{"id":882923,"date":"2026-09-04T10:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882923\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T10:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:18:14","slug":"how-nascars-chase-championship-system-works-and-what-to-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882923\/","title":{"rendered":"How NASCAR\u2019s Chase championship system works and what to expect"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of NASCAR\u2019s promotional videos on the eve of its 10-week \u201cChase\u201d depicts driver Chase Briscoe standing in the elevator<\/a> of an office building explaining the championship format to people on their quick rides up and down.<\/p>\n

Fewer skits could be more appropriate, because that was one of the key elements in NASCAR\u2019s decision to move away from its convoluted \u201cplayoffs\u201d system and return to the simpler Chase.<\/p>\n

It was brought up during NASCAR\u2019s committee meetings last year<\/a> \u2014 during which a format change was evaluated \u2014 that whatever type of championship system was decided, it needed to be easy enough for an elevator pitch.<\/p>\n

Ryan Preece survives chaotic overtime finish to win at Daytona <\/p>\n

So how does the Chase work? We\u2019ll let Briscoe explain it, as he does in the NASCAR video: \u201cSixteen drivers, 10 races, one champion. Most points wins it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really that simple. After the 26-race \u201cregular season,\u201d NASCAR has narrowed the field to its top 16 drivers (the 16 drivers who accumulated the most points during the season) and seeded them based on their performance.<\/p>\n

At the end of the next 10 weeks, when NASCAR concludes its Cup Series schedule at Homestead-Miami Speedway, whoever has the most points from these 10 races is the new champion.<\/p>\n

To help matters, it\u2019s also not a foreign concept to NASCAR fans; this format was previously used from 2004-13 before it got scrapped in favor of NASCAR\u2019s desire to find \u201cGame 7 moments.\u201d Now, this represents somewhat of a back-to-basics approach.<\/p>\n

Do drivers like the change?<\/p>\n

Almost unanimously. The \u201cplayoffs\u201d format introduced all kinds of randomness and did not reward the best overall driver, because it had a series of resets and eliminations as the field was winnowed down to four drivers in a one-race championship.<\/p>\n

That meant a driver could have a great start to the playoffs, but it was like the NFL choosing to reset the score at halftime of the Super Bowl after one team had built a 21-0 lead. It felt gimmicky, and many drivers grew to hate it.<\/p>\n

This format does two things: Reward the best drivers in the regular season (before, any driver with a single win could make the playoffs no matter how poor the rest of their season went) and crown the most deserving driver as the champion at the end of 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lack of fabrication in it and just how little (gimmickry) there is, to me, so refreshing,\u201d said Chase Elliott, the No. 8 seed in these playoffs. \u201cLet it fall where it may. If a guy runs off and dominates the final 10 and has it wrapped up with a race left? Somebody pat him on the back and tell him, \u2018Good job.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if it\u2019s a barnburner, four-wide finish, crashing each other, coming to the checkered flag at Homestead? Well, then celebrate that, too. But I think letting the chips fall where they may, in the realm of motorsports, is a better way to tell the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Denny<\/p>\n

\n Denny Hamlin, the top seed in this year\u2019s Chase, nearly won his first career Cup Series title last year before the quirks of the old format struck. (James Gilbert \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Are there any differences between the original Chase and this one?<\/p>\n

In some ways, the format is the same, but the way a driver wins it may be much different.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s NASCAR has \u201cstage racing\u201d in which points are awarded for the top 10 finishers of two early segments in the race. Drivers have learned how effective stage points can be, because it can offset what later turns out to be a bad finish.<\/p>\n

For example: Let\u2019s say a driver wins the first two stages of the race (which is worth 20 points) but then crashes and finishes 30th (worth only seven points). Instead of leaving the racetrack with just those seven points, the stage-winning driver would have 27 points. That is the equivalent of finishing 10th with no stage points.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a powerful differentiator, and given the best drivers should be hogging all the stage points each week, it means drivers will have to be on top of their game for the entire race.<\/p>\n

