![\"Brad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2261867787_acf2dd.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Brad Keselowski at the Daytona 500 in 2026.<\/p>\n
Brad Keselowski was not a fan of NASCAR<\/a>\u2018s previous championship format. The driver of the No. 6 recently reflected on how vocal he was to the sport\u2019s higher ups to make a change.<\/p>\n With the old win-and-you\u2019re-in, elimination-style format, the Michigan native felt there were races during the regular season that didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n In turn, the return to the Chase format ahead of this season was a positive change in the 2012 Cup Series champion\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n Brad Keselowski on the previous playoff format: \u2018Killing the sport\u2019<\/p>\n With Dale Earnhardt Jr. on vacation, Keselowski filled in as the host of Tuesday\u2019s \u201cDale Jr. Download\u201d<\/a> with co-host TJ Majors, Keselowski\u2019s spotter in the Cup Series.<\/p>\n During the episode, the co-owner of RFK Racing was asked about the return to the Chase points format. Keselowski said where a driver is in points is more \u201crelevant\u201d today, which has him checking the standings more often in 2026.<\/p>\n Mostly in private, Keselowski expressed to NASCAR that he wasn\u2019t a fan of the last playoff format. He recounted a conversation with President of NASCAR Steve O\u2019Donnell around 2018 where he voiced his opinion on the points system.<\/p>\n \u201cI told them, \u2018Dude, the playoff format\u2019s killing the sport.\u2019 I remember he said to me, \u2018What do you mean it\u2019s killing the sport?\u2019 Well, I had won two or three races earlier in the year. I\u2019m in the middle of the season and I go to the racetrack and I\u2019m asking myself, \u2018What am I doing here?’\u201d Keselowski said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Previously, a win all but guaranteed a driver a spot in the playoffs, while a driver with multiple wins never missed the playoffs.<\/p>\n Keselowski went on to say he remembers sitting in meetings and being told he wouldn\u2019t get the best equipment as it needed to go to a teammate of his that wasn\u2019t locked into the playoffs.<\/p>\n Because of this, many races during the regular season felt pointless.<\/p>\n \u201cYou couldn\u2019t even really be mad at the team. Putting yourself in their shoes, they\u2019re like, \u2018Man, we\u2019ve got to get our other cars in the playoffs,\u2019 so you couldn\u2019t really be mad at them, you just felt trapped by the format. That was a lot of what was happening,\u201d Keselowski said.<\/p>\n Brad Keselowski believes they aren\u2019t \u2018skipping\u2019 races under Chase format<\/p>\n Unlike the last playoff format, Keselowski is a fan of The Chase returning for this season.<\/p>\n The 42-year-old feels like he\u2019s not being shafted with the lesser equipment and that every race this season matters.<\/p>\n \u201cI like this format because there\u2019s no race where the team\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, you don\u2019t get the good engine.\u2019 I really appreciate that because I don\u2019t feel like we\u2019re quote-unquote skipping races,\u201d Keselowski said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brad Keselowski has competed in all four races to start the 2026 season, despite suffering a broken femur last December. The 36-time Cup Series winner posted a fifth-place finish in the Daytona 500, his sole top-five finish of the campaign.<\/p>\n Keselowski sits 16th in the Cup Series points standings, currently the last driver in The Chase. He is two points above Daniel Suarez in 17th.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Brad Keselowski at the Daytona 500 in 2026. Brad Keselowski was not a fan of NASCAR\u2018s previous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-527847","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\/527847","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=527847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}