NASCAR is America's stock car racing championship, where production-based cars race bumper to bumper on ovals and road courses at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour. The sport's format changed significantly for 2026, with the return of the Chase, and this guide explains how the modern championship works.
How a race works
A NASCAR Cup Series race is run on an oval or a road course, with a field of up to 40 cars. Races are divided into stages, usually three: Stage 1, Stage 2 and the Final Stage. The first two stages each pay points to the top 10 finishers, with 10 points for the stage winner down to 1 point for tenth. The Final Stage decides the race winner.
There is also a bonus point for the driver who records the fastest single lap of the race, an addition introduced in 2025 that has been kept in the new format. Cautions for crashes and debris bunch the field back up, so a driver who leads by seconds can lose the advantage in an instant, and restarts are among the most dramatic moments in the sport.
The points system
For 2026, NASCAR placed a much bigger premium on winning. A race win is now worth 55 points, up from 40 under the previous system. Second place earns 35 points, third earns 34, and the points decrease by one per position down the field, with every starting driver earning at least 1 point.
A driver who wins both stages and the race banks 75 points, plus a fastest-lap bonus point if they set it, for a maximum of 76 points in a single race. The gap between winning and finishing second is now 20 points, up from five, so the reward for taking the chequered flag is bigger than it has ever been.
The Chase: the 2026 postseason
The 2026 season is built around the return of the Chase, the format used between 2004 and 2016. The regular season runs for 26 races, ending at Daytona. At the end of it, the top 16 drivers in the points standings qualify for the Chase, and their points are reset to a baseline spread: the leader starts on 2,100 points, 25 more than second place and 100 more than the driver in 16th.
The Chase itself is a 10-race run to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 8. There are no eliminations and no rounds: all 16 drivers contest all 10 races, and the driver with the most points at the end of the finale is crowned champion.
Two features of the old elimination era are gone. The "win and you're in" rule, which gave race winners an automatic playoff place, has been removed, so the Chase field is decided purely on points. Playoff points, the bonus currency drivers stockpiled from wins and stage wins, have also been deleted. The regular-season champion title has been discontinued, although finishing first in the standings still brings the biggest advantage into the Chase.
The three national series
NASCAR runs three national series, and all three use the Chase format in 2026. The Cup Series is the top level, with 16 drivers in a 10-race Chase. The O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, formerly the Xfinity Series, has 12 drivers in a nine-race Chase. The Craftsman Truck Series has 10 drivers in a seven-race Chase.
The Daytona 500, first run in 1959, remains the sport's signature event and traditionally opens the Cup Series season. It is held at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5-mile high-banked superspeedway in Florida.
A brief history
NASCAR was officially incorporated on February 21, 1948, after Bill France Sr. gathered the racing community at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach in December 1947 to organise the chaotic world of stock car racing. France became NASCAR's first president. The first Strictly Stock race, the forerunner of the Cup Series, was held on June 19, 1949, at Charlotte Fairgrounds Speedway.
The first Daytona 500 was run on February 22, 1959, at the newly opened Daytona International Speedway, and Lee Petty won it in a photo finish so close that the result was only confirmed three days later. The Chase format ran from 2004 to 2016, before the elimination era of 2017 to 2025, and its return for 2026 was one of the biggest format changes in the sport's history.
How to follow it
If you are new to NASCAR, follow the points, not just the wins. Under the 2026 format, consistency across 26 regular-season races is what earns a Chase place, and a win is worth far more than it used to be. Watch the stages too: a driver who wins both stages and the race takes a huge haul, and the restarts after each stage are where races are often won and lost. And remember that in the Chase, there is no safety net: ten races, no cuts, and the most points at Homestead takes the title.