{"id":435145,"date":"2026-01-26T22:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435145\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T22:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:20:10","slug":"charlotte-motor-speedway-to-move-2026-nascar-playoffs-back-to-oval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435145\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Motor Speedway to move 2026 NASCAR playoffs back to oval"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">Charlotte Motor Speedway is \u201cexpected to shift its 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoff race off the track\u2019s Roval road-course layout and will instead use the track\u2019s popular intermediate-sized oval,\u201d according to sources cited by THE ATHLETIC. In addition to the Cup Series, the O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series and Truck Series will also \u201cshift their playoff races from the Roval to Charlotte\u2019s oval.\u201d All three races \u201cremain scheduled for mid-October.\u201d CMS owner Speedway Motorsports in 2018 moved Charlotte\u2019s fall playoff race off the oval to the Roval. Its early races \u201cproved popular, heightening the entertainment factor\u201d while also \u201cdifferentiating the track\u2019s two Cup race weekends.\u201d But the \u201cnovelty of the Roval\u201d has \u201cwaned in recent years, especially since the advent of the Next Gen car in 2022, which many believe has diminished the quality of road-course racing.\u201d With the change, the 10-race Cup playoff schedule &#8212; which will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/01\/12\/nascar-confirms-return-to-chase-style-championship-format-keeping-playoff-element\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/01\/12\/nascar-confirms-return-to-chase-style-championship-format-keeping-playoff-element\/\">switch from an elimination-style format\u202fto a \u201cChase\u201d format<\/a> this year &#8212; \u201cconsists entirely of races held on ovals\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6998311\/2026\/01\/26\/nascar-roval-playoff-race-charlotte-motor-speedway-oval\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6998311\/2026\/01\/26\/nascar-roval-playoff-race-charlotte-motor-speedway-oval\/\">THE ATHLETIC, 1\/26<\/a>). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlotte Motor Speedway is \u201cexpected to shift its 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoff race off the track\u2019s Roval&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":["post-435145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}