After 77 years in existence, NASCAR can be excused if fans and even the teams themselves think that one season is oftentimes like the next.

Same superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega; same 1.5-mile tracks like Charlotte, Las Vegas and Kansas; same road courses like Sonoma and Watkins Glen (although that has expanded in recent years, thankfully); same bullrings like Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond; and a host of other tracks like Phoenix, Loudon, Michigan and a return this year to Chicagoland to round out the 36-race Cup schedule.

In recent years, we’ve seen NASCAR hold its first-ever street race in Chicago, and there’s great anticipation for this year’s temporary street race on Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.

But one thing quite possibly may outrank everything else from Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 to the season finale in early November at Homestead-Miami:

Will fans be able to trust NASCAR after last year’s contentious anti-trust lawsuit between the sanctioning body vs. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports?

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Was NASCAR overconfident heading into the trial, only to be shocked into settling abruptly?

In the lead-up to what would surprisingly be an abbreviated eight-day trial, and then the abrupt settlement where NASCAR essentially gave in to all of the plaintiff’s demands, fans questioned their loyalty to a sport that many believed wasn’t as loyal in kind to them and their favorite teams.

NASCAR was absolutely rocked to its core when revelations became public about numerous verbal or written communications from some of the sport’s top officials criticizing – if not making downright disparaging comments – about individual teams, team owners, drivers, and more.

With Phelps gone, so too is the title of NASCAR commissioner

And while he claimed he left his role voluntarily at the end of last month, many believe now-former commissioner Steve Phelps – who reportedly uttered or wrote some of those comments – had no other choice but to resign or walk the plank and be fired.

While such a possibility may be hard to believe for some, consider this: Phelps held one of the shortest commissioner tenures in all of sports, just 10 months with that distinctive and job-defining title.

But once Phelps announced he was resigning, NASCAR quickly made its own counter-announcement that it would go back in time and no longer have a dedicated commissioner position, even though Phelps had lobbied for that title for several years beforehand, believing it would hold more weight much like Roger Goodell as Commissioner of the NFL.

Rather, the job title of NASCAR Commissioner was a one-and-done with Phelps, and that his chief successor, Steve O’Donnell, will go forward as the sport’s leader and revert to the title of NASCAR President.

Fans initially appear to be forgiving and trusting of NASCAR, but there’s a long season still to go

While it had to endure some downright embarrassing moments when comments and the like became public, NASCAR still did a good job at damage control for all the negative comments that surfaced both before and during the trial.

Now, the 2026 season will be proof in the pudding if that damage control will have successfully done its job long-term, and that fans will once again trust NASCAR going forward.

So far, so good. If fans mistrusted NASCAR, Sunday’s 68 Running of the Daytona 500 – the Great American Race – would not be sold out both attendance-wise, as well as a full sell-out of advertising spots for FOX Sports.

And there’s also the hard-fought battle by both fans and teams that after years of criticism and calls for a new format, NASCAR finally agreed to change much of its 10-race Cup playoff structure.

That one change alone literally had fans and drivers dancing in the streets, yet another plus for NASCAR to redeem itself in the public’s eyes and hearts.

For much of its history, NASCAR had a bully-like “our way or the highway” mentality, particularly from former president Bill France Jr. But when things suddenly turned bad (like during the recession of 2008 and 2009), NASCAR couldn’t have been more fan-friendly and open to suggestions for positive change for fans to occupy what once used to be filled seats that since had gone empty.

Now, with the fallout from the trial, NASCAR finds itself back to trying to convince fans that it has changed for the better and positive, and that those same fans will miss a lot of good racing, excitement and emotionally-charged competition if they don’t come back into the stock car racing fold.

Plenty of questions still remain — what will the answers ultimately be?

Will fans, drivers and even team owners ultimately give NASCAR a mulligan and once again trust its leaders going forward? Will the new leaders such as O’Donnell realize they can never again take advantage of or try and fool some of the smartest and wisest sports fans in all forms of sport?

As long as NASCAR is trusty and transparent, yes, I think 2026 will be the start of a big comeback for the sport. It may not happen in a few months; it may even take a few years before long-time fans who became disenchanted by the back-room deals and criticizing will return to the cheering and money-spending fold (we’re still waiting if Richard Childress will go through with his threatened suit vs. NASCAR for some of the disparaging and nefarious comments that were directed at and about him).

Yes, NASCAR learned a lot of valuable lessons during the roughly 18 months from filing of the lawsuit on up to the trial itself. That’s why what was originally thought would be a three-week or longer trial barely made it to just eight days of in-court action before NASCAR threw in the towel and offered a settlement.

In the end, it may not have been what NASCAR sought in the trial’s outcome, but once both sides get over any lingering hard feelings and excitement starts building as we go through the 2026 season, it should start NASCAR back on the path to being trusted once again and lead almost everyone back to being happy with the sport as a whole and with each other individually.

We can only hope.