\u201cStage points is the ultimate measurement of speed,\u201d three-time NASCAR champion Joey Logano said. \u201cYou can manufacture finishes in different ways, but stages are much harder to do that in. So really, we have to score stage points in each one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does 10th pay for points if you get no stage points? That ain\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also another wrinkle. As part of this format change, NASCAR introduced an additional 15 bonus points for winning a race. That means the race winner could potentially gain 75 points in a single race on another driver, and that has the potential to erase gaps very quickly.<\/p>\n

To wit: No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin starts with a 25-point lead over No. 2 seed Ryan Blaney, and the other drivers are separated by five points further down for each position. One point equals one spot on the racetrack, so five points over 10 weeks is nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can score top-three stage points and then win a race, you could get five guys in one race,\u201d William Byron said. \u201cYou could all of a sudden go from eighth to second or third.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

\n Ryan Blaney is Denny Hamlin\u2019s closest challenger entering the Chase\u2019s first race this weekend. (David Jensen \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Who are the favorites?<\/p>\n

Five of the top six seeds drive Toyota cars, which speaks to the manufacturer\u2019s overall strength on a variety of tracks this season. Excluding the four road courses (because there are none of those tracks in the Chase), Toyotas won 12 of the 22 regular-season oval races while Ford won six and Chevrolet won just four.<\/p>\n

Chevy drivers have not won an oval race since May, as its teams have struggled to adapt to a new style body introduced by the manufacturer this season. Powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports, for example, has just two victories all season (both with Elliott).<\/p>\n

Ford has been hot lately, winning five of the last seven races after only winning once in the first five months of the season. But Toyota is still expected to be the favorite, particularly with all four drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing (No. 1 seed Hamlin, No. 4 seed Ty Gibbs, No. 5 seed Chase Briscoe and No. 6 seed Christopher Bell) plus 23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick, who has won a series-high five races this season and is the No. 3 seed.<\/p>\n

Bell said it \u201ccertainly feels that way\u201d when asked if this was Toyota\u2019s championship to lose. Toyotas have been especially fearsome on intermediate-distance tracks, and those make up half of the schedule in the Chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially with the way that the tracks play out with all of the intermediate-style tracks, I do believe that the champion is going to be a Toyota,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n

If not a Toyota, No. 2 seed Ryan Blaney could be dangerous from the Ford camp. And there\u2019s always a chance defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson could get hot, although he hasn\u2019t won in more than a year and doesn\u2019t feel like a regular contender to win as often lately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019d be sick to win it without winning a race,\u201d Larson said. \u201cJoey is the reason why we changed the other format (after he came out of nowhere to win his titles). I could be the reason why we changed this format.\u201d<\/p>\n

How will the Chase be won?<\/p>\n

There was a marked departure between how the original Chase format was conquered and how the playoffs were navigated.<\/p>\n

In the Chase, drivers largely had to have nine or 10 clean weeks with very few mulligans (we\u2019ll say a \u201cmulligan\u201d for this purpose is finishing outside the top 15). The champion for those 10 editions of the old Chase averaged 0.8 mulligans with an average finish of 6.98.<\/p>\n

But in the playoffs, drivers didn\u2019t have to have a flawless 10 weeks (and some races didn\u2019t matter at all). So the champions\u2019 mulligan average jumped to 2.25 and the average finish rose to 9.6.<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, the average win total by the Chase and playoffs champion were exactly the same: 2.3 victories. It was only the average finish and mulligans that were the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not racing these three-race stints anymore to where you can afford to have a mulligan,\u201d Blaney said. \u201c\u2026 Before, I could start in the playoffs in this (first round) and it\u2019s like, \u2018All right, just don\u2019t make a mistake. If you go run 12th every single week, you\u2019re probably going to get in the next round.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s none of that now. You have to be on every single week. But that\u2019s exciting for the people to watch. What team can start off hot and stay there? There\u2019s no easing your way into this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of NASCAR\u2019s promotional videos on the eve of its 10-week \u201cChase\u201d depicts driver Chase Briscoe standing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":["post-882923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882923","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=882923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}