First two weeks of 2027 NASCAR schedule will put strain on teams' wallets

If you enjoy NASCAR superspeedway racing, you'll love the start to the 2027 NASCAR season. The same likely can't be said for drivers, crew chiefs, team owners and the team members who have to tear down cars post-race. 

With the news on Tuesday that NASCAR's exhibition Clash will return to Daytona next season on Feb. 13, the Cup Series will have four superspeedway races in a 15-day span, including the 150-mile duel races that will set the field for the 69th Daytona 500. 

Team owners will be hoping and praying, for the sake of both their sanity and their wallets, that their drivers can make it through the first two weeks of the season without getting involved in multiple crashes. With the Clash returning to Daytona, the NASCAR garage will see nothing but speedway racing for the first two weeks of the 2027 campaign. 

Feb. 13: Clash at Daytona

Feb. 17: Daytona 500 qualifying

Feb. 18: Daytona 500 qualifying duel races

Feb. 21: 69th Daytona 500

Feb. 28: Autotrader 400 at Atlanta

Condensed schedule full of speedway racing will put stress on teams

The schedule to start the season will also be more condensed. In recent years, NASCAR held the Clash two weeks before the season-opening Daytona 500, giving teams a week to breathe in between the exhibition event and the official start of a new campaign. 

Starting the season with the Daytona 500 and another drafting race at Atlanta is already taxing enough on teams, but for those who will also partake in the Clash, things will only be more stressful. There's a chance that some race teams are forced to go through two or three cars just for the eight days that they are in Daytona, should a driver be involved in a crash in the Clash, their duel race and the Daytona 500. 

Add another chaotic race at Atlanta in the mix in only the second official race of the season, and you have a recipe for a money pit and a junkyard. 

"It's definitely a big challenge," said James Small, the crew chief for Chase Briscoe and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team, speaking Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "Not only on the shop side and preparing the cars, but obviously speedway racing brings inherent risks. More chances for wrecking and creating downstream effects with chassis' for the weeks after. 

"So, not only that, it's a little bit of a strain on the engine suppliers. They don't obviously have as many speedway spec engines. Trying to get all them lined up for early in the year. Challenges on all fronts."

2027 will be the first time since 2020 that the Clash, which first ran in 1979, will be held on the Daytona oval. NASCAR hosted the exhibition race on the Daytona road course in 2021, at the LA Memorial Coliseum from 2022-24 and at Bowman Gray Stadium in 2025 and 2026.