After three seasons using a playoff format, the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series returns to a one-season championship format.
The first version, attempted in 2023, essentially culminated with a four-driver winner-take-all style championship race that NASCAR has ended its seasons with since 2014. The final two seasons feature a four-driver finale but among multiple races.
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Tour director Rick Schwallie said that will change Saturday at the end-of-season banquet.
“For the 2026 season, we’re going to go back to a traditional points format next year and move away from the Chase format,” Schwallie said. “We tried something. We wanted to elevate our program. We more than doubled our points fund during that time. Over those three years, we had customers like Big River Steel and ARP who helped us do that, and really we wouldn’t be here – over $1.2 million today (for the points fund) – without that.”
“So I don’t consider it a failure by any stretch of the imagination. I definitely think it’s been a success. It’s taken us to new places, and a more lucrative place for our racing teams. But I also think we’re at a point where we’ve tried different formats, different modifications of that format. Here we are, three years later, we’re just going to go back to a traditional format for next year and the points fund will stay the same.”
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