{"id":401751,"date":"2026-09-16T19:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401751\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T19:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:02:11","slug":"nascar-26-limits-st-pete-to-28-trucks-the-daily-downforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401751\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR 26 Limits St. Pete to 28 Trucks \u2013 The Daily Downforce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What\u2019s Happening?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re 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\u2019re just missing eight trucks\u2019 worth of racing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailydownforce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NASCAR-26_20260916111806-scaled.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NASCAR-26_20260916111806-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61035\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a strange restriction for players hoping to recreate this year\u2019s race, and one that deserves an explanation. NASCAR already ran a full field there. Why can\u2019t we?<\/p>\n<p>There Were Definitely 36 Trucks<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can settle the real-world part pretty easily. NASCAR\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascar.com\/live-results\/nascar-craftsman-truck-series\/onlybulls-green-flag-150-at-st-petersburg\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">results from this year\u2019s OnlyBulls Green Flag 150<\/a> list 36 starters. Nobody failed to qualify.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Layne Riggs won from 28th. Further back, Daniel Hemric started 34th and finished eighth, while Ben Maier drove from 35th to 11th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So those last few rows actually contributed something! Hemric managed a top-10 finish from a starting position you can\u2019t even occupy with the game\u2019s current cap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019s eight fewer trucks to deal with before you\u2019ve even taken the green flag.<\/p>\n<p>Why Are We Stopping at 28?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There may be a technical reason, but I\u2019m not going to invent one for the developers. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s causing the restriction or what it would take to change it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And before anybody points to INDYCAR, its 25-car field from the same weekend doesn\u2019t explain this. The trucks brought 36. That\u2019s the race we\u2019re trying to run here.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailydownforce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NASCAR-26_20260916110346-scaled.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NASCAR-26_20260916110346-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61036\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019s a catch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wanting the same number of trucks that raced there in February seems like a pretty reasonable expectation.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, This Can Be Changed<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019ve already covered the <a href=\"https:\/\/dailydownforce.com\/nascar-26-day-one-patch-is-out-now\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first patch for NASCAR 26<\/a>, and there\u2019s plenty for the developers to work through during release week. I\u2019d like to see this restriction get some attention, even if the first step is simply explaining why it exists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m not going to pretend eight missing trucks make the whole game unplayable. But I\u2019m also not going to tell somebody who wants a full NASCAR field that they should stop caring about it. That\u2019s a perfectly normal thing to want from a NASCAR game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, keep the limit in mind before heading to St. Pete. You\u2019re getting 28 total drivers, including yourself. The real race managed 36.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 <a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/ZqPDR7nDm3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Discord<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dailydownforce\" rel=\"nofollow\">X<\/a>, and follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dailydownforce\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thedailydownforce\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCPJI9j_lzeXNnxfSFNSZiHA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> for further updates.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Happening? If you\u2019re heading to St. Pete in NASCAR 26, prepare to leave a few guys at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-401751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}