NASCAR announces ’The Chase is back’ as past | Sports News

After months of hypothesis and mounting stress from all sides for change, NASCAR has introduced that “The Chase is back” beginning in 2026.

The Chase for the Championship format will stay unfold throughout 10 races, as NASCAR had revealed back in August with its schedule release, however whereas just like the format used between 2004 and 2013, there have been some slight alterations. 

Upon waving farewell to the much-maligned 3-3-3-1 knockout format, which noticed the 16 Playoff drivers whittled down throughout 10 races to only 4 for the finale, the place the title winner was determined in simply a single race, all 16 Playoff drivers will now stay within the combat all through the ultimate 10 races.

“We certainly wanted consistency to matter. It’s not lost on us that throughout what we’ve seen with the current format, there were times when a driver could win and maybe take a couple races because he had that win in the bank,” NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell instructed reporters on Monday. 

“That’s not something we wanted. We wanted every race to matter. So both of those needed to be front and center. And then we also wanted our fans to know that we’re listening in our industry, to know that we’re listening. So with that, where we’ve landed is candidly that the Chase is back. 

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“We are going back to a format where on the Cup side, the first 26 races will be based on points system and the final 10 races will make up the Chase. So if you go into the Chase format, first and foremost, you want to look at how the points will be set. 

“So the points leader will go into the Chase at 2,100 points. It was important for us to have a bonus for that leader. So they’ll have a 25-point lead over second place and a 35-point lead over third place. And then the positions beyond that will go down by five points. 

“What also was really important for the group that got together was winning. I talked about that, and we’re going to take winning from 40 points up to 55 points. I believe that’ll be a great incentive for the drivers each and every race to have to go out there and perform, but also go for wins.”

With Playoff factors and the “win and you’re in” rule additionally tossed apart with this guidelines change, the significance of constantly performing and successful will rise with the new system. What’s more, drivers will no longer see the Playoff factors reset after every spherical, again rewarding consistency and making certain that each certified driver theoretically stays within the combine till a winner is declared.

Plans to change the Playoff format had been public information for a number of months, with NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell and then-commissioner Steve Phelps, who just lately resigned, having briefly lifted the lid on their intention to make a change for 2026 during the ‘State of the Sport’ press convention in October forward of Kyle Larson’s Cup Series title win at Phoenix.

“There’s been a lot of work done. Tim Clark has led a committee that has included almost every stakeholder in the industry — OEMs, tracks, teams, former drivers, current drivers. We’ve kicked around a ton of ideas,” Phelps mentioned. “While there’s nothing to announce today, I think all of us agreed that it would not be fair to come in here before we crown champions and say, Hey, we’re thinking of this.

“I can say that Steve and I have certainly heard the industry, understand the challenges that are out there. So the goal is to balance some of those moments that we’ve had with the great racing, but also deliver a little bit more of I think what the fans and the industry is asking for.

“More to come. We did rotate the race to Miami. Steve mentioned that. That was probably the biggest ask, was rotate the championship. We can check that box off. There are going to be some other things we’ll have, as well.”