Chase Elliot stands on top of his car to celebrate his NASCAR Cup Series victory at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, on June 28, 2025. The NASCAR season ahead anticipates several changes to the playoff picture in 2026. Photo courtesy of @durag_dale on Instagram.
With the NASCAR season officially starting this weekend with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, some major changes have been implemented in NASCAR over the past month.
First off, the “playoffs” are no more. The playoff format that took place from 2017-2025 has officially been axed as viewership and fan engagement has been declining steadily since 2021.
The format had six different champions, Martin Truex Jr (2017), Joey Logano (2018, 2022, 2024), Kyle Busch (2019), Chase Elliott (2020), Kyle Larson (2021, 2025) and Ryan Blaney (2023).
The biggest gripe the fans had with the previous format is specifically against Logano in 2024. Logano won the championship in Phoenix that year but had a 17.11 average finish across all races.
That average finish was the lowest of any NASCAR champion in the history of the sport. That also includes this year’s finish In the Cup Series where Denny Hamlin led 208 out of the 312 total laps and was leading until a caution in the final three laps which, cemented Kyle Larson’s come from behind championship. In addition, Connor Zilisch’s Xfinity Series campaign, where he lost the championship with a few laps to go despite winning 10 out of the 33 races (the most ever by a rookie in Xfinity Series history), should be taken into account.
Those three scenarios were when NASCAR knew it was time for a change.
That’s why NASCAR switched back to “The Chase” format (used from 2004-2013) with a few changes.
For the Cup Series, there will be 10 races to decide the champion, then nine for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and finally, seven for the Trucks Series.
The field size will be the same as before, 16 for the Cup Series, 12 in the O’Reilly Series (formerly the Xfinity Series) and 10 in the Trucks Series.
The win and in rule is officially out, so if you win a race, you are no longer guaranteed into the Chase.
Another change is that race winners will now get 55 points for a win instead of the previous 40 (15 more than previously) and the other positions points do not change.
The format of NASCAR will face several changes this upcoming season. Due to low viewership, changes were made to create a more intriguing season and playoff picture. Photo courtesy of @Nascar on Instagram.
For the chase, the drivers’ points will be reset with first getting 2,100, second getting 2,075, third getting 2,065 and then each position from fourth to 16th getting a five-point drop for each seed after (16th gets 2000 points).
To win the new format you need to have the most points at the end of the 10, nine or seven races.
Also changing for the upcoming season is the fastest lap eligibility. In 2026, drivers will be disallowed from getting the fastest lap once their car has had repairs in the garage. So, if you set it before you wreck and go to the garage, it counts. This is because previously, cars that got wrecked and would go back to the garage, would come back down however many laps and take the fastest lap point. This was famously exploited by Kyle Larson and the No. 9.
Another change is NASCAR lowered the minimum age requirement for racing at 1.25 mile and short tracks in the O’Reilly Series to 17 and older.
NASCAR is also increasing the horsepower for Cup Series cars from road courses and oval tracks that are shorter than 1.5 miles to 750.
Penultimately, Cup Series drivers that have three or more years of experience in the Cup Series will be able to race more races in the lower Series in 2026. Cup drivers can now race up to 10 O’Reilly Series races and up to eight Truck Series races.
Finally, the Roval, which was at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the only playoff road course, will be switching to an oval this season.
With that being said, all the changes NASCAR has made have been received well by fans, and it will be fun to see what the Chase can produce in terms of playoff racing.