Photo by Gustavo Salazar via Pexels (free to use)
September is the month the 2026 season stops being a season and starts being a reckoning. NASCAR’s revived Chase is four races deep by the time the month closes, Formula 1 visits a brand-new circuit and then runs a Grand Prix on a Saturday, IndyCar has already crowned its champion, and the NHRA’s Countdown opens at two tracks that have never held a national event. Below is every professional motorsport event running between September 1 and September 30, 2026 — what has already been decided, what is still to come, and where to watch it.
September 2026 at a glance
Five race weekends, four continents, and almost no idle Sundays. Here is the month broken down by weekend.
| Weekend | Headline events |
|---|---|
| Sept 2–7 | NHRA U.S. Nationals (regular-season finale) · F1 Italian GP, Monza · WEC Lone Star Le Mans, COTA · NASCAR Chase opener at Darlington · IndyCar season finale, Laguna Seca · WorldSBK Magny-Cours · BTCC Croft |
| Sept 10–13 | F1 Spanish GP at the Madring (new circuit) · MotoGP San Marino, Misano · WRC Rally Chile · NASCAR Cup at World Wide Technology Raceway · Supercars at The Bend · DTM Sachsenring |
| Sept 17–20 | NASCAR Bristol night race (Cup, O’Reilly, Trucks, ARCA) · IMSA Battle on the Bricks, Indianapolis · NHRA Countdown opener, Michigan · MotoGP Austria · SUPER GT SUGO · GTWC Europe Zandvoort |
| Sept 24–27 | F1 Azerbaijan GP (Saturday race) · WEC 6 Hours of Fuji · NASCAR Cup at Kansas · NHRA at Rockingham · WorldSBK Cremona · SRO America at Barber · BTCC Silverstone |
| Sept 28–30 | SCCA National Championship Runoffs begin at Road America · Petit Le Mans race week opens at Road Atlanta |
For a closer look at the weekend immediately ahead, our Motorsport Weekend Guide for September 11–13 has session times and the storylines worth following.
NASCAR: four Chase races, no safety net
2026 is the first year of the revived Chase, and it changes how every September race reads. Sixteen Cup drivers qualified on regular-season points alone — win-and-you’re-in is gone — and their points were reset with staggered seeding before Darlington. There are no elimination rounds and no cutoff races this autumn: the driver with the most points after ten races is champion, and a win is now worth 55 points instead of 40. If you have been reading the schedule through the old bracket, our explainer on how NASCAR’s playoff elimination rounds were structured is useful background for what has been dismantled.
NASCAR Cup Series
| Date | Race | Track | Distance | TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun, Sept 6 | Cook Out Southern 500 (Chase race 1) | Darlington Raceway, SC | 367 laps / 501.3 mi | USA Network |
| Sun, Sept 13 | Enjoy Illinois 300 (Chase race 2) | World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, IL | 240 laps / 300 mi | USA Network |
| Sat, Sept 19 | Bass Pro Shops Night Race (Chase race 3) | Bristol Motor Speedway, TN | 500 laps / 266.5 mi | USA Network |
| Sun, Sept 27 | Hollywood Casino 400 (Chase race 4) | Kansas Speedway, KS | 267 laps / 400.5 mi | USA Network |
Bristol is the weekend with the most theatre attached to it — and not only because of the racing. Brad Pitt is the grand marshal for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, though the real pressure under the lights is on a points sheet that no longer resets. Kansas, meanwhile, closes the month with the Chase a third of the way run, and the driver market has already moved past it: Corey Day’s 2027 Cup debut was confirmed while this season was still being decided.
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
The series formerly known as Xfinity carries a new title sponsor and a 12-driver, nine-race Chase of its own.
| Date | Race | Track | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Sept 5 | Fleetio 200 (Chase opener) | Darlington Raceway, SC | The CW |
| Sat, Sept 12 | Nu Way 225 | World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, IL | The CW |
| Fri, Sept 18 | Food City 300 | Bristol Motor Speedway, TN | The CW |
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
| Date | Race | Track | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Sept 17 | UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics (Chase opener) | Bristol Motor Speedway, TN | FS1 |
| Sat, Sept 26 | RacetoStopSuicide.com 200 | Kansas Speedway, KS | FS1 |
ARCA Menards Series
| Date | Race | Track | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun, Sept 6 | Audubon Park 100 | DuQuoin State Fairgrounds (1-mile dirt), IL | FS1 |
| Sat, Sept 12 | ARCA at Salem | Salem Speedway, IN | FS2 |
| Thu, Sept 17 | Bush’s Beans 200 | Bristol Motor Speedway, TN | FS1 |
| Fri, Sept 25 | Season finale | Kansas Speedway, KS | FS1 |
More stock car coverage lives in our NASCAR section.
