After a preseason exhibition race than was more comical than competitive, NASCAR gets down to serious business this week with the year’s most important race, the Daytona 500.
It’s the start of one of the longest seasons in professional sports, a February-to-November grind that typically features side-by-side checkered flag finishes, a handful of spectacular crashes, a simmering feud or two, runaway races that make for long afternoons for everyone but the winner and surprising runs by drivers who brought little to the table.
With the first of 36 point races on the horizon, here’s a look at five storylines for the season:
Connor Zilisch: Hero Or Zero?
The guess here is hero. Zilisch, who blitzed through the Xfinity Series last season and already carries much of the weight of the NASCAR world on his shoulders at only 19 years old, will be a focal point of the year.
Much is expected of a kid who has conquered every challenge thrown at him from karting to high-speed drafting, and those who attempt to forecast history are comparing him to Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch. Zilisch, who’ll race full-time in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing this year, seems calm about it all even as a tempest swirls around him.
The Return of the Chase
After years of complaints, NASCAR decided to modify its season-ending run to the championship, dropping the win-and-you’re-in playoff concept for a 10-race points battle over the closing weeks of the season.
The changes to the racing won’t necessarily be obvious, but teams are likely to be more protective of retaining top-10 finishes, particularly over the first part of the season as they seek positions in the playoff-bound top 16. It’s somewhat of a return to the old days, but NASCAR’s fervent hope is that a fourth-place driver doesn’t climb from his car post-race and immediately say, “Well, at least it was a good points day.”
Larson and The Drought
Although Kyle Larson won the Cup championship last season on a weird final day at Phoenix, 2025 wasn’t the best of times for the veteran driver. Larson won three of the season’s first 12 races, but he didn’t win again after the May 11 race at Kansas Speedway. He carries a 24-race winless string into Sunday’s opener.
Race Dates That Are Both New and Old
The new Cup schedule marks the return of the series to Chicagoland Speedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway. Chicagoland last hosted Cup in 2019 (although city streets in Chicago provided the course for three races after the departure from Chicagoland, which is located in the far suburbs of the city). North Wilkesboro has hosted the All-Star Race but hasn’t been the home of a points race since 1996.
Wilkesboro’s return is one of the happy stories in recent NASCAR history, as many assumed that 1996 race would be the final time NASCAR’s top series visited one of its pioneer tracks.
Denny Hamlin: A Season of Redemption?
Denny Hamlin’s eternal search for a NASCAR Cup Series championship seemingly was near an end as last year’s Phoenix finale wound toward a conclusion. However, a late-race caution scrambled the field, Kyle Larson won the title, and Hamlin remains 0-for-forever in titles despite an otherwise decorated Cup career.
Then came the extended NASCAR antitrust trial and a late December fire at the home of Hamlin’s parents. Hamlin’s father was killed, and his mother suffered critical injuries. Hamlin aggravated a shoulder injury while walking through the debris at his parents’ home and moves into the new season facing that question once again: Can he win’s NASCAR’s biggest prize?
