NASCAR playoffs

Origins of the Chase

The publicly stated purpose for the NASCAR playoff system was to make the NASCAR mid-season more competitive, and increase fan interest and television ratings. The timing of the start of the playoff coincides with the commencement of the college and National Football League seasons and the final month of Major League Baseball's regular season and playoffs. Prior to this format, the Cup champion was sometimes determined mathematically prior to the season finale, a situation that continued to exist in the lower national series, the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series, until they received their own playoff formats in 2016.

By resetting and compressing the scoring of the top 10 (later 12, then 16) drivers, the chances of each of those drivers winning the championship was increased, while not precluding anyone with a legitimate chance of winning. The original choice of top 10 drivers was based on the historical analysis that no driver outside the top 10, with 10 races remaining in the season, had ever gone on to win the Championship. The expansion to top 16 in 2014 made the elimination rounds possible.

Short track racing, the grassroots of NASCAR, began experimenting with ideas to help the entry-level racer. In 2001, the United Speed Alliance Racing organization, sanctioning body of the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, a short-track stock car touring series, devised a five-race system where the top teams in their Hooters ProCup North and Hooters ProCup South divisions would participate in a five-race playoff, the Four Champions, named for the four Hooters Racing staff members (including 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion and pilot Alan Kulwicki) killed in an April 1, 1993 plane crash in Blountville, Tennessee. The system organized the teams with starting points based on the team's performance in their division (division champions earn a bonus), and the teams would participate in a five-race playoff. The five races, added to the team's seeding points, would determine the winner. The 2001 version was four races, as one was canceled because of the September 11 terrorist attacks, however, NASCAR watched as the ProCup's Four Champions became a success and drivers from the series began looking at NASCAR rides. The idea was to give NASCAR, which was becoming in many areas the fourth-largest sport (after Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA and surpassing in some regions the NHL) attention during baseball's road to the World Series and the outset of the pro and college football, NHL, and NBA seasons.

"The Matt Kenseth rule"

The playoff system has been referred to as "the Matt Kenseth Rule" as a result of Kenseth's championship in 2003, the year prior to NASCAR adopting the playoff system. In 2003, Kenseth won the championship with just one race win (the third race of the year, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway) along with 25 top-ten finishes with him leading the championship for 33 races throughout the season, . Ryan Newman won eight races that year (22% of the 36 races run in 2003), but failed to finish several races due to crashes and ended the season sixth in the drivers' championship. NASCAR indicated that the 2003 championship outcome was not the driving factor in establishing the playoffs, as they had been considering adjustments to the points system to put more emphasis on winning races since 2000. "The Matt Kenseth Rule" more properly refers to the NASCAR numerical scoring system that was also implemented for the 2004 season, which increased the points awarded to race winners, thus emphasizing winning more and consistency less than in previous years. However, the coincidence of new playoff system in 2004 and Kenseth's 2003 championship led to the issues being linked, including by NASCAR officials in interviews and press releases.

Cup Series

The playoffs system was announced on January 21, 2004, as the "Chase for the Championship,” and first used during the 2004 Nextel Cup season. The format used from 2004 to 2006 was modified slightly starting with the 2007 season. A major change to the qualifying criteria was instituted in 2011, along with a major change to the points system. Even more radical changes to the qualifying criteria, and to the format of the playoffs itself, were announced for the 2014 Sprint Cup Series. As of 2014, the 10-race playoff format involved 16 drivers chosen primarily on wins during the "regular season,” if fewer than 16 drivers won races during the regular season, the remaining field was filled on the basis of regular season points. These drivers competed against each other while racing in the standard field of 40 cars. The driver with the most points after the final 10 races was declared the champion.

Beginning with the 2008 Sprint Cup Series, the playoffs became known by its new name as a result of the merger of Nextel Communications with Sprint Corporation. From 2004 to 2006 some races aired on TNT, with the rest airing on NBC. From 2007 to 2009 all 10 races aired on ABC, but in 2010 NASCAR and ESPN quietly moved 9 of the 10 races to ESPN. In 2015 coverage returned to NBC with some races airing on NBCSN.

Seeding and scoring history

The current version of the playoff system was announced by NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France on January 23, 2017. The current format is the fifth since it was introduced for the 2004 season, with significant changes made in both 2007 and 2011. The 2017 change is the 15th time since 1949 that the point system had been changed, these latest changes affect both the race format and the playoff seeding.

Starting in the 2004 season, after the first 26 races of the season, all drivers in the Top 10 and any others within 400 points of the leader earned a berth in the chase. All drivers in the chase had their point total adjusted. The first-place driver in the standings began the chase with 5,050 points, the second-place driver started with 5,045, etc. Incremental five-point drops continued through the list of title contenders.

In 2007, NASCAR expanded the field of contenders to the top 12 drivers in the points standings after the first 26 races. Each drivers' point total reset to 5,000 points, with a ten-point bonus for each race won. The provision admitting all drivers within 400 points of the leader into the chase was dropped. Brian France explained why NASCAR made the changes to the chase:

"The adjustments taken [Monday] put a greater emphasis on winning races. Winning is what this sport is all about. Nobody likes to see drivers content to finish in the top 10. We want our sport – especially during the Chase – to be more about winning."