Formula 1: a new circuit and a Saturday Grand Prix
| Date | Round | Circuit | US TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 4–6 (race Sun 6) | Pirelli Gran Premio d’Italia | Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy | Apple TV |
| Sept 11–13 (race Sun 13) | TAG Heuer Gran Premio de España | Madring, Madrid, Spain | Apple TV |
| Sept 24–26 (race Sat 26) | Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix | Baku City Circuit, Azerbaijan | Apple TV |
Monza delivered the result of the month so far: Kimi Antonelli came from 19th on the grid to win, making him the first Italian to win at Monza since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. Behind him, Ferrari beat itself at Turn 1 before anyone else got the chance, and the fallout followed the team out of Italy — Leclerc’s crash left an engine problem, not just a bad result, heading into Madrid.
Madrid is the unknown quantity. The Madring is new to everyone, and the simulator work has not been reassuring: Pierre Gasly’s rough week on the sim is the most honest preview of the track anybody has offered. Both F2 and F3 support the Madrid weekend, with F3 closing its season there on an expanded finale format; F2 continues to Baku, F3 does not.
| Date | FIA Formula 2 | FIA Formula 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 4–6 | Round 10, Monza — Joshua Duerksen swept both races | Round 9, Monza — Taito Kato (sprint), Nicola Lacorte (feature) |
| Sept 11–13 | Round 11, Madring | Round 10, Madring — season finale |
| Sept 24–26 | Round 12, Baku | — |
Everything single-seater is filed under Formula 1.
Sports cars and endurance racing
FIA World Endurance Championship
| Date | Round | Circuit | US coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 4–6 | Lone Star Le Mans (Round 6) | Circuit of the Americas, Austin, TX | TNT Sports / HBO Max; FIA WEC+ |
| Sept 25–27 | 6 Hours of Fuji (Round 7) | Fuji Speedway, Japan | TNT Sports / HBO Max; FIA WEC+ |
COTA went to the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P after the leading #7 Toyota lost hydraulics roughly ten minutes from the flag. In LMGT3 the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin took a home win that was decided by a five-second penalty and a dead air-conditioning unit — one of the stranger routes to a trophy this season.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
| Date | Event | Circuit | US coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Sept 19 | Michelin Pilot Challenge: Indianapolis 120 | Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course | Peacock / IMSA TV |
| Sun, Sept 20 | TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks (Round 10) | Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course | NBC + Peacock, 3:00 p.m. ET |
| Sept 30–Oct 3 | Motul Petit Le Mans (race week opens Sept 30; race Oct 3) | Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, GA | Peacock / NBC |
SRO America and Trans Am
| Date | Event | Circuit | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 3–6 (races Sat 5) | Trans Am CTMP SpeedTour (Round 10) | Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, ON | Racing America |
| Sept 17–20 | Trans Am VIR SpeedTour (Round 11) | VIRginia International Raceway, VA | Racing America |
| Sept 25–27 | GT World Challenge America, GT America, Pirelli GT4 America, TC America | Barber Motorsports Park, AL | GT World YouTube / SRO Twitch; FS1 highlights |
Long-distance coverage collects under Endurance.
IndyCar: the season that ended before the month did
IndyCar has no events left in September. The Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 6 closed the season, and Scott McLaughlin’s win there ended a long drought while leading 87 of 95 laps. The title had already gone to Álex Palou a week earlier at Milwaukee — his fifth — and the margin tells its own story: Palou won by 86 points, with second through fifth effectively racing a separate championship. If you want the mechanics behind that, our piece on how IndyCar’s points system rewards consistency explains why the gap looks the way it does.
Indy NXT finished on the same weekend: Josh Pierson won Saturday’s race, Tymek Kucharczyk took Sunday’s, and Nikita Johnson clinched the title. Everything open-wheel and American is in IndyCar.
