Chase Elliott renews calls to scrap NASCAR’s playoff format

Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott has again called on NASCAR to abandon its playoff system in favor of a traditional full-season championship.

The playoff format was introduced in the Cup Series in 2004, under the name Chase for the Cup, and it has since been expanded to NASCAR’s other two national series, Xfinity and Trucks.

It features a 10-race, four-round structure that begins with 16 drivers and culminates in a one-race, winner-takes-all showdown to decide the title.

While the format was designed to ensure drama and prevent a runaway champion, it has long divided opinion among drivers and fans.

Elliott won his maiden Cup Series title in 2020 under this format, but the current championship leader wants the title to be decided based on all 36 points-paying events.

"We've had a really good and competitive battle to the regular season (championship) over -- correct me if I'm wrong -- the last two or three years. It's really been pretty tight all the way down to Daytona,” he said on Friday ahead of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.

“If you just take that as your sample set over the first 26 weeks, it looks pretty solid to me.

“The system would be just fine if you just had a full season. And if somebody runs away with it, so what? Let's celebrate the fact that somebody ran away with it, that somebody was just that good.

“Motorsports does not have to be like everybody else to be successful. And I'll stand by that til I get done."

2012 Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski echoed Elliott’s sentiments, arguing that the current format prevents fans from fully appreciating the parity and competitiveness brought about by the Next Gen car.

“Strikes me just now, part of what’s holding the Nextgen car back in popularity is that the parity it has generated can’t be recognized and celebrated in a playoff format,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“The small sample size of races in the current format creates a natural oblivious state to the excellence this car requires from teams and drivers to get weekly results…

“Or In short: What Chase said…”