NASCAR official teases 2026 Cup format with | Sports News

Brian Herbst, NASCAR vice president and chief media and income officer, has recommended that can operate on a comparable broadcasting schedule, offering a clear trace that playoffs will stay half of any format modifications.

Kyle Larson controversially received the NASCAR Championship this yr, regardless of Denny Hamlin main the finale at Phoenix Raceway for almost all of the competition. The dramatic ending has positioned more strain on NASCAR to revise the playoff format, with followers expressing dissatisfaction with the present construction.

There was one other outcry in 2024 when Joey Logano received the NASCAR Championship, regardless of being eradicated at one stage, solely to be introduced back into rivalry as a result of a technicality. Herbst hasn’t confirmed whether or not the format will likely be adjusted, however the protection schedule will stay, which seems to point a full-season factors format some have known as for with no playoffs is just not on the playing cards.

Herbst mentioned to the Sports Business Journal: “Expect a very similar makeup of broadcast and cable with respect to the playoffs in 2026.” The information comes after NASCAR skilled a decline in viewership within the first yr of its new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal.

NASCAR agreed a deal with FOX Sports, Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Sports, and Versant, however viewing figures dropped. While viewership was down 16 p.c on Amazon, there was a spike in youthful viewers, a demographic NASCAR is eager to increase.

“We knew there was going to be some sort of a reset, so we did model out exactly a 14% or 15% drop in viewership — at least in Year 1 of the deal,” Herbst mentioned. “Then the expectation was to grow that over time.”

Herbst additionally claimed that, though rankings have been down, NASCAR is being marketed and marketed in new methods. “If you are ordering paper towels or books for your kids on an Amazon Prime app and it’s a NASCAR race on the face on the Amazon Prime app, those are opportunities that we did not have in 2024 and we’re able to bring to bear for the industry in 2025,” he added.

“Earlier in the year, we launched the NASCAR in-car camera program called ‘Driver Cameras’ on HBO Max. … If we can keep putting our product in places that’s unexpected for casual fans, I think that’s a good way to move our sport and our fan interests forward.”

While followers are nonetheless awaiting information concerning the playoff format, the protests for elevated energy have been considered. NASCAR will increase the quantity of horsepower within the Next Gen Car beginning with the 2026 season at most race tracks.

Initially, the modifications will likely be made at short tracks and on highway programs. “That gives us an opportunity to sample some of the short tracks, road courses early in the season, get a look at the engines after we’ve raced them at the new power level,” Probst mentioned.

“If that all looks good, I would not rule out looking at increasing that horsepower at the mile and a halfs and above. It’s just something that we kind of want to crawl, walk, run with this, and so this is the start, looking at the increased power at the short tracks.”