was on display in November at Phoenix Raceway<\/a>, in the final Cup Series championship race of the elimination format. Denny Hamlin was three laps away from his first-ever championship when William Byron, who was also in the final four but well behind Hamlin in the race, blew a tire and hit a wall. This forced teams into pit road to change tires, and Kyle Larson ultimately passed Hamlin on the restart and won the championship.<\/p>\nComparing NASCAR’s playoff formats<\/p>\n
Old formatNew format<\/p>\n
Regular season<\/p>\n
26 races<\/p>\n
26 races<\/p>\n
Playoff drivers<\/p>\n
16<\/p>\n
16<\/p>\n
Qual. based on …<\/p>\n
Total points, plus win-and-in<\/p>\n
Total points only<\/p>\n
Playoff rounds<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
Races per round<\/p>\n
3 each in first 3 rounds, 1 title race<\/p>\n
10<\/p>\n
Eliminations?<\/p>\n
Bottom 4 after each of first 3 rounds<\/p>\n
No<\/p>\n
Champ determined by …<\/p>\n
Best finish of final 4 in title race<\/p>\n
Most points over all 10 races<\/p>\n
Still wanting to encourage drivers to race aggressively for a win \u2014 often a key selling point of the previous elimination format \u2014 NASCAR is increasing the points awarded for a victory, bumping the total from 40 to 55. The change is to dissuade drivers from being content with having a \u201cgood points day,\u201d a strategy drivers would often employ under previous consistency-based formats. Points awarded for other finishing positions, including the stage points handed out at intervals during the race, remain unchanged.<\/p>\n
The top driver at the conclusion of the regular season will enter the Chase with a 25-point cushion over the second seed. Simulations conducted by NASCAR via Racing Insights, NASCAR\u2019s official statistical service, showed the top seed would finish fifth or better in the playoffs a majority of the time.<\/p>\n
NASCAR\u2019s other two national series, the second-tier O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series (OAPS) and the third-tier Truck Series, are also switching to a Chase playoff format, with slight adjustments to the number of participants who qualify and the number of Chase races. Twelve drivers will compete in a nine-race playoff in the OAPS; 10 drivers will compete across seven races in Trucks.<\/p>\n
The elimination format was a radical departure from how NASCAR traditionally awarded its championship \u2014 both in the previous Chase era and, before that, when the winner was determined by a full season\u2019s worth of points from every race. In both models, consistency was paramount to winning the championship.<\/p>\n
NASCAR officials have contemplated changes to the playoff system for more than a year, and moving back to either a Chase or a full-season points system were the most cited options. Ultimately, the middle ground won out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis (format) is the best of both worlds,\u201d NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell told The Athletic. \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
The removal of the win-and-in will have a significant impact on strategy, most notably with the road-course specialists who have found success in the Cup Series under the elimination format. NASCAR races on only a handful of road and street courses throughout the year. Previously, winning even one of them put a car into the playoffs \u2014 and brought significant attention and financial benefits to the team. Now, it will require broader success to advance.<\/p>\n
The most notable example is Shane van Gisbergen, the former Australian Supercars driver who has come to the U.S. and, in short order, become NASCAR\u2019s most dominant road-course racer. His prowess in those events gave his team, Trackhouse Racing, a path to the Cup Series playoffs. He won four regular-season races last year and then a playoff race (albeit after he\u2019d already been eliminated).<\/p>\n
Van Gisbergen, though, struggled on NASCAR\u2019s traditional oval tracks, which make up the bulk of the schedule. If the new system had been in place last season, he would not have made the playoffs at all.<\/p>\n
![\"Joey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2184078787-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Two seasons ago, Joey Logano won his third Cup Series championship. His average finish in races \u2014 a measure of season-long consistency \u2014 was 17.1, the worst ever for a champion. (Jared C. Tilton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Last February, NASCAR convened a committee that included active and former drivers, track operators, NASCAR executives, television partners, media members \u2014 including The Athletic<\/a> \u2014 and other industry stakeholders to evaluate whether NASCAR should change its playoff format, then workshopped different formats that could potentially be implemented.<\/p>\nIn the discussions, it became apparent to league officials that while continuing to have a playoff was important, greater simplicity was needed than the knockout format that often left many complaining about its complexity. Last fall, after conducting simulations to evaluate the pros and cons of various formats, NASCAR settled on the new Chase. The details were finalized last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at where we want to go for the sport, it\u2019s a little bit more about embracing our roots, and then listening to a lot of the fans and listening to our industry, some of the veteran drivers as well,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cAnd we felt like, if you\u2019re going to go with that positioning, which is the essence of who we are as a sport, then your format and your championship should match that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those attending Monday\u2019s announcement were NASCAR Hall of Fame drivers Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr., and active drivers Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, both former Cup champions.<\/p>\n
Both Martin and Earnhardt, each of whom was on the playoff committee, have voiced their support for a season-long championship model, as NASCAR had from 1949-2003. But Martin\u2019s presence was especially notable, as he has been the most outspoken critic of NASCAR having a playoff format of any kind. He was there to support a format he sees as a balance between what he lobbied for and NASCAR\u2019s preference for a playoff, which it feels boosts interest during the fall months, when the sport competes professional and college football for audiences\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Martin told The Athletic. \u201cI think it\u2019s a huge win for NASCAR. It\u2019s a huge win for the competitors. \u2026 It\u2019s a huge win for the fans. No one loses in this format.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will have to be blazingly consistent and consistently fast to be our NASCAR champion under this system. I think it\u2019s fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CONCORD, N.C. \u2014 NASCAR is changing how it will determine its premier Cup Series champion, switching from its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":["post-433209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433209","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=433209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}