Did You Notice? … The 2026 NASCAR season is set to begin with new leadership, without a circus-like trial looming in the background each week and a revamped playoff format that’s immediately more popular than what preceded it.
For all intents and purposes, stock car racing is looking to start fresh in 2026.
Gone is Steve Phelps, the NASCAR President-turned-Commissioner emeritus whose seven-year reign became the casualty of a very public, very awkward December trial between the sport and two of its race teams. Well before 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports emerged victorious in an out-of-court settlement, it was clear Phelps would be shown the door.
Both those things give fans hope the upcoming year won’t be dominated by off-track news. We hear so much in this sport about the so-called “casual fan.” What those people know now is that the drama is over, there’s new leadership coming and the teams “won” to some degree. That alone brings a clean slate for people often critical of the competition in 2025, looking for changes that make NASCAR better and more fun to watch.
Cue the playoff tweaks, a clear step in the right direction after an awkward ending at Phoenix Raceway last November. Denny Hamlin’s loss (and Kyle Larson’s gain) was the culmination of a year-long assault on a playoff system that had only gotten less popular with time. Gone is what former NASCAR CEO Brian France once called a “Game 7 moment,” an elimination-style format that left four drivers in a one-race, let-the-best-man-win slugfest for the title.
Too many of those came down to a crazy finish or weird quirks where the driver who won would never come close to sniffing a season-long championship. A wild card team winning the Super Bowl is something NFL fans can stomach, but race fans are a very different breed. A driver outside the top 10 in the regular season, as Joey Logano was back in 2024, was getting too hard to stomach as an “upset” champion.
In its place is an old Chase-ish style format (top 16 drivers qualifying, 10-race battle for the title) that’s a throwback to 2004-06. The decades in between combined with the relief of a change should leave fans thinking positive when it comes to the postseason.
The trick is for that feeling to translate to everything else. After a few years of unexpected champions, moving back to a longer format leaves the title race wide open. There’s more parity in the sport than there’s been potentially ever: an average of 8.5 drivers have won two or more races each year in the Next Gen era. It’s been hard to differentiate who’s the best from that group when the majority of them were clinching playoff spots in February or March, leaving their consistency virtually irrelevant.
There’s potential for good changes in leadership too. Will NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell stay on long-term? Has he earned back the trust of all sides of the sport? What role will young Ben Kennedy, the grandson of Bill France Jr., play in this next chapter? Will NASCAR once again turn to outside leaders or investment to help the series evolve?
As Daytona Speedweeks dawn with NASCAR’s signature event just five days away, there’s potentially some light at the end of the tunnel after a rough 2025. The teams and NASCAR itself, under the new partnership forged in December, have an opportunity to create a long-term vision together. Dodge is just a year (or two) away from the NASCAR Cup Series, and the San Diego course is a new race capable of bringing new eyeballs, similar to the Chicago street course in its 2023 debut.
There’s plenty of other questions too: how the Next Gen passing woes can be fixed on short tracks and how to keep smaller teams from losing ground the longer teams work with this car. Fans will have high expectations, feeling like January’s change could be the first of many.
It’s now up to the sport and its drivers to deliver.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off …
- There’s four clear underdogs heading into the race to make the Daytona 500: Anthony Alfredo, JJ Yeley, BJ McLeod and Casey Mears. You’d figure the favorites are Justin Allgaier, Corey Heim, Chandler Smith, Corey LaJoie (driving for RFK Racing) and Jimmie Johnson, who is guaranteed an Open Provisional. Knocking any of those five drivers out, considering their resources, is going to be a tough task.
- Among the veterans still seeking their first Daytona 500 win: Kyle Busch (0-for-20), Brad Keselowski (0-for-16) and Kyle Larson (0-for-12). While some might argue the weight of a victory has changed in recent years, it’s still NASCAR’s Super Bowl. It’s still a race this trio desperately want, no matter how much people dunk on pack-style racing.
Follow Tom Bowles on X at @NASCARBowles
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 50+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.
The current chase is not as stupid as the playoffs, but it is still stupid. All the teams are in every race of the year. There are not race teams coming in from other divisions that have not raced against each other. There is no need to say the last ten races are more important than the first 26, except to manufacture artificial drama. I am sick of artificial, overhyped drama in all aspects of our current culture.
NASCAR saying, “Come check us out. How we are determining our 2026 champion is not quite as bad as how we determined our 2025 champion” is not a compelling argument to get fans to return.
Also, to paraphrase James Carville, “It’s the racing, stupid”. The races and drivers are what attract & maintain a fanbase, not the championship. Until the racing improves and the drivers are likeable, ratings will not improve regardless of the championship format.
“NASCAR saying, “Come check us out. How we are determining our 2026 champion is not quite as bad as how we determined our 2025 champion” is not a compelling argument to get fans to return.”
Right? The Latford system was used to determine the Champion for 29 years and worked just fine (I’m not including the last 7 seasons in which the Latford points were used, but a Chase format existed to crown Champion). The original “Chase” format lasted all of 3 years before being revised. The next 3 revisions to the Chase format also lasted approximately 3 years. The longest run was 2018-2025 (7 years), and that format was so great they went back to a previous format which was discarded because it was not good enough.
People have short memories. I was too lazy to look it up how long the old Chase lasted. Glad someone did because my thought has been that they are essentially going back to something that people didn’t like before with a few tweaks. Will those tweaks make a difference. Guess we will see.
Richard Petty won his 7 championships under 4 different formats, didn’t he?
I just don’t want to see one guy get a huge lead and has practically wrapped it up with 10 races to go, like what usually happened under the Latford system. 1992 was the exception, not the rule.
Actually the championship battle typically came down to usually 2-3 competitors in the final races under the Latford system. Richard & Darrell in ’79, Bobby Allison & DW 1981-1983, 3 potential champions in ’84, DW & Elliott in ’85, Earnhardt, DW & Tim Richmond in ’86, & of course 1992. I can go on. Now, please cite an example where “one guy had a huge lead & wrapped it up with 10 races to go”. I’ll wait…
You see, some of us actually saw & lived the history & have excellent memories.
Well said.
And quite frankly, the seasons where someone did pretty much wrap it up with a handful of races to go, so what? We knew we were watching greatness in action, and the last few races were still enjoyable, because winning a Cup race was a big deal, without all the arbitrary rules which have made winning quite a bit more random.
“Also, to paraphrase James Carville, “It’s the racing, stupid”. The races and drivers are what attract & maintain a fanbase, not the championship. Until the racing improves and the drivers are likeable, ratings will not improve regardless of the championship format.”
^^^^^^^^^This! Spot on.
While im glad to see the crapshoot is gone I’m still not sold on this change.