Chase Elliott has shared his gripes with NASCAR’s newly announced championship format. The former Cup Series champion believes the 16-driver cutoff for the postseason is ‘just too many’.
NASCAR has returned to the Chase format, albeit with minor changes. To ensure that wins still carry weight, 15 points have been added to the existing 40-point haul, while 16 top-seeded drivers advance to the postseason. Meanwhile, the previous Chase format had a 10-driver threshold.
The playoffs allowed the bottom-seeded driver to advance via race wins, but that is not the case under the new system, as the champion is crowned based on the points tally across a 10-race Chase. This makes it that much harder for the lower-order drivers to fight for the title.
Chase Elliott echoed the sentiment in an interview with NASCAR analyst Bob Pockrass.
“I think if I had one complaint of any of it. I think 16 is just too many. You know. I thought the ten race, the ten driver piece of that was really hard to get into. I still think 16 will be will be a challenge. But to me I think it’s the perfect compromise and to mark’s point, you’re never going to get everything you want.”
Chase Elliott also pointed out the confusing aspects of the playoffs, where the ‘win-and-you’re-in’ concept falls through when there are more than 16 winners in the regular season. In that sense, the Chase provides a simpler and streamlined system for fans to follow.
NASCAR chief Steve O’Donnell shared that re-engaging core fans has become a priority under the new format, as many felt the playoff system had alienated those who came up with the classic points system.
Chase Elliott backs the full-season points format
Midway through the 2025 season, Chase Elliott shared an alternative take on the playoff discussion. Detractors of the full-season format claimed that a driver can run away with the championship well before a season ends, while the playoffs take the fight right down to the finale.
Elliott, however, didn’t agree with the notion. In an interview with The Athletic‘s Jeff Gluck, the HMS driver said,
“The system would be just fine if you just had a full season. And if somebody runs away with it, so what? Let’s celebrate the fact that somebody ran away with it, that somebody was just that good. Motorsports does not have to be like everybody else to be successful. And I’ll stand by that til I get done.”
Mark Martin reshared Chase Elliott’s comment and commended him for the same. The Hall of Famer is also responsible for much of the discourse surrounding the playoffs.
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