Under the changed system, both wins, and points are important in the championship. Earlier, the points mattered less, as the drivers with a win always ended up in the playoffs. From there on, they had to win a race to qualify for the next round.<\/p>\n
Apart from the win position, the remaining positions and stage points pay the same, but Elliott is saying even if you can\u2019t go for a win, you could still gain a lot with the points themselves.<\/p>\n
Under the upcoming format, the Top 10 drivers in terms of points will qualify for the Chase. In the end, NASCAR will reset the points and determine the champion based on the points gathered in the final 10 races of the season.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBut certainly, the amount of points that you\u2019re going to get for winning is eventually going to add up. So, look, I\u2019ve always kind of been a believer that I think a lot of the formats and things that, a lot of times it\u2019s going to come out in the wash. And to me, that was where as long as we had an opportunity for a format, to make it come out in the wash. I think we were doing the right thing. And to me, this format does that,\u201d he further added.<\/p>\n
![\"NASCAR,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a1ae3eaca26e21ca1c692d5f21d68b4d.jpeg\"\/)
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NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Wurth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY May 4, 2025 Fort Worth, Texas, USA NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott 9 is introduced before the start of the Wurth 400 race at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n
The new format rewards consistency over time, not just one-off results. Elliott believes that while individual races may feel chaotic, the points system will eventually balance things out with time. The most deserving drivers will naturally come to the top.<\/p>\n
The Chase is, therefore, NASCAR\u2019s genius compromise move, as it doesn\u2019t alienate either format and fulfills the long-term debate in the sport to reward consistency. The cons of the playoffs, like the luck factor and other things, are eliminated this way.<\/p>\n
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But how is Elliott\u2019s own 2026 looking like?<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott confident going into 2026<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott<\/a> is confident ahead of the new season, as the Hendrick Motorsports driver looks to repeat his 2020 run. Speaking about whether he will be able to take it from Kyle Larson, here\u2019s what the #9 driver had to say:<\/p>\n \u201cPerformance and the way you performed last year might not play out the same way this year. If you\u2019re judging off last year and the year before, yes, you could make that argument. But me, personally, if you looked back at last season, kind of the way we finished the year, I felt like we were getting into a place where I felt confident.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Elliott had a decent year in 2025, not excellent, where he won twice but didn\u2019t feel like a true championship contender. He was desperate for a win after his only win at Atlanta, and his second at Kansas finally shut down some critics who started questioning his form completely. That late-rise surely gave him some confidence moving into 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I do feel like you have a bigger sample set and more opportunities to string together more races and it not be so choppy.\u201d<\/p>\n Now with the new format, it\u2019s true that the field will be more open for the title. And Elliott stays optimistic about it.<\/p>\n The post Chase Elliott Breaks Down NASCAR\u2019s Genius \u2018Compromise\u2019 That Saved the Sport<\/a> appeared first on EssentiallySports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR surprised fans and experts when it reversed course and shifted from its usual, unpopular playoff system. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,10660,4387,174155,634,82],"class_list":["post-414164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chase","tag-chase-elliott","tag-holly-cain","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414164","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=414164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}