Following the discharge of the 2026 schedule for all three nationwide divisions, NASCAR government vice chairman and chief venue and racing innovation officer, Ben Kennedy, took half in a media availability to debate a few of the adjustments. He was joined by Jusan Hamilton, the managing director, competitors operations.
Together with schedule-specific questions, Kennedy was additionally requested concerning the playoff format for 2026, which has been a subject of intense debate over the summer season months. NASCAR’s official social media graphic lists the same old elimination-style rounds, however Kennedy revealed that the format is just not but set in stone.
“It is not but,” stated Kennedy when FOX Sports activities’ Bob Pockrass requested concerning the format being locked in. “I do know the playoff committee has had quite a few conferences over the previous a number of months on totally different codecs that we might take a look at, and so they’ve run a handful of simulations on simply numerous codecs, collected some fan suggestions.
“I do know there are conversations as early as a pair days in the past on what the way forward for the playoff format appears to be like like. Nothing to announce at the moment. What I might say, although, is we need to make it possible for we take the time to do it proper, that we accumulate as a lot data as we will, and hopefully no matter this new format is, if there’s a new format, it is one thing that may final a very long time.
“We need to be considerate and diligent about it, be certain we make the proper choices and strikes and provides each our followers and our rivals one thing that they are often actually pleased with going ahead. Transfer to come back on that sooner or later.”
What might change?
Whereas no particulars have been revealed by the sanctioning physique, there are a number of options to the present format that repeatedly come up in public discussions: 1. Preserving the present format, however take away the one-race finale and increasing it into a number of races just like the earlier rounds; 2. A return to the unique playoff format with the motive force with essentially the most factors over the course of the ultimate ten races being topped champion; 3. Going again to a full-season factors championship just like the collection had from 1949 by means of 2003.
The primary challenge with the present format, which has delivered some unimaginable moments like Ross Chastain’s 2022 wall-ride, is that it usually produces a champion who wasn’t actually top-of-the-line drivers from that exact season.
One other level of competition has been the ‘win and also you’re in’ side of the present system. Austin Dillon entered Richmond twenty eighth in factors, however his spectacular victory knocked Chris Buescher (eleventh in factors) off the playoff bubble.
If there’s a new winner from beneath the cut-line this weekend, it’ll eradicate both Tyler Reddick or Alex Bowman, who enter Daytona seventh and ninth within the common season standings, respectively. There are 20 drivers with an opportunity to try this, going all the way in which again to Cody Ware, who’s thirty sixth within the championship standings.
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