NASCAR to Use 2026 St. Petersburg Truck Race as a “Case Study” for Future IndyCar Collaborations

NASCAR’s biggest competitor on American soil is the IndyCar Series. But being a direct rival doesn’t mean the two giants can’t work together. Differences will be shelved on February 28, 2026, as the Craftsman Truck Series travels to St. Petersburg, Florida, for one of its two scheduled street course races. This venture will be in partnership with the IndyCar Series.

Using this new beginning as a case study, NASCAR hopes to delve deeper into its relationship with the open-wheel racing series. Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer, confirmed the same in a recent press conference after being asked if more such partnerships can be expected in the future.

He said, “We’re going to collaborate with them on the St. Pete race next year, and the good news is we have such a good relationship with Doug, with Bud, with Roger, the entire team over at IndyCar, and there are a lot of synergies as well, with them having Fox as a broadcast partner, we have Fox for the first part of our season.”

The number of natural opportunities for NASCAR to collaborate with the IndyCar Series is high. He pointed the same out and added, “I think St. Pete next year will be a good kind of case study for us.” Notably, this isn’t the first time that the two series have raced at tracks held by the other on the same weekend.

In 2020, IndyCar’s GMR Grand Prix and the Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150 raced back-to-back on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. It was one of the first double-header weekends between the two series at the same race track. This approach continued from 2021 to 2023 when the track hosted integrated weekends, with some races on the oval and the others on the road course.

In 2026, the Truck Series will race at the 1.8-mile St. Petersburg street circuit that the IndyCar Series uses for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend. The trucks will race on Saturday, and the IndyCar Series will race on Sunday. Hopefully, this historic collaboration will end up being a hit among the fans.

The second scheduled Truck Series street race of 2026 will be held alongside the Xfinity and Cup Series in San Diego from June 19-21.