{"id":408685,"date":"2026-01-14T13:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/408685\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T13:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:07:12","slug":"kyle-larson-welcomes-nascar-championship-format-change-says-old-system-ran-its-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/408685\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Larson welcomes NASCAR championship format change, says old system ran its course"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Larson won a pair of NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series championships under the win-and-in, elimination style championship format. Of course, he will always fondly remember that time period in his career. <\/p>\n

NASCAR on Monday announced<\/a> the departure of that playoff system used from 2014-2025. As league president Steve O\u2019Donnell said, \u201cthe Chase is back.\u201d Larson believes it was time for a change, saying the old format had run its course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of heard rumors of it for at least a month and yeah, just happy. I think the old playoff system was exciting, but I think it also ran its course, and I think the style of what we\u2019re at now with the racecar that we got, I think it deserved a format change,\u201d Larson told Matt Weaver of Motorsport<\/a>. \u201cSo yeah, I would assume \u2014 I haven\u2019t heard everybody\u2019s comments on it \u2014 but I would assume anybody who is a previous contender for a championship with the playoff format is probably more happy that we have this format because I feel like your chances of winning a championship is higher for all of us now. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really tough to win, to make it to the round of four and then beat three other guys. Now, it comes down to 10 races, you can have a lot of belief in team like I do, be consistent and hopefully win some races as well. It sounds like there\u2019s more points paid for wins, so wins are still really important. And as always, just try to do a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson, with his championship win just over two months ago at Phoenix Raceway, became the last driver to win a title under the elimination style format. Beginning this season, NASCAR will usher in a new era. <\/p>\n

Kyle Larson approves of NASCAR championship format<\/p>\n

The points-based Chase system will reward consistency from drivers across the entire season. Under the new model, the top 16 drivers in regular season points after 26 races will advance to a 10-race playoff, with the champion determined by total points, a big change from the prior win-and-you\u2019re-in automatic berths and knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

Additionally, NASCAR will increase points for race wins from 40 to 55, to ensure victories still carry significant weight, while the regular season points leader will enter the Chase with a 25-point advantage. O\u2019Donnell\u00a0said the format strikes a balance between season-long importance and a playoff feel, emphasizing that \u201cevery single lap matters\u201d under the new system.<\/p>\n

There were arguments made for a return to the full-season points format. O\u2019Donnell called this the \u201cbest of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis [format] is the best of both worlds,\u201d O\u2019Donnell told\u00a0The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cI think for those who want just full-season points, no playoffs, you have points that matter, every single race matters. And for those who want a playoff, you have a playoff now, but it\u2019s points-based. And winning still really matters; you\u2019ve got to go out and compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we were missing was, we talked about every race mattering, but in this win-and-you\u2019re-in format, winning eliminated that at times, and that wasn\u2019t a good thing. We want drivers to go compete and run every single lap \u2014 every single lap matters \u2014 and this is going to deliver that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Larson won a pair of NASCAR Cup Series championships under the win-and-in, elimination style championship format. Of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-408685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}