For a sport built on rawness, heritage, and American grit, NASCAR’s steady reduction of on-track practice has become a flashpoint among fans and drivers alike in an era defined by controversies.
But now, as whispers of format changes for 2026 grow louder, the question is unavoidable: has NASCAR gone too far in compromising practice, and is the quality of the races paying the price? Well, the NASCAR Nation seems to have a clear and uncomfortable answer.
‘Why Don’t You People Listen?’ — Fans Lash Out As NASCAR Eyes Further Practice Cuts in 2026
Over the last decade, race weekends have undergone a quiet transformation. Once-packed schedules featuring multiple practice sessions and traditional “Happy Hours” have been trimmed down to the bare minimum.
Qualifying formats have come and gone, practice lengths have shrunk, and at some tracks, practice has disappeared entirely. While these changes were often justified as cost-saving measures, many fans argue that the trade-off has been a more chaotic and less polished on-track product.
This year, the sanctioning body made a rare tweak that earned praise by stabilizing its qualifying formats after years of experimentation. Practice, however, remained largely untouched. At most venues, drivers across all three national series were limited to a single practice session, typically split into two 25-minute groups.
Road courses offered a slight exception for the Truck and Xfinity Series, where drivers shared a combined 50-minute session instead.
That road course format may soon become the norm. According to FOX Sports insider Bob Pockrass, NASCAR is considering standardizing that combined 50-minute practice session for the Truck and Xfinity Series in 2026.
While the total weekend structure would not change dramatically, the shift would effectively double individual seat time for drivers in those series, an adjustment many see as overdue.
However, the fans have a different perspective on this. One such purist noted, “Random thought: By not having traditional practices in @NASCAR, you’re hurting both the product and fan experience. If it was the teams that asked for this, shame on you. You can’t change shocks or anything, so we’re not going to get the best possible product. #MNGA.”
For younger and coming drivers still learning the nuances of stock car racing, more laps mean more confidence, cleaner racing, and fewer costly mistakes. Fans largely support that philosophy, especially with the Next Gen Cup car introducing a sharp learning curve that doesn’t translate neatly to the lower series.
Echoing the same, a second fan wrote, “To bad you will only be able to take Trucks and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Practice results seriously next year and not cup what a damn shame and what i don’t understand the most neither is why cup teams didn’t want at least another 5 to 15 minutes of on track time at the most.”
Another user couldn’t contain the pent-up frustration. “The fan experience has been diminishing ever since C. They used it as an excuse to short change fans and put more money in their pockets.”
Yet, there was a chorus of fans who sought things from the drivers/teams’ standpoint, how such limited practice sessions will affect the sport overall – “No practice means teams roll in blind, impacting setups. This isn’t just a fan issue, drivers need that track time for optimal performance.”
That said, there’s a glaring omission: the Cup Series. Despite being the sport’s premier division, Cup drivers would see no added practice under the rumored changes. That has only fueled frustration among fans who believe limited practice contributes to sloppy restarts, inconsistent handling, and races that feel more like survival tests than strategic battles.
“Why won’t you people just listen ???” One fan summed up the frustration bluntly. “@NASCAR says, we can’t do that (even though we did it for 70 years), we can’t change the point system (again we did it for 65 years, but can’t do it again) WTF !!!! Listen to this man, he and all of us know this is all true!”
Veteran drivers, too, have raised red flags, advocating for smarter, targeted increases in practice at key track types instead of a blanket approach. With no official confirmation yet for 2026, one thing is already clear: fans want races decided by skill and setup, not trial and error.
