{"id":446927,"date":"2026-02-01T09:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T09:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/446927\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T09:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T09:21:10","slug":"shane-van-gisbergen-shares-mixed-feelings-on-nascars-switch-to-chase-format","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/446927\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane van Gisbergen Shares Mixed Feelings On NASCAR\u2019s Switch To Chase Format"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane van Gisbergen has shared his mixed feelings about the removal of the playoffs format in NASCAR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NASCAR confirmed the changes ahead of the 2026 season. Instead of the win-and-you’re-in and elimination style of the playoffs, the chase format will see the top-16 drivers in the Cup Series, top-12 in O’Reilly and top-10 in the Truck Series go through to The Chase based on their regular season points. Points will be reset for The Chase and the driver with the most points at the end wins.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen secured his spot in the 2025 playoffs after winning four of the five street circuits, which has led to mixed feelings about the change for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it kind of needed a change,\u201d the New Zealander told the Performance Racing<\/a> Network. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard for me. The reason I\u2019m in the series is because of win-and-you\u2019re-in, right? But I feel like I\u2019ve gotten better on ovals to where I don\u2019t have to rely on it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly going to be an achievement to make that top 16, but I think it\u2019s a good target for us and something that is achievable. I think it rewards those top guys now that are always winning, and they were the guys calling for it I guess.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, that\u2019s more of a pure racing championship. It\u2019s probably a good thing, in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old driver added: \u201cJust the knowledge. I\u2019m going to all these places for the second, third, fourth time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt so much more comfortable at the end of last year and I think I read that we would have been near the top 16 or right in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were 35th or 58th or something in points halfway through the year it felt like. We had a really bad start to the year and still made it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we can do the same this year. It would be really cool to start a lot stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Clash is scheduled for 1 February 2026, although practice and qualifying are now expected to take place on the same day due to snowfall in the area. The first-paying race of the season, the Daytona 500, is set for 16 February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane van Gisbergen has shared his mixed feelings about the removal of the playoffs format in NASCAR. NASCAR…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,582,82],"class_list":["post-446927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446927","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=446927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}