Sunday night's Cook Out Southern 500 is set to open up the first "Chase" NASCAR Cup Series postseason since 2013, after NASCAR ditched the "win and in", knockout-style format that was used from 2014 to 2025.
The format change came after years and years of NASCAR fans calling for full-season points to matter again, rather than simply winning at the right time, under the right circumstances, and in the right "round" of the playoffs, all factors that resulted in some relatively strange championship results over the past dozen years.
NASCAR didn't go back to full-season points entirely, but one of the main advantages of the new format is the fact that it is purely points-based.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin was able to track down 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick, who appeared to have an insurmountable points lead early in the year, with a strong start to the summer, and while he cooled off during the summer's second half, even his "down" days were more than enough to build upon his lead, to the point where he clinched the regular season title even before the regular season finale.
Bonus points awarded to the playoffs drivers under the new format are predetermined, based strictly on their finish in the regular season standings. As the regular season champion, Hamlin received a 100-point boost, which is 25 points larger than the boost given to Team Penske's Ryan Blaney in second.
It's all good in principle: regular season points champion clinches points lead to start the "Chase".
And yes, it's still a much larger boost than Hamlin would have gotten under the old format, where the regular season title was only worth 15, just five more than second place, and race wins were worth an additional five each. Stage wins were also worth one each. Under the new format, wins don't award any bonus points, but the regular season standings boost is substantially larger.
However, the reality is that Hamlin lost a significant amount of ground to literally all 15 of the other playoff drivers. Blaney, for instance, was 89 points behind Hamlin after the regular season, but now he's 25 points behind.
Blaney was the only driver to end the regular season within 132 points of the driver of the No. 11 Toyota, and now the other 14 playoff drivers are all suddenly within 100 points of the regular season champ.
Combined, Hamlin's rivals gained 3,440 points on him thanks to the Chase reset. Here's a look.
NASCAR Cup Series regular season vs. playoff standings
Rank | Name | Points | Gap | Regular season points | Previous gap | Gained on Hamlin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2100 | 0 | 1027 | 0 | 0 |
2 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford | 2075 | -25 | 938 | -89 | +64 |
3 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota | 2065 | -35 | 894 | -133 | +98 |
4 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2060 | -40 | 892 | -135 | +95 |
5 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2055 | -45 | 761 | -266 | +221 |
6 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2050 | -50 | 758 | -269 | +219 |
7 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2045 | -55 | 724 | -303 | +248 |
8 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2040 | -60 | 723 | -304 | +244 |
9 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford | 2035 | -65 | 709 | -318 | +253 |
10 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford | 2030 | -70 | 677 | -350 | +280 |
11 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet | 2025 | -75 | 676 | -351 | +276 |
12 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet | 2020 | -80 | 673 | -354 | +274 |
13 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2015 | -85 | 666 | -361 | +276 |
14 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota | 2010 | -90 | 651 | -376 | +286 |
15 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford | 2005 | -95 | 631 | -396 | +301 |
16 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford | 2000 | -100 | 622 | -405 | +305 |
Yes, Hamlin still has the lead, and there's a reason NASCAR didn't want to get rid of the playoffs entirely, even after the removal of "win and in".
But two things can be true.
It doesn't change the fact that Hamlin, who is supposed to be the biggest winner of this new format thanks to his 100-point bonus, has merely been drawn a heck of a lot closer to everybody else than he would have been under full-season points. He could have won all 26 regular season races, and he only would have started the playoffs 25 points ahead of the driver in second.
All things considered, that's actually pretty similar to the idea that a driver could win 35 races and lose the championship in the 36th, a common complaint during the "win and in" era.
We've seen just how quickly drivers can make up significant chunks of points on other drivers this year, whether you want to look at Hamlin turning Reddick's 129-point lead into a 133-point deficit, Joey Logano moving from 20th to ninth by winning twice, or Carson Hocevar plummeting from fifth to 12th simply because he finally suffered his first DNFs of the year in August.
Hamlin may be the championship favorite, but his lead is far from safe, and it's far from safe because of how this format is set up. Fortunately, it's still an upgrade over "win and in", where his lead would be miniscule.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are scheduled to get underway this Sunday, September 6, with live coverage of the Cook Out Southern 500 set to be provided by USA Network from Darlington Raceway beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET.
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