Stockcar
How does the NASCAR championship series work
In 2026, NASCAR changed the way it crowned its champion based on fan feedback. Now it’s a Chase instead of a series of elimination rounds.
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Through the arc of the NASCAR Cup Series, teams compete in 26 hard-fought races, building momentum one week at a time. For rookies like Connor Zilisch, every finish matters - not just for race wins, but for positioning when the championship battle begins. At the end of the regular season, the quest to crown a champion starts in earnest. In recent years, that meant adhering to a playoff system that had been in place since 2014 for the Cup Series and since 2016 for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series.
In 2026, the governing body returned to the Chase system, last used in 2013.
Trackhouse unveiled new scheme for Connor Zilisch
© Garth Milan / Red Bull Content Pool
01
Elimination playoffs vs. The Chase
Prior to 2026, stock car racing followed a "win-and-you're-in" rule, and race victories granted automatic qualification to the playoffs. Rounds of the playoffs eliminated drivers one by one, leading up to the "championship four" in the final race. The Chase kicks all that to the curb - at least for now - with what NASCAR says rewards full-season consistency.
Feature
Elimination Playoffs (2014–2025)
2026 Chase Format
Qualification
Win-and-you’re-in
Top 16 by points
Structure
Round eliminations
Full postseason points race
Championship
Final 4 shootout
Season-long points total
Emphasis
Big moments
Full-season consistency
“One of the things with win-and-in that we didn’t think about that ultimately happened was we wanted every race to matter, and that didn’t happen with win-and-in,” said NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell in a statement. “You saw someone who could win that first playoff race and then kind of say, ‘OK, I’ll see you in a couple weeks,’ and that’s not something we want to deliver for the fans. So we felt like more points to the win, but you still have got to be there every race and hopefully you’re going for those wins for 36 races in a row.”
NASCAR also introduced a new points model that emphasizes race wins, not flash-in-the-pan Cinderella stories. At the conclusion of the regular season, the top 16 drivers with the most points qualify for the next stage. As the Chase for the championship begins, all 16 drivers’ points reset. The driver who earns the most points during the regular season gets a bonus, too: a 100-point advantage over the driver in 16th place.
02
Why NASCAR Changed the Format in 2026
Trackhouse unveiled new schemes for Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch
© Garth Milan / Red Bull Content Pool
By the end of the 2025 season, the 16-driver elimination bracket faced backlash. Fans said it felt too much like luck, more like a lottery than an earned championship based on merit. They made their voices heard, letting NASCAR know it didn’t like the fact that the playoff structure allowed drivers with lower seasonal performance to win the championship.
Fourteen different drivers won a race in 2025, and 7 drivers won at least 3 races.
Notable 2025 Winners
- Denny Hamlin – 6 wins
- Shane van Gisbergen – 5 wins
- Christopher Bell – 4 wins
- Ryan Blaney – 4 wins
- Chase Briscoe – 3 wins
- William Byron – 3 wins
- Kyle Larson – 3 wins
Zilisch was a runner-up in the O’Reilly Series.
Part of the switch to the Chase was that NASCAR found some fans had a hard time following the action with the previous format. Returning to a modified Chase series simplified the whole thing for fans, drivers, and race organizers.
The final race was moved from Phoenix, Arizona to Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida for 2026, another big change from 2025.
03
What’s different for 2026?
Connor Zilisch at the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida
© Daylon Barr / Red Bull Content Pool
The field sizes for the Chase incudes the top 16 drivers in the Cup Series, 12 in O’Reilly Series and 10 in the Truck Series.
Drivers will no longer receive an automatic playoff berth with a single-race bonus and will follow a simplified point structure. Today, each win is now worth 55 points, a big jump - 37 percent - over the previous 40 point-award for a win. Down the line, drivers earn 35 points for second place, 34 for third, 33 for fourth, and so on. Stage points start at 10 points for first place, nine points for second, eight points for third, etc. In this way, drivers who win consistently will be rewarded. The new point structure is the largest revision since 2017, which is when stage points were introduced.
2026 Points Breakdown:
- Race win: 55 points (up from 40)
- Second place: 35 points
- Third place: 34 points
- Stage win: 10 points
- Stage second: 9 points
- Points decrease by one position thereafter
As a bonus, the top driver at the end of the regular season will earn a 25-point head start over the second seed. Top seeds will start the Chase with 2,100 points, 2,075 for the second seed and 2,065 for the third, with a five-point drop for each place after that.
Regular Season Bonus Structure:
Seed
Starting Points
1st
2,100
2nd
2,075
3rd
2,065
Each position after
-5 points
The Chase starts when the postseason begins for all three series in September. For 2026, the races begin at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, then hitting 7 more states before ending in Florida at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
As the Chase unfolds from Darlington to Homestead-Miami, the emphasis returns to consistency, execution and resilience over 10 decisive races. Veterans and rising stars alike must deliver every week to stay in contention. For drivers like Zilisch and Van Gisbergen, the revised format places a premium on full-season performance - rewarding those who can combine speed with staying power. In 2026, the road to a NASCAR championship is once again a marathon, not a sprint.
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