NASCAR reverted back to an iteration of the old "Chase" postseason format before the 2026 season, following a 12-year run of the "win and in" knockout format that stretched from 2014 to 2025. The Chase had previously been in place from 2004 to 2013.
But one thing that is consistent across both formats is that there is a cut line. In the case of the old format, it was the cut line between the 16th and 17th place drivers, who weren't necessarily the 16th and 17th place drivers in total points, since winners vaulted ahead of non-winners.
Now it's simply between the 16th and 17th drivers in points, since the 16 playoffs spots are simply set to be awarded to the 16 drivers who rank inside the top 16 in the regular season point standings.
Still, there's a cutoff.
When it comes to NASCAR's cut line battles, NASCAR does it properly. The driver in 16th right now, for instance, is RFK Racing's Ryan Preece. He is 15 points ahead of the driver in 17th, Team Penske's Austin Cindric, so Preece is appropriately listed at +15, while Cindric is appropriately listed at -15.
After all these years, MLB still can't figure out that that's quite literally the only right way to do it.
Take a look at the MLB Wild Card standings, before the games on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, for both the American League and the National League.
AL Wild Card standings
Wild Card | Team | Wins | Losses | Games Back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | New York Yankees | 32 | 22 | +6 |
2 | Chicago White Sox | 27 | 26 | +1.5 |
3 | Minnesota Twins | 26 | 28 | - |
OUT | Seattle Mariners | 26 | 29 | 0.5 |
OUT | Toronto Blue Jays | 25 | 29 | 1 |
NL Wild Card standings
Wild Card | Team | Wins | Losses | Games ahead/back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | San Diego Padres | 31 | 22 | +2 |
2 | St. Louis Cardinals | 27 | 26 | +0.5 |
3 | Arizona Diamondbacks | 26 | 28 | - |
OUT | Chicago Cubs | 26 | 29 | 0.5 |
OUT | Cincinnati Reds | 25 | 29 | 1 |
MLB classifies the third and final Wild Card teams in each league as being on the "cut line", effectively 0 games back and 0 games ahead.
Games ahead and games back are calculated as the average of the difference in wins and the difference in losses, and that's why these standings are inherently wrong.
The reality is that the Minnesota Twins should be listed at +0.5, because they are a half-game ahead of the Seattle Mariners. The same is true for the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Chicago Cubs. The Mariners and Cubs are literally classified as being 0.5 games back, after all.
This inconsistency can even be seen for the Wild Card teams higher up the standings. Take the New York Yankees. They're listed at +6. But that +6 is over the third Wild Card spot; do the math. As far as how many actual games they are ahead of the cut line, it's really +6.5, because the real gap should be calculated by using the Mariners' record, not the Twins'.
Still not making sense?
Using this format, if the Twins were 10 games ahead of the Mariners, and the Chicago White Sox were only one game ahead of the Twins, MLB would classify the White Sox as only being +1, when the reality is +11, while the Twins would still be +0.
It's simply misleading, and NASCAR shows us why.
If NASCAR used MLB's format, Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe would be listed at +1, since he is one point ahead of Preece in the 16th and final spot. But his true gap to the good is 16 points, since he's 16 points ahead of Cindric.
Sure, Briscoe is one point to the good over 16th, but even if he fell to 16th, he'd still be in. The only accurate number here is +16.
Quite frankly, MLB does this incorrectly. And the difference is literally one single spreadsheet input: everybody above the cut line should be measured against the top team below it, while every team below it should be measured by the top team above it.
It's that simple.
I totally get that this is more of a pet peeve than anything, and quite frankly, it's irrelevant in terms of who actually qualifies for the playoffs and who doesn't. This is low-hanging fruit for a "slow news day?" kind of vibe, and part of me even laughed reading over it.
But it is still distinctly bizarre that MLB continues to do things in a way that can come off as slightly misleading, even though it is admittedly quite simple to manually calculate games ahead and games back.
At least, for as much criticism as NASCAR gets (and certainly got during the knockout format era), they have always presented the points-based cut line appropriately and in a way that fans can understand.
The second half of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to get underway this Sunday, May 31 with the Cracker Barrel 400, which is set to be shown live on Amazon Prime Video from Nashville Superspeedway starting at 7:00 p.m. ET.
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