NASCAR's revival of Chase format gets early thumbs-up from drivers

NASCAR's decision to revert to a 10-race championship chase was lauded by current and former drivers Monday afternoon.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin, two of the most vocal voices in the committee room and public, were among them. Chase Elliott, the series champion from 2020, Ryan Blaney, the series champion from 2023, and Chase Briscoe were also in attendance as supporters of the format. All involved agreed that the format was a better way to crown the champion, and brought back a mix of winning and consistency, highlighting a driver’s overall body of work.

“I know some of the engineers that worked on the model,” Earnhardt said, “and I know they worked really hard to find a place that would reward consistency, but also benefit our winners, and give guys opportunities to be in the playoffs if they felt deserving of it. I feel pretty confident that we won’t have any flaws in this system, and everybody can feel good about the end result.”

Earnhardt and Martin were also on the playoff format committee, which was formed ahead of the 2025 season. Earnhardt admitted he was “shocked” that NASCAR chose a 10-race format. Martin admitted he was happy over being surprised, but also didn’t think it would come to where NASCAR decided.

The sport adopted a postseason model in 2004. But beginning in 2014, it moved to an elimination format, which ran through the end of 2025. Over the last few years, the negatives of the format started becoming a bigger conversation than the positives.

“In my opinion, this is as close as you can get to 36 while still having a sort of chase,” Earnhardt said. “So, I’m happy about that. I had grown very tired of what we were doing, and I was having a hard time, personally, as somebody who loves this very much, going forward with what we were doing.”

Briscoe (main image) competed for his first Cup Series championship last year in his debut season at Joe Gibbs Racing. In his gut, he felt NASCAR would adopt a four-race final round, as the industry and race fans pushed for a larger sample size to crown a champion. Not the one-race winner-take-all format.

“Then three days ago, I think they sent me 'this is what it’s going to be' and I was like, ‘Oh, dang that’s pretty cool,’” Briscoe said. “Because I feel like it has literally every format that we’ve raced under. It has vibes of all 36. It has vibes of The Chase. And it still has that playoff feel because you still have to be good the final 10 weeks, but you’re still going to have that cutoff for that top 16 spot. So, I personally really like it. I loved The Chase; that’s kind of what I grew up watching. Truthfully, I had no idea how the seeding worked then; I just knew it came down to the final 10 races, and I’m excited to race under that format.”

Briscoe also said that the drivers buy into what the championship format is because, to a point, they steer the ship with their voices. As a result, it helps fans buy in after hearing their favorite driver's opinion.

“I feel like all the drivers would agree that this is a great way to decide a champion,” Briscoe said. “Not that the other way wasn’t a legitimate way, but this really makes it where your whole season, as a body of work, really matters. I like it from my standpoint as a competitor, and I think everyone I’ve talked to so far likes it as well.”

Blaney heard all the complaints about the format, which seemed to gain traction in 2024 after his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano won his third championship. And it poured heavily, Blaney felt. But by making a change, NASCAR showed it listened, even if Blaney acknowledged it wasn’t as big a change as some wanted.

“I think this is such a great format of benefiting teams that can string together 36 weeks,” Blaney said. “Even though it’s 26 and 10, it’s still 36 weeks, so you’d better not take a week off. You can’t do that. You’re going to have the 16 best teams do it. Yeah, you heard the fans and they listened, which is good.”

As the process played out, Blaney heard the same rumors about what the format might turn out to be. With so many options, he wasn’t sure where NASCAR would land. Then, about a week or two weeks ago, Blaney felt like 10 races might end up being the play. 

“I was happy … for a while, I think they were really wanting a three-three-four and I was like, ‘Eh, you can’t do that,’” he said. “You either have to go 36 or a 10-race chase, and that was good that they did away with rounds and stuff like that.”

The format will apply to all three national series.