the pack. 21 years of trying was not going to result in a storybook ending for Kyle Busch. Running in the middle to back of the pack as the final laps unfolded, it became apparent to the veteran driver that sticking his nose in the middle of the hornet’s nest was a recipe for disaster.

One of the most cerebral of all modern drivers, Busch pulled to the inside and let the developing chaos stream by with the laps winding down. Shortly thereafter the first wreck of the final lap unfolded in front of him. He wheeled his way through it and continued around the track. The pack came around to the finish line and the final lap “Big One” unfolded a couple hundred yards from the checkered flag. More cars spun, crashed and came to a stop as Busch deftly weaved through the mess. When the scoring loop triggered for the No. 8, Busch finished the race in 15th position, ahead of numerous cars that were in front of him coming to the white flag.

When the team got on the radio as his strategy unfolded and asked if he was out of gas, Busch was downright philosophical about it.

“No, what the [expletive] am I going to rush to the wreck for? We’re running [expletive] 30th,” Busch said.

Sit back and take a look at it. This wasn’t someone bailing out because they quit on their team. This was the mindset that is back into the sport. We always used to hear about “good point days.” People would make conservative calls and make sure they finished races rather than gambling for wins. It was all in the name of accumulating points. Busch just opened the lid on the Pandora’s box that is racing in the national series of NASCAR in 2026 and beyond.

Consistency and points are back in the forefront of drivers’ and teams’ minds. Busch made one of the most intelligent calls he could on Sunday as the final restart unfolded. Busch was able to capitalize on the misfortunes of over a dozen of his competitors and secured a top-15 finish. Love him or hate him, Busch has always been one of the most alert and aware people in a race car when events unfolded around him on the track.

We can’t wave the checkered flag on this one without tackling the 800-pound gorilla in the room. The 50-ish-lap, three-wide parade in the final stage was one of the most repulsive events any race fan has witnessed in years. There was once a rule about giving 100% during NASCAR races. If that is still on the books, shame on the sanctioning body for not coming out with points penalties for the six cars at the front of the pack during that abomination. The front three for running half throttle for an entire fuel run. The second row of three for not stomping on the gas and forcing the cars in front of them out from the pack to make an opening where they could surpass the ne’er-do-wells that stole the excitement from over 100 miles of the Great American Race.

Something has to be done about it. Whether it’s black flags for lack of effort or penalties for failure to compete, it’s simply unacceptable for the sport to allow that to happen. Let’s hope there is a “come to Jesus” meeting before EchoPark Speedway this weekend.

In the end, it is thrilling that NASCAR is back in action. This season has started off with an electricity in the air that honestly has been missing for many years from the top of stock car racing. One race does not make a complete rebound, but it was a tremendous beginning for the “new” NASCAR. Trying to score the most points is going to be the topic of every weekend for the teams. “Rubbing is Racing” may take a bit of a back seat to “great point days”.

One thing is for sure. Race cars are taking laps in anger and there is nothing that pumps us up more that seeing common men do uncommon things.