The big story heading into the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season was the fact that, after 12 years, NASCAR finally abandoned the "win and in", knockout-style Championship 4 playoff format and went back to an iteration of the "Chase" setup that was used from 2004 to 2013.
The 16 playoff drivers are simply the 16 drivers who finished the 26-race regular season in the top 16 in the point standings, regardless of who won any races and who didn't.
There is simply set to be one single 10-race postseason round, rather than three rounds of three races and a winner-take-all championship decider, with the only points reset occurring immediately after the regular season ends. The reset was based strictly on the regular season standings, with bonus points awarded to the top 15 of 16 playoff drivers.
Aside from the format change, a number of date changes have been made to this year's playoff schedule, and it looks quite a bit different than it did a year ago.
5 changes to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoff schedule
The first two changes have to do with venue swaps. New Hampshire Motor Speedway was moved back to the regular season after just one year in the playoffs, and Homestead-Miami Speedway was moved back to the playoffs after just one year in the regular season. Additionally, the Charlotte Motor Speedway race was moved from the Roval back to the oval for the first time since 2017.
But the Homestead-for-Loudon swap wasn't a straight-up swap, and that's where the additional date changes come in. Homestead is set to host the championship finale for the first time since 2019, replacing Phoenix Raceway. After Phoenix had hosted the title decider each year from 2020 to 2025, its race has been moved up by three weeks.
Because New Hampshire had hosted the fourth playoff race, two other tracks also saw their race dates moved up. Kansas Speedway moved up by one week to slot it into New Hampshire's 2025 spot, while Las Vegas Motor Speedway moved up by two weeks to slot it into Kansas' 2025 spot.
Charlotte's date did not change, despite the layout change, and the dates did not change for any of the other five tracks on the playoff calendar either.
The first three playoff races are once again scheduled to take place at Darlington Raceway, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and Bristol Motor Speedway, respectively.
Talladega Superspeedway is once again set to host the season's antepenultimate race, with Martinsville Speedway again scheduled to host the penultimate event of the year the following weekend.
Several changes have already been announced for the 2027 playoff schedule as well, but we'll keep our focus to the upcoming 10-week postseason for the time being.
Live coverage of the playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway is set to be provided by USA Network beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, September 6. Don't miss any of the action from the "Lady in Black"!
Add us as a preferred source on Google