2020 NASCAR Cup Series (Simpsonverse)

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series is the 72nd season for NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States and the 49th season for the modern-era Cup Series. The season began at Road America, with the Texaco 250, then at Daytona International Speedway with the Busch Clash and its qualifier, the Gatorade Duel qualifying races and the 62nd running of the Daytona 500. The season will end with the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on December 14, 2020. Adam Petty enters as the defending series champion.

This season was scheduled to be the final year for the Strictly Stock Car II, with the Strictly Stock Car III debuting in 2021. However, when the coronavirus pandemic postponed all NASCAR racing (and therefore, testing) until the month of May, the sanctioning body announced that the debut of the car would be pushed back a year to 2022.

This is the final season for part-timer Brendan Gaughan, along with veterans Blaise Alexander and Jimmie Johnson. This is also the first Cup Series season without Jamie McMurray since 2001 and Paul Menard since 2004.

When the season was put on hold due to the coronavirus, drivers from all NASCAR series, including most Cup Series drivers, participated in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series during that time.

Part-time teams
Note:


 * Only teams that have officially announced or mentioned that they hope to compete in 2020 are listed.

Manufacturer changes

 * Nissan will enter NASCAR competition with Gaunt Brothers Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing, fielding the Sentra.
 * JTG Daugherty Racing will switch to Dodge, marking the return of the Charger to the Cup Series; the Charger last ran in the Cup Series in 2012, and had been running in the Grand National Series (without factory support until 2017), as well as being the primary Dodge model in the K&N Pro Series and ARCA Racing Series.
 * Chevrolet upgraded the Camaro ZL1 to the ZL1 1LE model. The change was made primarily due to the pointed nose of the base ZL1 causing large multicar wrecks at Daytona and Talladega when attempting to push.

Schedule

 * }Crown Jewel races in bold

Changes due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

 * On March 16, 2020, NASCAR announced all race events through May 3 have been postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. CEO Trevor J. Simpson ultimately decided to run doubleheaders later in the season. To facilitate this, he ordered Talladega Superspeedway to install a lighting system so the GEICO 500 could be run after the Sugarland Shine 250 Truck Series race, then run the 1000Bulbs.com 500 the next day.
 * On April 30, 2020, it was announced that racing would recommence on May 17. Races will be run at Darlington, Charlotte, and North Wilkesboro, and will see the revival of the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, TranSouth 500 (as the Bugs Bunny 500, due to the character's 80th anniversary, as well as the 90th anniversary of the Looney Tunes franchise, being celebrated in 2020), Bank of America 500, and First Union 400 (as the Daffy Duck 400). Consideration is also being given for running races at Daytona, Homestead, and New Smyrna (which has never hosted a NASCAR race outside of the Sears All-American Racing Series). All races will be held without fans and, except for the World 600, the field will be set by owners points instead of heat races. To facilitate this, the U.S. Cellular 400 and Camping World 400 were cancelled, and it was also announced that the Toyota Owners 400 would not be made up; further cancellations may follow.