The chase format was again modified for the 2011 season, as was the point system for winnings. After 26 "regular season" races, the top 10 drivers, as determined by points accumulated during the season, automatically advance to contend for the Cup championship. These drivers were joined by two "wild card" qualifiers, specifically the two drivers ranked from 11th through 20th in drivers' points who have the most regular-season race wins. The 12 drivers' championship points were reset to a base of 2,000 per driver. Each of the 10 automatic qualifiers received a bonus of 3 points for each win during the regular season, while the two wild card qualifiers received no bonus. Normal scoring applied during the chase, with race winners earning 43 base points plus 3 bonus points, all drivers who lead a lap earning 1 bonus point, and the driver who led the most laps earning 1 bonus point in addition to any other points earned.

Cup Series tracks

The following are the ten race tracks at which the final ten NASCAR Cup Series races for the Championship. Texas Motor Speedway (Fort Worth, Texas) was added in 2005 as a result of the outcome of the Ferko lawsuit which eliminated Darlington Raceway (Darlington, South Carolina) by NASCAR. Also, by way of a 3-way track change, Talladega Superspeedway moved to a later date, Atlanta Motor Speedway moved to the Labor Day weekend date, and Auto Club Speedway moved to a later date inside the chase (starting 2009).

In 2011, as part of a substantial schedule realignment, a number of further changes occurred in the chase:

Auto Club Speedway lost its playoff date.

Chicagoland Speedway became host of the playoff opener. To accommodate this move, the races at Loudon, Dover, and Kansas all moved forward one week.

Talladega and Martinsville swapped dates.

In 2012:

Talladega and Kansas swapped dates.

In 2013:

Talladega and Kansas swapped the dates back.

In 2015:

Charlotte and Kansas swapped dates.

In 2017:

Talladega and Kansas swapped dates again.

In 2018, as part of a substantial schedule realignment, a number of further changes occurred in the playoffs:

New Hampshire lost its playoff date. Las Vegas replaces New Hampshire as the playoff opener.

O'Reilly Auto Parts and Craftsman Truck Series

On January 19, 2016, NASCAR announced the introduction of a playoff format for the Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series. Both series used the same elimination formula as the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, however, with some modifications (most notably, smaller fields, and only two rounds of elimination instead of three, due to both having seven races in their playoff formats compared to the ten in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs). In the Truck playoffs, there were only eight drivers eligible for the title. At both elimination races, the bottom two drivers in the playoffs standings were eliminated from contention; However, on January 21, 2020, NASCAR announced that the playoff field for the truck series would expand from eight drivers to ten drivers with the bottom two being eliminated after the Round of 10 and the bottom four eliminated after the Round of 8. The Xfinity playoffs had twelve drivers, and the bottom four in points were eliminated at the end of each round. The rules for fifth place continued to be the same.

The visual identification introduced in 2021 in the Cup Series also apply in the lower two series, with red (in 2021)/purple (from 2022 onwards) banners, spoilers, and splitters for Xfinity Series playoff contenders, and blue (until 2022)/red (from 2023 onwards, as well with driver's last name on the windshield) for Truck Series counterparts.

As the playoff format for the Cup Series was reformatted back into The Chase in 2026, it was announced that the now-O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series would also receive Chases of their own, albeit with modifications like with the old Playoff system (nine races and twelve drivers for the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, seven races and ten drivers for the Craftsman Truck Series). The points allocation would remain the same as with the Cup Series but would stop with the last driver in each Chase. As such, all O'Reilly Chase drivers would reset with a minimum of 2,020 points, with the Truck Series minimum being 2,030 points.

As an anti-Buschwhacking measure, Cup Series drivers are prohibited from racing in lower series' Chase races.

Comparison of Playoff Champion vs Non-Playoff Points standings

Ten different drivers have won the NASCAR Cup Series championship since the playoff system was implemented in 2004. Jimmie Johnson has the most championships under the playoff format with seven, while Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson are the only other drivers to win multiple championships since the system was introduced. Tyler Reddick is also the only multi-time championship in the Xfinity Series since the introduction of the system in the two lower national series.

Below are the hypothetical champions based on only regular points standings after last season race if no playoff format had been implemented. This section is only to demonstrate the impact of the playoffs on the outcome of the championship in comparison to regular points standings. Given the ways that different formats change race strategy and therefore results, there is no way to know if these exact outcomes would have occurred. Number of times listed for non-playoff champions includes championships won before the playoffs began in 2004 while regular season champions only count winners after the playoffs began in 2004.

Cup Series

Within the Cup Series:

Eight times, in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2025, the Cup Playoff Champion would also be the champion based on regular points standings.

In three times, in 2005, 2017, and 2019, the Cup Playoff champion leads the points standings before the start of the playoffs.

