NASCAR confirmed on Thursday afternoon that they have scheduled a press conference "to announce the championship format for the 2026 season and beyond", bringing an end to the modern format after 12 years.
That announcement is scheduled to take place on Monday, January 12 at 3:30 p.m. ET at NASCAR Productions Facility in Concord, North Carolina, and it is set to end months of speculation regarding what the new format might look like.
A special ‘Inside the Race’ studio show is set to be streamed following the formal press conference, and the plan is for both to be streamed live on NASCAR.com, NASCAR YouTube, and the NASCAR Channel.
While NASCAR did not specify any changes, the fact that this announcement is happening says it all: things will not look the same in 2026 as they have for the past decade-plus.
NASCAR changing championship format after 12 years
The format that was used in 2025, the four-round, 10-race knockout playoff format featuring 16 championship contenders following the 26-race regular season, was implemented back in 2014.
Aside from the introduction of stage racing in 2017, which added another way to score regular points and another element to the value of "playoff points", this format has remained unchanged since its introduction.
This format, which replaced the old Chase for the Cup format that was used as NASCAR's initial playoff format from 2004 to 2013, has widely been considered one of the most controversial changes in NASCAR history.
While everyone plays by the same rules, the nature of the format and the volatility of three-race playoff rounds, coupled with a single-race championship race guaranteed to feature four contenders, has long led to calls for change, with some fans going as far as suggesting that the modern era has produced undeserving champion after undeserving champion.
Those complaints reached all-time highs in both 2024 and 2025, and for very different reasons. In 2024, Joey Logano won his third championship, despite a 15th place finish in the regular season point standings, and in 2025, the entire season came down to a controversial caution flag with just over two laps remaining in the Phoenix Raceway season finale.
Similar instances had, of course, happened semi-regularly in the first decade of the format's existence as well, but NASCAR could simply not ward off the complaints for much longer after the sour taste that was left in the mouths of so many this past November.
Of course, we don't know exactly what the new format will look like, but we do know that there will be changes.
Unfortunately, given the fact that most, if not all, suggestions from fans in recent months have each come with their own inevitable drawbacks, coupled with the fact that NASCAR's fanbase is one of the toughest to please, don't be surprised if whatever NASCAR announces is met with blowback, both in the immediate aftermath of the announcement and down the road once the format is actually implemented.
And of course, on a lighter note, don't be shocked to see some fans start to calculate the "would-be" champions from the first 22 years of the playoffs, had this new format been utilized during those years as well. Let's just hope that the changes made are acceptable for all, that they work as intended, and that NASCAR can truly grow the fanbase as a result.