Welcome to the official NASCAR 26 Career Mode walkthrough! In this series, we’ll give you the inside line on making the most out of your NASCAR 26 career, working your way up from a start-up team in the ARCA Menards Series to the upper echelons of the NASCAR Cup Series.
Today, we’re going to take the next step in your career and move into the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Expanding The Operation
If you thought that having two cars was nice in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, you’ll be even more excited about the three-car rotation that the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series offers you. With more vehicles on hand, the amount of races you’ll run between new part purchases expands even further, and a higher level of competition means larger race payouts as well.
At the same time, you’ll need to be more strategic on how you spend Work Points—it may not be possible to get everything repaired right away. You may also want to use the Team section to create visual differences between your three vehicles so you have a cue that reminds you which car you’re running each week.
Facility Upgrades
As with your time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, you’ll have to wait until after Daytona to buy new parts for your cars, but there are four new opportunities to improve your Facilities right away. The four Facility upgrades that are unlocked at this level are as follows:
- Start Corporate Outreach: Find higher quality sponsors that pay more money for each race start and incentive goal.
- Build Fabrication Shop: Increase the amount of Mechanics you can hire from four to six.
- Start R&D Department: Unlock the ability to hire a Performance Manager, which allows you to open research and development.
- Create Media Branch of PR Department: Unlock the ability to hire a Media Specialist, allowing you to earn bonus Reputation Points every time you complete a PR Opportunity.
For some of these upgrades, you’ll see candidates show up before you’ve unlocked the ability to hire for a role. Be sure to make note of who you can put into action before you take them on—you won’t be able to do anything with a role you haven’t unlocked!
The Chase
If all goes well during your O’Reilly season, you’ll once again earn a spot in the Chase, which expands to 12 drivers and nine races at this level. Here’s a look at the nine tracks you’ll face off with in the postseason:
- Darlington Raceway
- World Wide Technology Raceway
- Bristol Motor Speedway
- Las Vegas Motor Speedway
- Charlotte Motor Speedway
- Phoenix Raceway
- Talladega Superspeedway
- Martinsville Speedway
- Homestead-Miami Speedway
Not only have you seen six of these tracks already during the season, but six of the last seven also made up the core of your Truck title run. By now you should be well familiar with what it takes to run up front at these facilities, and how to make the most out of managing your three-car fleet.
Next time, we’ll focus on the highest level of competition in NASCAR 26: the NASCAR Cup Series.
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