The 2026 Daytona 500 isn't exactly right around the corner, but nearly a full month has passed since the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season concluded at Phoenix Raceway in early November.
Thanksgiving is behind us, the holiday season is underway, and slowly but surely the focus is beginning to shift toward the 68th annual running of the "Great American Race".
For one team, that focus has already shifted. After running the No. 40 Chevrolet for Justin Allgaier in 2025, marking their first ever appearance at NASCAR's top level, JR Motorsports plan to return for February's 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval. Allgaier finished an impressive ninth in 2025.
Excluding the six full-time 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports cars, which are technically non-chartered (open) cars amid their ongoing lawsuit against NASCAR, the No. 40 JR Motorsports car is the only open car confirmed on the entry list for the 2026 race.
In 2026, there were nine cars going for four spots (really five, after Helio Castroneves was granted the world-class provisional and the field expanded from 40 cars to 41). Which others might join the No. 40 car in 2026?
Here are 10 possibilities.
Like JR Motorsports, Tricon Garage made their NASCAR Cup Series debut in the 2025 Daytona 500, and they did so with Martin Truex Jr. behind the wheel of the No. 56 Toyota. Truex, who retired from full-time competition after 2024, hasn't been back since, and there is no indication that he plans to return again.
23XI Racing have added a part-time car for the Daytona 500 before. Even though they didn't do it in 2025, they did add a fourth entry for Corey Heim in other races throughout the season. In two of his four starts, he beat the team's three full-time drivers. With Heim poised to move up to the team full-time at some point in the near future, a maiden Daytona 500 effort would make sense in 2026.
Since selling their charter after 2023, Live Fast Motorsports have still attempted to qualify for the Daytona 500 each year. Team co-owner B.J. McLeod has yet to do successfully qualify for the race since that sale, but don't expect that to deter him and the organization from trying again.
Like Live Fast Motorsports, NY Racing Team tried and failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 in 2024 and 2025, both times with J.J. Yeley. But their expanded Cup program in both years indicates that another attempt could be on the cards.
Another team left on the outside looking in this past February was Beard Motorsports. They have never failed to qualify for the race in back-to-back years since making their Daytona 500 debut in 2017, so history is on their side if they decide to come back for a 10th attempt. Anthony Alfredo was their driver in both 2024 and 2025.
Using a little-known rule that is a part of NASCAR's new charter agreement, Justin Marks locked Helio Castroneves into the 2025 Daytona 500 by requesting a "world-class provisional", meaning he was locked in regardless of his qualifying speed or Duel result. Even if it's not for Castroneves, would Trackhouse Racing bring back PROJECT91 for another international star?
Garage 66 planned to enter the 2025 Daytona 500 with Mike Wallace, but NASCAR ruled that Wallace could not compete. They ended up naming Chandler Smith to drive the No. 66 Ford, but he failed to qualify. This team has not qualified for the race since Timmy Hill made it in back in 2020. They failed to qualify in 2021 with one car and in 2022 with two cars, and they didn't return until 2025.
Rick Ware Racing's second car, which was only entered in four races in 2025, was competitive in the Daytona 500, with Corey LaJoie behind the wheel of the No. 01 Ford. With the team still only set to run one car full-time in 2026, there is little reason to believe another two-car Daytona 500 effort is not on the horizon.
Jimmie Johnson has one race confirmed on his 2026 schedule, and it isn't the Daytona 500, but that could change. In what was by far his best race since retiring from full-time competition at the end of 2020, he placed third in the 2025 Daytona 500. It's hard to imagine the two-time winner won't be back for more in February.
Team AmeriVet have quietly competed in the Cup Series in each of the past four seasons, though they only made one appearance in 2025. This one isn't as like as any of the other nine possibilities, but this team did successfully qualify for the Daytona 500 in both of their first two attempts back in 2022 and 2023.
Daytona 500 qualifying is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, and the Duel races are set to solidify the full starting lineup on Thursday, February 12. The race itself is set to be shown live on Fox from Daytona International Speedway starting at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 15.