NASCAR reaches the penultimate weekend of the 2026 season at Martinsville, where all three national championships continue across three days of short-track racing.
The Craftsman Truck Series opens the weekend on Friday before the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races on Saturday. The Cup Series takes centre stage on Sunday, with Kyle Larson able to secure his third championship before the Homestead finale. Denny Hamlin is among those trying to stop him at a track where the Virginia native has won six times.
Here are the UK and US start times, TV details and full schedule for NASCAR’s 2026 Martinsville weekend.
NASCAR Martinsville 2026 schedule
Martinsville hosts the fourth of five consecutive tripleheader weekends to end the NASCAR season.
The Trucks race on Friday evening, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series follows on Saturday and the Cup Series Xfinity 500 starts at 2pm ET on Sunday. There is a time change to note for British viewers. The US remains on Eastern Daylight Time on Friday and Saturday before its clocks go back early on Sunday.
| Day | Session | US Eastern | UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | Truck practice | 12.30pm EDT | 4.30pm GMT |
| Friday | Truck qualifying | 1.35pm EDT | 5.35pm GMT |
| Friday | O’Reilly Series practice | 3pm EDT | 7pm GMT |
| Friday | O’Reilly Series qualifying | 4.05pm EDT | 8.05pm GMT |
| Friday | Truck Series – Black’s Tire 200 | 6pm EDT | 10pm GMT |
| Saturday | Cup Series practice | 1pm EDT | 5pm GMT |
| Saturday | Cup Series qualifying | 2.05pm EDT | 6.05pm GMT |
| Saturday | O’Reilly Series – National Debt Relief 250 | 4pm EDT | 8pm GMT |
| Sunday | Cup Series – Xfinity 500 | 2pm EST | 7pm GMT |
The Cup race runs for 500 laps and 263 miles around the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway.
How to watch NASCAR at Martinsville in the UK
Premier Sports holds NASCAR broadcast rights in the UK and Ireland. The main attraction is Sunday’s Cup Series Xfinity 500, with coverage on Premier Sports 2. The race itself starts at 7pm GMT, although Premier’s programme is scheduled to begin at 6.30pm.
Premier Sports is available as a standalone streaming service and through selected TV providers.
Coverage of NASCAR’s support series can differ from the Cup schedule, so viewers looking specifically for Friday’s Truck race or Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race should check their provider’s listings.
How to watch NASCAR at Martinsville in the US
The three national series are split between different broadcasters in the United States. Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series race starts at 6pm EDT on FS1, with practice and qualifying also shown on FS2 earlier in the day.
Saturday’s National Debt Relief 250 starts at 4pm EDT on The CW, with NASCAR Countdown Live beginning at 3.30pm. O’Reilly Series practice and qualifying on Friday are available through ESPN Unlimited.
Cup practice and qualifying begin at 1pm EDT on Saturday and are shown on truTV and HBO Max. Sunday’s Xfinity 500 is live on NBC and HBO Max, with NBC’s pre-race programme beginning at 1.30pm EST before the green flag at 2pm.
Can Larson win the NASCAR championship at Martinsville?
Larson arrives in Virginia with the opportunity to settle the championship one week early. His extraordinary Talladega victory transformed the NASCAR title race last Sunday. Larson dropped as low as 11th on the final lap before charging back through the pack to beat Hendrick Motorsports team-mate William Byron by just 0.041 seconds.
More importantly, the result moved Larson 73 points clear at the top of the standings. A maximum of 76 points will remain available at Homestead after Martinsville, so Larson is guaranteed his third Cup championship if he leaves Virginia at least 77 points ahead of every rival.
He can remove the permutations entirely by scoring 59 points on Sunday, irrespective of what anyone else does.
Hamlin faces last chance at one of his best tracks
For Hamlin, Martinsville could hardly be more important.
The 45-year-old is second in the championship but trails Larson by 73 points. As we explain in our look at Hamlin’s last-chance Martinsville title showdown, another difficult afternoon could end his pursuit of a first Cup championship before the finale.
Martinsville is at least an encouraging place for Hamlin to attempt a recovery.
He has six Cup victories at the circuit and dominated much of NASCAR’s first visit of 2026, starting from pole and leading 292 of the 400 laps. He eventually finished second.
Hamlin has 64 Cup victories and three Daytona 500 wins but has never won the championship. He was runner-up last season and could now see another opportunity disappear unless he takes a sizeable chunk out of Larson’s advantage.
Why Martinsville is different
At 0.526 miles, Martinsville is the shortest track on the NASCAR Cup calendar.
Its long straights and tight, relatively flat corners create the distinctive paperclip shape behind the circuit’s nickname, while 500 laps place a premium on brakes, tyre management and staying out of trouble in traffic.
There is little room for error. Contact is common, track position becomes increasingly important late in a run and the closing laps have a habit of becoming particularly physical when championship places are at stake.
That makes Martinsville a sharp change from Talladega, where Larson’s championship lead was built amid high-speed drafting and pack racing.
This weekend the title contenders face something altogether tighter.
And with the Formula 1 and MotoGP championships also reaching crucial weekends, Martinsville forms part of one of the busiest title weekends of the year.
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