{"id":882389,"date":"2026-09-04T00:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882389\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T00:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:12:16","slug":"nascar-drivers-brace-for-return-of-10-race-chase-format","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882389\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Drivers Brace for Return of 10-Race Chase Format"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only two of the 16 drivers in this year\u2019s Cup Series Chase were competing at stock car racing\u2019s top level the last time NASCAR used a 10-race format to determine the champion, but they\u2019re all aware it\u2019s a pressure-filled configuration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 10 weeks of hell,\u201d Joey Logano, the ninth seed, said. \u201cI heard Jimmie Johnson say that one time and it\u2019s pretty true. It\u2019s a grueling 10 weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASCAR first instituted the 10-race Chase format in 2004, a year after Matt Kenseth wrapped up the championship one event before the 36-race season ended. Kenseth led the driver standings 33 of the 36 races and finished with a 90-point advantage over Johnson. The Chase format existed through the 2013 season. NASCAR then switched to the elimination format 2014-2025. Under that format, each round consisted of three races, and four drivers were eliminated at the end of each round. The champion was the highest finishing driver of the four title contenders that reached the season finale.<\/p>\n

\"AUTO:Icon Sportswire\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin (left) and Joey Logano.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s top seed Denny Hamlin and Logano understand the Chase\u2019s intensity because they were Cup competitors the first time NASCAR used the format to determine the series champion. However, during its first decade, Stages didn\u2019t exist, and they provide the opportunity to earn even more points during an event. It\u2019s now possible for a race winner to garner 76 points in one event by winning the first two Stages, the race, and recording the fastest lap. With this year\u2019s reset, Hamlin begins the Chase just 25 points ahead of second seed Ryan Blaney and 100 points ahead of 16th seed Ryan Preece.<\/p>\n

Hamlin believes preparing for the 10-week championship run is tougher than the elimination format NASCAR used the previous 12 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not gonna be any opportunity for me to take two weeks and study for one race track,\u201d Hamlin explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not physically possible. Now, there\u2019s an opportunity for me to spend a little bit more time on these last 10, which I will do. But it will never reach the depths in which I worked for Phoenix last year. It\u2019s just simply because there\u2019s no weekends to take off (in this format).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NASCARSean Gardner\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell.<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell, who has recorded seven runner-up finishes this season, says this year\u2019s Chase creates \u201cway more pressure\u201d because the reset that occurred after each elimination round last year no longer exists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had a bad race, it\u2019s just like survive. Just gotta get above the cutline\u2026 but now there are no freebies,\u201d Bell explained. \u201cYou can\u2019t have a bad race and get a reset in three weeks. You\u2019re going to have to perform every week. Certainly, our strength is the beginning of it. The first seven are all really good tracks for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logano notes that everything that is difficult in life involves pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s easy to do, you\u2019re probably not accomplishing anything that matters in life,\u201d Logano said. \u201cThe hard things are the things that move the needle in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

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":"Only two of the 16 drivers in this year\u2019s Cup Series Chase were competing at stock car racing\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,306148,784,237154,1642,634,306147,273948,82,183339],"class_list":["post-882389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-58c8664e-f7b2-45f8-934a-d7c288d03213","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-nascar-drivers-brace-for-return-of-10-race-chase","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882389","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=882389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}