Since it was first mentioned on an episode of NASCAR’s Hauler Talk podcast in April, NASCAR fans have been extremely excited about the return of “Preseason Thunder” – a pre-season NASCAR Cup Series test at Daytona International Speedway – to the schedule in January 2027.
But, since that announcement seven months ago, it appears the sanctioning body’s stance has changed.
NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell, during the annual ‘State of the Sport’ address at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday, said that as of right now, NASCAR has no plans to hold the pre-season test session at “The World Center of Racing” as it is pleased with the superspeedway package it has put on track as of late.
The initial purpose of the test was to make changes to said superspeedway package in the NASCAR Cup Series, as one of the sport’s most exciting forms of racing had been turned into a gridlocked fuel-saving traffic jam, that didn’t result in the same excitement and maneuverability as previous superspeedway packages had done. Of course, NASCAR, instead chose to take action immediately.
For the regular-season finale at Daytona in August, NASCAR reduced the spoiler from seven to four inches and decreased the horsepower on the NASCAR Cup Series car, which was a step in the right direction. For the Chase event at Talladega in October, NASCAR reduced the spoiler another half-inch and was pleased with the results.
“On our end, you look at the changes we’ve made, and this goes back to our competition group, we’ve said we’re going to move fast. I think historically at NASCAR we would have said, we’ll see in 2027 and we’ll talk about the short track package in 2028. That’s not the case. We moved quickly,” O’Donnell said Friday. “From an on-track competition car, are you able to move and do some different things directionally? I think we’re comfortable with heading to Daytona with what we saw.”
Now, that’s not the say there won’t be changes; just that the changes won’t be related to the package.
NASCAR very well could make changes to the competition aspect of things, when it comes to limiting technology, or even programming that focuses on fuel saving. Or, NASCAR could take a look at the stage lengths. There are other things in play for NASCAR that they will explore before doing more work with the speedway program.
“If you ask the drivers if they ever fuel saved at Talladega ten years ago, the answer is yes. That’s always happened,” O’Donnell added. “But its become such a focus now on what you can do and the strategy in the race. That is the focus in terms of how the actual race plays out, not necessarily the car, but what does the race look like in terms of it stages or whatever we may do during the race.”
“But we don’t have plans, right now, to go test at Daytona.”
The Wheatly Vodka Clash and DAYTONA 500 are the next scheduled superspeedway events in the NASCAR Cup Series, scheduled to take place the week ending February 21, 2027.