In four cases, in 2015, 2016, 2023 and 2024, the Cup Playoff champion wouldn't be in the Top 5 of the regular points standings.

Criticism

The NASCAR playoffs has been criticized as a "gimmick" to the sport and has been questioned over whether it is fair compared to not having the playoff at all.

2020

In 2020, Kevin Harvick dominated for most of the season. He won nine races and had an average finish of 7.1. Despite this, Harvick was eliminated during the final "Round of 8" race at Martinsville Speedway. Entering the race being 42 points above the cutline, Matt Kenseth made contact with Harvick which knocked the valve stem off his left-rear tire. Needing one position to make the "Championship Four", Harvick spun Kyle Busch in the final corner of the final lap, but spun himself out as well. This ended his opportunity to race for his second Cup championship.

After the race, Kevin Harvick remarked that winning the NASCAR championship "aren’t like winning like Petty and Earnhardt used to win them." During the post race press conference, a reporter asked Harvick how he could justify to people that he was clearly the dominant car all year but not running for a championship, Harvick responded: “That’s the system that we work in and it’s obviously skewed more towards entertainment than the whole year, so it’s exciting to watch and has that format that goes with it and you take them as they come and we race within the system that they give us and do our best. It just didn’t work out for us. The last three weeks didn’t go exactly how we needed them to and you’ve got to be right when you get to this Round of 8.”

2025

Criticism by fans and media members grew late in the 2025 season as drivers Corey Heim and Connor Zilisch dominated the Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, respectively. Heim ultimately won the championship at the season-ending race at Phoenix Raceway despite a late-race caution costing him the lead. Zilisch lost the final race and the championship to Jesse Love. Fans at the track were notably quiet and subdued after the victory, with commentators criticizing one-race-take-all nature of the format. The following day, Denny Hamlin dominated the final NASCAR Cup Series race of the season at Phoenix but a late caution cost him the lead and he was unable to pass Kyle Larson on a restart to win his first championship. Following the race Hamlin said "In this moment, I never want to race again." William Byron, who was also competing for the championship and brought out the late caution after crashing, apologized to Hamlin following the race. Larson himself said that winning the championship was a "weird feeling."

Prior to the final weekend, the championship format had been criticized by former and current drivers such as Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Christopher Bell, and Brad Keselowski. Notably, three-time series champion Joey Logano is a proponent of the playoff format. NASCAR president Steve O'Donnell said the format would be changing for the 2026 season, and would ultimately result in the 2026 Chase format, eliminating bracket-style eliminations, playoff points and the "win and you're in" qualification system.

Other controversies

Matt Crafton's Truck Series title in 2019 has also been used to argue that the format can produce a winless champion despite its supposed focus on wins after 2014; on the debut year of elimination format, Ryan Newman secured his spot on that year's Championship 4 despite winning zero races, which could theoretically allow him to win that year's Cup Series title without winning a single race or just the championship race (the latter would happen in 2021 in the Xfinity Series when Daniel Hemric did so, having been winless for his entire NASCAR career with ten second-place finishes).

Kyle Busch's 2015 Cup Series title, and NASCAR's decision to grant him waiver preventing him from missing the playoffs, was criticized due to the fact he missed 11 races during the season due to an injury, something which would have prevented him from winning the championship in non-playoff and earlier Chase playoff points formats. Similar waivers were granted to Ryan Newman, who was out following his 2020 Daytona 500 crash and Matt Kenseth, who replaced Kyle Larson after he was released from Chip Ganassi Racing following a live streaming controversy in 2020, although both failed to qualify for that year's playoffs. Kurt Busch was also granted a similar waiver in 2022 after he was injured at the qualifying for the 2022 M&M's Fan Appreciation 400 but opted not to use the waiver when his injury turned out to be a career-ending accident. Following the 2024 Coca-Cola 600, controversy persisted regarding Larson's eligibility for the waiver after he missed the race entirely when weather issues at both the Indianapolis 500 (resulting in the race being delayed by several hours) and Coca-Cola 600 (which was called off after it rained out in the second stage) resulted in Larson not driving a single lap of the NASCAR portion of the Double Duty; NASCAR ultimately approved the waiver.

Another source of criticism in regards of the playoffs is that media/broadcast attention would shift towards playoff contenders during that portion. During the ESPN broadcast of 2009 Dickies 500, the vast majority of the race's commentary was spent talking about Jimmie Johnson despite the fact he had crashed out on lap 3 and finished 38th. In addition, following the addition of eliminations and automatic playoff berth from winning a race in 2014, critics have noted that the format encouraged more aggressive driving in order to claim a race win necessary to qualify for (or advance to the next round of) the playoffs, as well as encouraging teams to manipulate penultimate races to increase the odds of championship victory, as demonstrated at 2013 Federated Auto Parts 400 (which occurred in the pre-elimination format) and 2024 Xfinity 500. Poor driving conduct involving championship contenders at the 2023 Craftsman 150 (that year's Truck Series finale) have also been attributed to the playoff format as well.