North Wilkesboro Speedway is going to be adding a little bit of extra flair to its first points-paying NASCAR Cup Series event in three decades.
Officials from the North Carolina-based short track announced on Thursday that the race distance will be increased by 50 laps for the July 19 event, which will now be known as the Window World 450.
When the 2026 NASCAR schedules were released at the end of August, North Wilkesboro Speedway had obtained a points-paying race, which was scheduled to be 400 laps in length — like it had been 69 times between 1961 and 1996.
BUCKLE UP! 50 laps added to the 2026 @NASCAR Cup race at North Wilkesboro. ?#WindowWorld450 | ?: https://t.co/BCvry8fWqP pic.twitter.com/Ua8yN7UXa7
— North Wilkesboro Speedway (@NWBSpeedway) December 4, 2025
Instead, one of the most highly anticipated events of the 2026 NASCAR season will be 450 laps in length, instead of 400 — the first 450-lap event that the NASCAR Cup Series has had in more than half a century, when the 1973 oil crisis forced NASCAR to shorten the first 15 events of 1974 by 10%.
“North Wilkesboro Speedway is all about the fans, and adding more laps per dollar to the Window World 450 is sure to create a better experience for everyone who enters the gates,” said North Wilkesboro Speedway Executive Director Graig Hoffman.
“Sunday-night races are made to be a spectacle. The Window World 450 will be an electric night at America’s throwback race track, and the stakes will be higher than ever before with the winner punching a ticket to the NASCAR Playoffs.”
North Wilkesboro Speedway made its way back onto the NASCAR Cup Series calendar for the first time since 1996 when it was tapped to host NASCAR’s All-Star Race in 2023, an event that the 0.625-mile short track has hosted three times, with three different race-winners.
The extension of race distance makes this the third-longest short track event on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar, behind the Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway (306 miles) and the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway (300 miles).
On the same weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series races for points again at North Wilkesboro Speedway, both the zMAX CARS Tour and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will also be in action on Friday (CARS Tour) and Saturday (Truck Series).
