Return of the Chase

NASCAR fans were never going to be happy with anything NASCAR announced. There's no chance of ever going back to a full-season points system for reasons I've discussed before, so there was no point in ever even entertaining the possibility. Still, the new format is here, so let's take a look at it and what it means for the future of the sport.

The Old

If you're here, you're probably already familiar with the old NASCAR playoff system, but just in case, let me explain.

The NASCAR Cup Series season consists of 36 races: 26 regular season races and 10 playoff races. At the conclusion of the regular season, the top 16 drivers compete in the playoffs to race for the championship, while the remaining drivers use the remaining races to finalize positions 17 through 36 in the championship standings.

There are a few extra quirks related to championship eligibility. First, if a driver wins a race, they are automatically guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. If there are more than 15 unique winners, championship points can be used as a tiebreaker, although this hasn't happened in the history of the playoff format.

You might notice I said 15 unique winners and not 16. That's the second quirk of the system: the regular season champion (i.e., the driver with the most points at the end of the regular season) is automatically granted a playoff spot regardless of whether they have a win or not.

Once the playoffs begin, points are reset, and three races are held to determine which of the round of 16 move on. Once again, win-and-in applies. The bottom 4 drivers are eliminated, and points are reset again with another three race round for the round of 12 and the round of 8. Finally, the championship 4 compete in a single race, with the best finisher declared the champion.

Like I said in the intro, there are reasons why this format works for NASCAR, even if the fans don't appreciate it. My only real complaint with it is the "win-and-in" format promoting some uncompetitive drivers into the playoff hunt due to sheer luck. If anything, I'd say NASCAR's green-white-checkered overtime rules are more of an issue than the playoff format, which I touched on briefly in my recap of the 2025 championship race. Regardless, NASCAR has decided that the format needs to change, so let's take a look at what's coming next.

The Even Older

In 2004, NASCAR introduced the "Chase for the Nextel Cup" (Nextel being the title sponsor for the Cup Series at that time). The top 10 drivers in the standings, plus any other drivers within 400 points of the championship leader, would have their points reset after the 26th round, and the remaining 10 races would be used to determine the championship. The championship leader would be reset to 5,050, with 5 points deducted down to the 10th position. In 2007, the number of contenders was adjusted to 12, and the 400-point provisional was removed, and all 12 drivers were reset to the same points total. The format was updated again in 2011, this time with 10 spots decided on points and the remaining two going to the two drivers inside the top 20 but outside the Chase with the most wins. This lasted until 2014, when we got the elimination format described above.

This is the basis for the new championship format NASCAR is using for 2026. The format is once again 26/10, although the field is expanded to 16 drivers. The championship leader will once again be granted a points advantage to give a head start in the Chase. And, most crucially, win-and-in is out.

Seed	Points
1	2100
2	2075
3	2065
4	2060
5	2055
6	2050
7	2045
8	2040
9	2035
10	2030
11	2025
12	2020
13	2015
14	2010
15	2005
16	2000

To continue NASCAR's goal to reward wins, winning a race will now reward 55 points, up from 40 previously.

The Effect

I think fans need to accept that this is the best we're going to get from NASCAR. It's a format that rewards consistency twice, first over the course of the first 26 races and again during the final 10. You can't coast along with a strong start or a strong finish; you need to have both to bring in a championship.

The removal of win-and-in is a massive victory for the fans. NASCAR wants to reward winning, but motorsport is built on points, and points have to be the focus, so rewarding good finishes is more important than rewarding climactic wins.

As much as people don't want to admit it, the elimination system made races matter that would have been otherwise irrelevant, and they put focus on midfield battles that would have been otherwise ignored. Still, removing the one-race championship format is more than worth the cost of the little bit of excitement that the cutoff races provided.

Conclusion

Like I said, NASCAR fans were never going to be pleased with any system that NASCAR came up with. However, I think this is the best system we could have asked for. I still think some of NASCAR's other regulations affect the Chase format negatively, namely the GWC, but we have to applaud the baby steps if we want to encourage the series to continue to improve, so I applaud NASCAR for making this change.