CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WCYB) \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s postseason begins Sunday at Darlington Raceway with a return to the Chase for the Championship format, bringing a major change to the way the Cup Series title will be decided.<\/p>\n
Sixteen drivers will compete over the final 10 races of the season, with no automatic advancement for race winners and no eliminations. Instead, the championship will be determined by consistency across the entire stretch.<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott said the revised format feels like a better fit for the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I think it\u2019s the right thing to do,\u201d Elliott said during Chase for the Championship Media Day in Charlotte. \u201cI think it fits us better. It just feels more like motorsports.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joey Logano, whose No. 22 team has been closely associated with success under the previous playoff format, said winning under the new system would carry added meaning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the playoffs were changed a lot because of the 22 car, and it\u2019d be really nice to prove that we can win it both ways,\u201d Logano said. \u201cThat\u2019d be a really special thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin said the length of the 10-race Chase means every stage and finish could matter, even if drivers may not recognize its importance until the season finale at Homestead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 10 weeks is a long time,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cNot one stage is going to define this thing. And if it does, you won\u2019t know it until the end of Homestead. You\u2019ve got to take it week by week and get the best result you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carson Hocevar said he plans to focus on racing rather than following the standings throughout the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t plan on looking at the points for 10 weeks,\u201d Hocevar said. \u201cJust go race and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chase opens Sunday at Darlington. The postseason will arrive at Bristol Motor Speedway three weeks later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WCYB) \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s postseason begins Sunday at Darlington Raceway with a return to the Chase for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-881763","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\/881763","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=881763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}