The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season was the first season since 2021 to feature no race on Easter Sunday. Prior to 2021, NASCAR had not scheduled a Cup Series race for the holiday since 1970, so the decision to keep Easter Sunday clear for 2025 was a well-received move by many fans.
It also set up something else that hadn't actually been seen since 1971.
Easter Sunday was April 20 in 2025. Beginning the following Sunday, April 27, the Cup Series did not have another off weekend throughout the entire rest of the year.
From Sunday, April 27 to Sunday, November 2, the Cup Series was in action for 28 consecutive race weekends.
No 28-race NASCAR Cup Series streak in 2026
It hadn't happened since Sunday, February 28, 1971 to Monday, September 6, 1971, when NASCAR crammed 36 races into 28 weeks without a week off during the 1971 Winston Cup season, with no off weeks during that stretch.
In 2020, when NASCAR was hit with an unexpected 10-week hiatus due to COVID-19-related restrictions, they still managed to fit in an entire 36-race season, even having only run four races prior to the unplanned stoppage. However, even that streak only spanned 26 weeks from Sunday, May 17 to Sunday, November 8.
On multiple occasions, NASCAR utilized doubleheaders, or even mid-weeks races, to ensure a full 36-race season could be run, and a number of venues had to be changed in the process.
From this year's season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 15, the Cup series was in action for seven straight weekends until the off weekend for Easter.
From the race at Bristol Motor Speedway on the following Sunday, April 12 up until this past weekend's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Cup Series has been in action for 16 straight weekends.
But this weekend is a much-needed off weekend, thus preventing a stretch of 30 consecutive race weekends to conclude the 2026 season.
Beginning next Sunday, August 9 at Iowa Speedway, the Cup Series is set to run 14 consecutive weekends through the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, November 8. All 14 races are set to be shown live on either USA Network or NBC, as TNT Sports' portion of the broadcast schedule concluded at Indy. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action!
