The sport has continued to grow more and more standardized over the years. In the pre-Next Gen era, Cup and its feeder divisions mixed ingenuity with hand-me-down parts. Cup teams built fleets of bespoke chassis and, after a season or two, sold them downstream to Xfinity and Trucks, helping smaller outfits stay afloat. That ecosystem, plus a patchwork of race-by-race purses, kept many mid-pack teams alive even when sponsorship ebbed. One can trace how much the economy has tightened by the exits and contractions over the last decade, from Richard Childress Racing shuttering its Truck team after 2013 to Brad Keselowski conceding his Truck outfit losing $1 million before closing in 2017, and Stewart-Haas Racing folding all NASCAR teams after 2024.

And spec racing changed the calculus. The Truck Series’ Ilmor NT1 spec engines, green-lit in 2018, lowered the technical bar to entry but also compressed competitive advantages. Jordan Anderson also said that approval “made [his] dream of owning a NASCAR truck team” viable. At the same time, the march toward standardized parts in the Cup Next Gen cars shifted to refurbish hand-me-downs, raising costs just as sponsorship fragmented. In Xfinity, owners like Alpha Prime’s Tommy Joe Martins have been unusually transparent lately about money flows, describing, “We get paid, if you’re a full-time team, you get paid the exact same amount for every race you run in the schedule, whether that is Charlotte or Portland, it is paying the exact same,” making it good for predictability, but challenging for making a budget pencil out.

And now the garage buzz is growing louder. As Denny Hamlin put it on his Actions Detrimental podcast, “From what I’m hearing in the truck series is that NASCAR is telling them… This is a rumor. I don’t know if this is factual, but it’s a rumor. They need them to go to spec trucks by 2028. Everyone’s going to scrap all their stuff. It’s going to happen to the Xfinity series as well.” His warning lands in a paddock already wrestling with standardized components at multiple levels and dwindling trickle-down equipment. Whether one views spec as a cost cap or a cost bomb depends on which side of the balance sheet one lives on.

Layer onto that the 2026 title-sponsor transition: O’Reilly Auto Parts replacing Xfinity as the second tier’s naming partner. O’Reilly Auto Parts President Brent Kirby expressed enthusiasm in the partnership, stating, “Our company is rooted in the same values that define NASCAR: teamwork, enthusiasm and dedication. You’ll see those in action when our customers walk through our doors. We know they need fast service, and Team O’Reilly will get them the parts they need quickly, with excellent customer service. We welcome all fans to stop by our stores and see how our team can help keep them running.” 

Yet, a new badge alone doesn’t fix purse math for smaller teams suddenly buying more new cars and scrambling for partners. Meanwhile, media reports pegged NASCAR’s target for the new title deal in the mid-eight-figure annually, underscoring how much revenue the sanctioning body must convert into healthier team economics if spec mandates expand.

On the other hand, fans feel the cross-current every weekend, with tighter fields, familiar parity, and, at times, fewer underdog swings. The open question, especially if Hamlin’s rumor proves prescient, is whether a fuller spec push will free up budgets or merely resent them higher with another round of one-time write-offs. That tension is the heartbeat of the next two seasons.

Debate rages as supporters and skeptics weigh in NASCAR rumor

A sharp observer noticed, “Body panels – teams still build their chassis. It’s why JRM is whipping everyone this year, they’ve figured out something. Everyone will get the same stuff now.” This insight resonates with NASCAR’s 2017 rollout of flange-fit composite bodies in Xfinity. They were 13 rules-tight panels that bolstered parity and limited aero tweaks, theoretically leveling the playing field. Joe Gibbs Racing, parent to JRM, was ahead of that curve, comfortably ahead in early composite body adoptions and even testing in wind tunnels for aero tuning. While everyone now runs identical composites, JRM’s craftsmanship in fine-tuning setups may explain why they consistently edge the competition this season.

One observer questioned, “I don’t understand why they started with cup as a spec series first. You’d think it makes more sense to do the other 2 first. (Trucks basically already has been tho).” After all, the Truck Series has long featured standardized crate engines, the Ilmor NT1 spec V8 introduced in 2018, effectively creating a spec environment in the powertrain department. Meanwhile, the Cup Series, which still allowed teams to build bespoke chassis until 2022, became the first to fully adopt a uniform parts model with Next Gen car’s modular design, single-supplier bodies, and common hardware.

Others also noted, “Of all series.. Arca and trucks should be closest to spec for the reason that they are series for drivers working their way up to learn the ropes. While XFinity is also for learning it is also supposed to be the crossover from those ‘entry’ series and the big time of Cup.” In ARCA, teams often still run steel-bodied Gen-4 Cup cars, sometimes decades old, illustrating affordability and continuity. Larry Clement also estimated a full-season budget at just 10 percent of Cup costs. The series also employs flange-fit composite bodies and spec or build-engine options, which significantly drive down expenses for rookie teams. For Xfinity, the demand for expansion, specialized equipment undermines its developmental intent.

For many NASCAR Truck Series underdogs, economic survival hinges on cobbling together ancient chassis from the scrap pile. As one fan added, “How do the economics work for say the Truck series? I know they small teams buy and run very old chassis (like 10+ years), but are the large teams building new trucks and thats how they get spread around or are there still enough chassis’ from the 2010s? It makes sense to move to spec once the after-market for truck chassis dries up from crashes and whatnot, but idk if that ever really happens.” Running on legacy hardware only hides the frantic economics; another crash can mean no chance of repair, prompting an increasing number of owners to cheer whispers of a properly funded spec series that would guarantee continuity.

Another fan, tongue-in-cheek, described NASCAR’s spec direction as, “I actually thought this was the 3D chess of the ridiculous Mamba statement, if we say it’s all about the drivers not the teams NASCAR will spin it around and basically say well then why do we need teams? Let’s just give them all the same cars like IROC.” The IROC Series, co-founded by Roger Penske, was famously rooted in identically-prepared Porsches or Camaros to test driver skill alone, stripping away manufacturer advantage and team engineering nuances. Now, fans joke about NASCAR heading in that direction with the idea of phasing out team identity in favor of pure driver performance.

Change may bring clarity and cost savings, but NASCAR’s heart lies in the rivalries, brand creativity, and team ingenuity, still under threat. As the sport considers more spec elements, controlling costs isn’t the only goal; retaining fan passion matters just as much.