The “Chase” is back for NASCARwhich will return to a 10-race elimination format in the Series of cuts in 2026, with 16 drivers fighting for the championship as it moves away towards the playoff format used the previous 11 years.
New format announced on January 12 aims to reward consistency as much as winning. Based on points, the top 16 drivers after a 26-race regular season will advance to the Chase format similar to the one introduced 22 years ago. A race victory no longer guarantees that a driver will make the top 16 at the end of the regular season, but more points will be awarded for a victory.
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The driver with the most points after the final race of the season on November 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be the champion.
“There were a few things that were vitally important,” NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell said. “The first was that winning always had to count. We had to make sure that was an important part of what we were doing. We certainly wanted consistency to count. That’s not lost on us throughout what we’ve seen with the current format, there were times where a driver could win and maybe take a few races (off) because he had that win in the bank. That’s not something we wanted. We wanted to make every race count.”
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Winning is always big. A victory will be worth 55 points instead of 40 as in the previous system. The points for all other positions as well as the stage points remain the same.
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The points leader heading into the Chase will receive a 25-point advantage over second place, with points reset for the top 16 drivers.
Drivers will not be eliminated every three races like before in the playoffs.
In the new Cup Series format, there will be a 10-race Chase, nine races for the O’Reilly Series and seven for the Craftsman Truck Series with 16 points-based drivers. For the O’Reilly series, 12 drivers will make up the playoff field and 10 in the trucks.
“He has all the characteristics you want in a championship format where winning matters, consistency matters, retirements are going to matter,” said NASCAR Cup driver Chase Briscoe. “The points change now with the win, you’re not going to have that win, but the extra 15 bonus points can take a guy from fourth place in the championship to the lead or vice versa.
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The Chase format could change the mindset of some drivers before each regular season race, according to 2024 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney.
“Sometimes we all get upset about excessive aggression and things like that, but sometimes we find ourselves in those situations when it’s a win-and-move-on type scenario,” Blaney said. “I think it’s going to clean up a lot of the racing side and kind of get back to the purity side. I’m a big fan of it.”
Contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
This article was originally published on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR returns to Chase format: How the 2026 playoff format will work
