NASCAR will announce its new Championship format for 2026 and past at 3:30 p.m. ET Monday — a transfer that, on the very least, will generate loads of buzz from followers.
Since 2014, NASCAR has used an elimination-style, bracket-style playoff format to find out its champion. Sixteen drivers make the postseason both by successful a race or by being one of many highest-ranked drivers within the factors standings with no victory. From there, drivers are eradicated in teams of 4 till the Championship race, through which the highest-finishing of the 4 eligible drivers claims the title. Drivers additionally accrue playoff factors by successful races and phases that assist them advance from spherical to spherical.
NASCAR has used some type of a postseason format since 2004, after utilizing a full-season format with no postseason since its inception in 1949.
NASCAR appointed a chosen playoff committee to achieve an settlement on a brand new championship system for 2026. That committee met for the ultimate time in September earlier than the choice was turned over to NASCAR management.
Listed below are the 4 most reasonable choices for the brand new format, one in every of which NASCAR will possible select.
Full-season format with no postseason or factors resets
On condition that the shortcomings of this format — most notably the truth that a driver might clinch the championship weeks earlier than the season finale — led NASCAR to create a postseason within the first place, this looks as if probably the most unlikely selection. But it surely’s a format that ties itself to NASCAR’s peak in reputation within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, and one through which a few of the sport’s biggest drivers — Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon — received their championships.
That is an old-school format, however NASCAR has proved in recent times that it isn’t afraid to return to its roots when crucial.
The present playoff format stays the identical
Followers have lengthy expressed frustration with the current format, which steadily doesn’t reward the perfect driver over the total season, however there stays a small risk NASCAR stays the course.
The game’s reputation has dipped significantly over the 11 years through which the present format has been used, however executives nonetheless reward it, and to its credit score, it creates pleasure, drama and storylines that would not occur with out it.
However given how a lot discourse there was relating to its main flaws, it appears comparatively unlikely that NASCAR sticks with the format that compelled the exploration of a brand new one.
A revised elimination format
What precisely would a revised version of the present format appear to be? A smaller playoff discipline to begin, doubtlessly 10 or 12 drivers reasonably than 16. There’s additionally the potential of a championship spherical reasonably than a single winner-take-all championship race, in addition to a win not guaranteeing a playoff berth.
If NASCAR desires to strike a steadiness between the drama that comes with playoff eliminations however slim the sector and reward consistency, this might be what they select.
A return to the ‘Chase’
From 2004 to 2013, NASCAR used the Chase format — a 10-race postseason initially consisting of 10 drivers and later expanded to 12, with the ten highest drivers in regular-season factors qualifying. Later, a wild-card system was launched to reward drivers exterior the highest 10 in factors who had probably the most wins.
NASCAR hit its peak in reputation from 2004–2005 with this format, and it’s the most much like the full-season method that many followers are clamoring for whereas nonetheless preserving some type of a postseason intact.
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