{"id":501288,"date":"2026-02-26T17:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501288\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:58:13","slug":"3-lineup-changes-confirmed-after-nascar-cup-race-in-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501288\/","title":{"rendered":"3 lineup changes confirmed after NASCAR Cup race in Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"82\">There were <a href=\"https:\/\/beyondtheflag.com\/7-lineup-changes-confirmed-before-nascar-cup-race-atlanta-01khsdvmbjcp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">seven changes to the NASCAR Cup Series entry list<\/a> from the 2026 season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway to the season&#8217;s second race at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) this past weekend, with all seven being related to cars that were included at Daytona no longer being included at Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"85\">The only two non-chartered (open) cars that ran Sunday&#8217;s overtime-extended 271-lap Autotrader 400 around the four-turn, 1.54-mile (2.478-kilometer) Hampton, Georgia oval were the No. 44 NY Racing Chevrolet and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"88\">The No. 44 car was driven by J.J. Yeley <a href=\"https:\/\/beyondtheflag.com\/21-year-nascar-cup-series-veteran-returning-after-all-01khq4hvhnrg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">after he failed to qualify for the Daytona 500<\/a>, and the No. 78 car was driven by B.J. McLeod after he competed in the &#8220;Great American Race&#8221; for the first time since 2023.<\/p>\n<p>This weekend at COTA, there have been three changes.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8e\">The first two were to be expected: the No. 44 Chevrolet and the No. 78 Chevrolet are not on the entry list for Sunday&#8217;s 95-lap DuraMAX Grand Prix at the 17-turn, 2.4-mile (3.862-kilometer) Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas. Both Yeley and McLeod crashed out at Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8h\">The only other change is the addition of a car that <a href=\"https:\/\/beyondtheflag.com\/1-rumored-car-driver-left-off-2026-daytona-500-entry-list-01kh4v902x62\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">many had expected to compete at Daytona<\/a> but was ultimately left off of the entry list, and that is the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8k\">Reigning O&#8217;Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love, who made his first five Cup Series starts a year ago, is set to make his Cup Series road course debut this weekend. He owns two career sixth place finishes at COTA in the O&#8217;Reilly Series in two starts, although the 2024 race was contested on the track&#8217;s full 20-turn, 3.41-mile (5.488-kilometer) layout.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8q\">The DuraMAX Grand Prix is set to be shown live on Fox from COTA beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 1. Begin a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fubo.tv\/welcome?irad=343747&amp;irmp=1412332&amp;subId1=FS-2024streaming\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" target=\"_blank\">free trial of FuboTV now<\/a> and don&#8217;t miss any of the action from the season&#8217;s first road course race!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were seven changes to the NASCAR Cup Series entry list from the 2026 season-opening Daytona 500 at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-501288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501288","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=501288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}