NASCAR Nation’s uprising against the stock car racing giant has shown no signs of slowing, even amid the usual offseason lull. In fact, the fallout from the 2025 season and the sanctioning body’s continued defiance in the face of fan backlash have only pushed the sport into an increasingly precarious position.

So when NASCAR rolled out a promotional video for its crown jewel, the 2026 Daytona 500, many expected a unifying rallying cry. Instead, the fandom responded with a brutal cold shoulder. While the promo leaned heavily on “The Great American Race,” its rich history, and patriotic imagery, fans couldn’t help but notice the omission, which only fanned the already roaring blaze into an inferno.

‘This Is Awful’ – Fans Unapologetically Fact-Check NASCAR’s ‘Nostalgic’ Daytona 500 Promo

The 2026 Daytona 500, set for February 15, will mark the 58th running of America’s most iconic endurance race -500 miles, 200 laps, and one unforgiving 2.5-mile oval at Daytona International Speedway. It’s the race every driver circles, the one that defines legacies long before the season truly unfolds.

Since 1982, the event, famously branded as the “Super Bowl of stock car racing,” has served as NASCAR’s season opener. And no name looms larger in Daytona’s history than Richard Petty, the sport’s legendary seven-time champion, who still holds the record for the most Daytona 500 victories.

Now, with December winding down and the racing world bracing for a new year (one clouded by lingering fan frustration), NASCAR chose to turn to nostalgia to set the tone. The sanctioning body rolled out a one-minute promo for next year’s Daytona 500, built around the legacy of Dale Earnhardt Sr., “The Intimidator,” and his iconic triumph on the 20th attempt.

The message was clear: lean on history, stir emotion, and pack the grandstands once more. But fans weren’t buying the nostalgia play. Instead, the promo sparked a full-blown backlash in the comments section, where frustration quickly gave way to open contempt.

“This sucks stop putting past drivers in these commercials advertise your current stars,” one fan wrote, taking direct aim at NASCAR for what they saw as a blatant attempt to milk nostalgia rather than promote the present. Another echoed the sentiment even more bluntly, “This is awful bro lol no mention of anything recent.”

A third fan went further, breaking down what many believed was the most telling detail of all. They pointed out that the promo didn’t feature a single highlight from the modern era, suggesting that even NASCAR’s own marketers know the state of the sport –

“Notice how not one single highlight was shown of any race since 2016? Get rid of stages, get rid of the playoffs, get rid of the next gen car. Sport is killed.”

To NASCAR’s credit, the promo itself is slickly produced, well shot, tightly edited, and thoughtfully written. It opens in a bar, where one fan asks another about the Daytona 500 and why it still carries so much weight.

What follows is a rush of nostalgia, delivered with the kind of wide-eyed enthusiasm you’d expect from someone who sounds like they’ve got a V8 thumping in their chest. The fan launches into a trip down memory lane, recalling Earnhardt’s long-awaited 1998 Daytona 500 victory, and the iconic scene that followed as the entire garage lined up to shake the Intimidator’s hand.

The clip then jumps to 2016, when Denny Hamlin edged Martin Truex Jr. by just 0.010 seconds, then flashes back to 1989, when Darrell Waltrip broke out the “Ickey Shuffle,” paying homage to NFL running back Ickey Woods in one of Daytona’s most unforgettable celebrations. The spot closes with a line meant to tie it all together: “That’s Daytona, man, that’s not a race! That’s America, it’s where we lose our minds and find our hearts.”

Yet the promo’s nostalgia-heavy tone only underscored what many fans believe is the sport’s current malaise. One viewer summed it up bluntly, writing, “The fact that there isn’t a mention of anything that happened in the last decade really shows how down the sh**ter this race has gone.”

Another fan took the criticism a step further, daring NASCAR to present the full picture rather than just the glory days. They called out the modern elements many believe have drained the excitement from the Daytona 500, stage breaks, and conservative fuel-saving tactics, chief among them-

“Show the part where he explains stage breaks and half throttle fuel saving until the last pit stop.”

NASCAR might still know how to sell its past, but the reaction to the Daytona 500 promo suggests a deeper problem: fans no longer believe in the present.