How nearly 2000 races has changed the face of Supercars

There might only be 82 days between the final race of the 2025 season and the 2026 season opener at Sydney Motorsport Park next month, but the two grids could barely look more different.

When the 24-strong full-time field begin the Sydney 500 on February 20, no fewer than 15 team, driver, and/or manufacturer combinations will be different year-on-year.

James Courtney, Will Davison, Nick Percat, Richie Stanaway, Bryce Fullwood, and Jaxon Evans are all out of full-time drives in 2026, with the departures of the first three in particular representing a changing of the guard.

To underscore just how much of a presence the drivers above have had on the sport, they combine for a total of 1950 career Supercars starts, spanning all the way back to 2004 in Davison's case.

In their place come five rookies, namely Rylan Gray, Zach Bates, Jobe Stewart, Jayden Ojeda, and Jackson Walls. Declan Fraser also returns after two years out of a full-time ride.

The five rookies combine for just 32 career starts in Supercars, of which Ojeda has contributed 20 of those starts. Walls is yet to to make a single start even as a co-driver, whilst Fraser only adds an additional 33 after his sole full-time campaign.

Amidst such widespread change, it has seen the experience levels of teams change drastically amid several new-look rosters for the 2026 season.

Who has the most experienced driver pairing in 2026?

It's a bold new era for Team 18, who will start their first campaign as Chevrolet's homologation team. They do so with most experienced driver line-up on the grid, with Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds combining for 729 career starts.

That moves the factory Chevrolet squad from second on the experience charts last year, with the Shell V-Power Racing Team dropping from first to eighth after Davison's departure and the signing of Gray.

Brad Jones Racing move up to second, despite Fullwood being replaced by the less experienced, but race-winning Cameron Hill, whilst Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw TWG Racing both move up three spots to third and fourth.

Of the five teams who are fielding rookies, four are down in the bottom five positions on the leaderboard, namely Dick Johnson Racing, PremiAir Racing (10th), Erebus Motorsport (11th), and SCT Motorsport (12th).

Breaking up the quartet is Penrite Racing in ninth, who have two of the most promising young talents in the sport in Matt Payne and Kai Allen, but only have a combined 125 starts between them.

The other team to be fielding a rookie, Matt Stone Racing, find themselves in the middle of the road in sixth, with Zach Bates being paired with veteran Jack Le Brocq.

2026 Repco Supercars Championship teams

Combined driver race starts

*Brad Jones Racing are a three-car team

^SCT Motorsport are a single-car team