NHRA: the Countdown opens on unfamiliar ground
| Date | Event | Track | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 2–7 | Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals (regular-season finale, 1.5x points) | Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, IN | FS1 / FOX |
| Sept 18–20 | Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by Mopar (Countdown race 1) | US 131 Motorsports Park, Martin, MI | FS1, Sun 2 p.m. ET |
| Sept 25–27 | NHRA Nationals at The Rock (Countdown race 2) | Rockingham Dragway, NC | FS1, Sun 3 p.m. ET |
Indianapolis reset the professional classes on the way in: Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel), Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) took the Wallys, and four trophies produced three new points leaders going into the Countdown.
Rally and rallycross
| Date | Event | Base | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 10–13 | WRC Rally Chile Biobío (Round 12) | Concepción, Chile — 16 gravel stages, 311.18 km | Rally.TV |
| Sept 12–13 | Euro RX of Portugal (season finale) | Lousada, Portugal | FIA rallycross channels |
Chile is the only World Championship rally inside the month, and it is running now. Loose-surface coverage is filed under Rally.
Two wheels: MotoGP, WorldSBK and MotoAmerica
| Date | Event | Circuit | US coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 4–6 | WorldSBK Acerbis French Round | Magny-Cours, France | WorldSBK VideoPass |
| Sept 11–13 | MotoGP Gran Premio di San Marino (+ Moto2/Moto3) | Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, Italy | FOX Sports / MotoGP VideoPass |
| Sept 11–13 | MotoAmerica Round 8 | Circuit of the Americas, TX | Samsung TV Plus / MotoAmerica Live+ |
| Sept 18–20 | MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix (+ Moto2/Moto3) | Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria | FOX Sports / MotoGP VideoPass |
| Sept 25–27 | WorldSBK EICMA Italian Round | Cremona Circuit, Italy | WorldSBK VideoPass |
| Sept 25–27 | MotoAmerica Round 9 (season finale) | New Jersey Motorsports Park, NJ | Samsung TV Plus / MotoAmerica Live+ |
Misano and the Red Bull Ring are two very different aerodynamic problems, which is worth keeping in mind while watching back-to-back weekends — our explainer on how aerodynamics evolved on modern MotoGP motorcycles covers why. More at MotoGP.
Touring cars, GT and international championships
| Date | Series | Event | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 5–6 | BTCC | Rounds 22–24, Croft | UK |
| Sept 11–13 | Supercars | AirTouch 500 at The Bend (enduro opener) | Australia |
| Sept 11–13 | DTM | Round 7, Sachsenring | Germany |
| Sept 18–20 | SUPER GT | Round 6, Sportsland SUGO | Japan |
| Sept 18–20 | GT World Challenge Europe | Sprint Cup, Zandvoort | Netherlands |
| Sept 26–27 | BTCC | Rounds 25–27, Silverstone | UK |
Two championships that might be expected here are not: Formula E’s season ended in London in August, and Super Formula’s calendar jumps straight from August at SUGO to October at Fuji. International coverage sits under World.
Club and grassroots racing
The SCCA National Championship Runoffs open at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on September 28 and run through October 4 — the largest amateur championship event in American road racing, with national titles decided across more than two dozen classes. It is the quiet counterweight to a month otherwise dominated by professional championships.
Where to watch: quick reference
| Series | US home |
|---|---|
| Formula 1, F2, F3 | Apple TV (F1 TV Premium included) |
| NASCAR Cup & Trucks | USA Network / HBO Max; FS1 for Trucks and ARCA |
| NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series | The CW |
| IMSA | NBC and Peacock |
| FIA WEC | TNT Sports / HBO Max; FIA WEC+ |
| NHRA | FOX and FS1 |
| MotoGP | FOX Sports; MotoGP VideoPass |
| WorldSBK | WorldSBK VideoPass |
| WRC | Rally.TV |
| SRO America / GT World Challenge | GT World YouTube and SRO Twitch (free); FS1 highlights |
What September decides
Three championships are already settled — IndyCar, Indy NXT and, by the end of the month, ARCA. Three more are being shaped in public: NASCAR’s Chase is four races into ten with no eliminations to hide behind, the NHRA’s Countdown has reset four professional classes onto two brand-new dragstrips, and Formula 1 arrives at a circuit nobody has raced before and then runs a Grand Prix on a Saturday. October will be about closing things out. September is where the positions get taken.
All images are royalty-free stock photography sourced from Pexels and are illustrative rather than depicting the specific events listed. Schedules and broadcast listings are subject to change; confirm final session times with each series’ official source.
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