What’s Happening?
If you’re heading to St. Pete in NASCAR 26, prepare to leave a few guys at home. The game limits the Truck Series field to 28 drivers, even though the actual NASCAR race has 36 trucks. Yes, we got the track. We’re just missing eight trucks’ worth of racing.
It’s a strange restriction for players hoping to recreate this year’s race, and one that deserves an explanation. NASCAR already ran a full field there. Why can’t we?
There Were Definitely 36 Trucks
We can settle the real-world part pretty easily. NASCAR’s results from this year’s OnlyBulls Green Flag 150 list 36 starters. Nobody failed to qualify.
Layne Riggs won from 28th. Further back, Daniel Hemric started 34th and finished eighth, while Ben Maier drove from 35th to 11th.
So those last few rows actually contributed something! Hemric managed a top-10 finish from a starting position you can’t even occupy with the game’s current cap.
Going from 36 trucks to 28 removes more than a fifth of the field. If you enjoy starting in the back and working your way through traffic, that’s eight fewer trucks to deal with before you’ve even taken the green flag.
Why Are We Stopping at 28?
There may be a technical reason, but I’m not going to invent one for the developers. We don’t know what’s causing the restriction or what it would take to change it.
And before anybody points to INDYCAR, its 25-car field from the same weekend doesn’t explain this. The trucks brought 36. That’s the race we’re trying to run here.
This is the kind of thing that makes covering these games so frustrating. You want to be excited about getting another track, especially one that just joined the Truck Series schedule. Then you go to race it and discover there’s a catch.
Wanting the same number of trucks that raced there in February seems like a pretty reasonable expectation.
Hopefully, This Can Be Changed
We’ve already covered the first patch for NASCAR 26, and there’s plenty for the developers to work through during release week. I’d like to see this restriction get some attention, even if the first step is simply explaining why it exists.
I’m not going to pretend eight missing trucks make the whole game unplayable. But I’m also not going to tell somebody who wants a full NASCAR field that they should stop caring about it. That’s a perfectly normal thing to want from a NASCAR game.
For now, keep the limit in mind before heading to St. Pete. You’re getting 28 total drivers, including yourself. The real race managed 36.
What do you think? Have you run into the St. Pete field limit yet? Is this something you want addressed in an update? Share your thoughts by joining the discussion on Discord or X, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for further updates.