![\"nascar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/92e39b3f-aeea-49a3-8ad7-6d0460b42b53.jpeg\" "\\"NASCAR")
Jacob Kupferman\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\nBrad Keselowski, who earned his NASCAR Cup championship in 2012 when the Chase was the post-season format, said he was surprised with this year\u2019s reintroduction of it that more drivers haven\u2019t changed their approach to the 2026 races.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am actually quite shocked we haven\u2019t seen more of a difference,\u201d Keselowski says in reference to how the drivers are racing this year. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s really clicked yet for a good part of the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
Two years after Keselowski won his title, NASCAR switched to a win-and-you\u2019re in for the post-season and instituted elimination rounds in the playoffs. In the season finale, the series champion was determined by who had the best finish among the Championship Four. However, an uproar among the competitors and the fans that grew louder with each passing year led NASCAR during the off-season to revert to the champion being decided over the season\u2019s final 10 races. The top 16 in the point standings at the end of the regular season\u201426 races\u2014advance into the post-season title hunt. Keselowski says a \u201cgood part of the field\u201d didn\u2019t grow up racing for a championship with this year\u2019s format. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the old format, you could throw races away. You can\u2019t throw races away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to have to adapt or be replaced,\u201d says Keselowski, co-owner of RFK Racing. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of how this sport works. It\u2019s one of those things that sometimes you have to feel the pain first. I went back and re-watched the race at Darlington, and I saw a number of moves that I was really surprised by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keselowski said he saw drivers who should have been content with where they were running and focused on finishing the race in that position even though it wasn\u2019t the one they wanted. <\/p>\n
Jacob Kupferman\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kyle Larson speaks to crew chief Cliff Daniels.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see guys who don\u2019t finish out the day and\u2026 you can\u2019t do that with this format,\u201d Keselowski said during preparations for the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. \u201cWith the old format, you could throw races away. You can\u2019t throw races away. I\u2019m surprised by the lack of adjustment I\u2019ve seen so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyle Larson says his Hendrick Motorsports team hasn\u2019t changed its approach this year, but teammate William Byron has noticed fellow competitors are a \u201clittle more protective of their finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s more emphasis on finishing the race strong,\u201d Byron says. <\/p>\n
However, Byron notes this brings the importance of Stage points into the equation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we had a really good start to the season,\u201d Byron recalled. \u201cWe scored a lot of Stage points. This year, we\u2019re not scoring as many Stage points and we\u2019re not as high up in the points.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"nascar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/97530f28-7177-4922-be52-93b1acfb4a0d.jpeg\" "\\"NASCAR")
Jacob Kupferman\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
William Byron.<\/p>\n
Entering the season\u2019s seventh race, Byron was sixth in the driver standings. Last year after six events, he was leading the points. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t overcome not having a good couple Stages,\u201d Byron continued. <\/p>\n
Larson says the change this year doesn\u2019t seem different to him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hear a lot of people talking, you know, points mean so much now. Points have always meant a lot,\u201d Larson says. \u201cI believe points racing was just as much, if not more important, before. I don\u2019t think the racing has been any different this year. I think the media has played into it way more than it\u2019s actually been on the track. The racing is every bit as aggressive as it once was.\u201d<\/p>\n
After six races, Larson was 10th in the standings, six points behind Keselowski in ninth. <\/p>\n
![\"Lettermark\"](\"https:\/\/www.autoweek.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/autoweek\/static\/images\/logos\/lettermark.de67f45.svg?primary=%2523000\")
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A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brad Keselowski, who earned his NASCAR Cup championship in 2012 when the Chase was the post-season format, said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,218764,784,1642,634,218763,82,183339],"class_list":["post-568389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-b12aabee-a732-4df3-a8e4-ff799ecf55c0","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-keselowski-surprised-drivers-havent-adjusted","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568389","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=568389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}