NASCAR has announced that it will return to a 10-race postseason, known again as “The Chase” for the Championship. The new format ends the one-race, winner-take-all finale format that ran from 2014 through 2025.
NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell shared the details for the new Chase championship format during a press conference on Monday, January 12. Here is all you need to know about the restored longer championship run.
The field for the Cup Series Chase will include 16 drivers. Qualification will come from the regular-season points standings after 26 races. A race win will not guarantee a playoff spot, but the system will keep stage points at each race. Winners will also earn 55 points instead of the old 40.
Points for other finishing positions remain unchanged, and NASCAR will reset points at the start of the 10-race Chase. The regular-season leader will start with 2,100 points. Second place will get 2,075, while third place will get 2,065. From fourth through 16th, the gaps narrow, with five points separating many positions and the 16th set at 2,000. The reset will give the regular-season leader a clear advantage while rewarding the top 16 for their season-long work.
The format will apply across NASCAR’s national series. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (Xfinity) will run a nine-race Chase with 12 drivers, and the Craftsman Truck Series will run a seven-race Chase with 10 drivers. All three series will use the same basic seed and reset method, scaled to the smaller Chase fields.
Playoff points and the three-round elimination structure are gone, and the Chase has replaced them with a single, cumulative points mini-season. The champion will be the driver who scores the most points across those final 10 races at the season finale on November 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“We Need You, Come On Back” – Mark Martin Appeals to Classic Race Fans
The press conference for the announcement of the new championship format at the NASCAR Productions building in Concord started with Steve O’Donnell remembering Greg Biffle, his family, and others who lost their lives in a tragic plane crash last month. O’Donnell also mentioned Denny Hamlin, who lost his father in a house fire.
NASCAR said the change follows nearly a year of study by a Playoff Committee that included drivers, team members, tracks, broadcasters, sponsors, and others. Mark Martin, who was the first to push for a season-long championship format at the playoff committee meetings, which many fans wanted, called the change ‘fantastic’ and said:
“I just appeal to the race fans, all the race fans but especially the classic fans who say to me ‘I don’t watch anymore.’ I say, ‘We need you, Come on back. We’re in it the right direction.'”
The 2026 NASCAR season will start in the second week of February at the Daytona International Speedway.
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