Window World 450

The Window World 450 marks a homecoming decades in the making: for the first time since 1996, the Cup Series runs a points race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the 0.625-mile short track tucked into the North Carolina foothills that helped build NASCAR from its very first season in 1949. Left to decay for 25 years after Jeff Gordon won the last Cup race here, North Wilkesboro was scanned for a video game, then lovingly restored and reopened in 2022, hosting the All-Star Race from 2023 through 2025 before earning its points date back. The old place still races like nowhere else: the frontstretch dips downhill while the backstretch climbs, the banking is uneven and worn, and the single-groove bullring rewards a driver who can roll the center of the corner and protect the bottom lap after lap. Across 450 laps and 281 miles, split into stages at 80, 265, and 450, the 2026 running became a coronation. Joey Logano rolled off 11th, took control, and led a race-high 323 laps, holding off Denny Hamlin by 0.859 seconds at the flag. Chase Briscoe authored the charge of the day, slicing from 30th to third, while Ty Gibbs (who led 47 laps from the front row) came home fourth and Shane van Gisbergen took fifth after pacing 49 circuits of his own. Seventeen lead changes among nine drivers and five cautions for 43 laps kept the timing tower busy, but the story never really changed: on a track NASCAR nearly lost forever, Logano turned a historic return into a short-track clinic.