NASCAR fans love a good underdog story, and this year’s championship picture delivers one. A three-time champion who once looked buried in the standings suddenly has real title momentum entering the postseason right now.
A brand-new championship format quietly reshaped how every driver’s path to the title actually works. That single shift created surprising winners and unlucky losers nobody saw coming before the year truly started at all.
Why Logano almost missed the Chase
Joey Logano spent much of the 2026 season outside the Chase picture. By June 28, he had fallen to 20th in the Cup Series standings after going winless through the first 18 races.
Team Penske struggled early, with Logano recording only two top-five finishes through the first 20 races. The poor results left him outside the provisional Chase field with the regular season approaching its final stretch.
Logano then turned his season around with victories at North Wilkesboro Speedway and Richmond Raceway. He ultimately climbed from 20th to ninth in the regular-season standings and secured the No. 9 Chase seed.
NASCAR brings back the chase
NASCAR ended 12 years of an elimination-style playoff before the 2026 season started. The sport revived an old points format called the Chase, previously used from 2004 to 2013. Fans largely welcomed the change.
The old win-and-in rule guaranteed a playoff spot to any race winner. That rule disappeared completely under the new system. Now drivers must earn their spot through consistent points throughout the season instead.
All 16 Chase drivers remain in the field for all 10 postseason races. There are no elimination rounds, and the driver who scores the most points across the Chase wins the championship.
How the new points reset works
NASCAR resets the points for the 16 Chase drivers after the regular season using a predetermined seeding system that rewards regular-season performance. The regular-season champion receives the highest starting total.
Denny Hamlin, the regular-season champion, starts The Chase with 2,100 points. Ryan Blaney starts second with 2,075 points, while Tyler Reddick starts third with 2,065. The remaining seeds drop by 5 points each, with Ryan Preece starting 16th at 2,000.
There are no elimination rounds in the new Cup Series format. Every driver accumulates points across the 10 Chase races, with the championship race scheduled for November 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Logano’s surprising climb up the standings
Logano looked finished for much of the summer, sitting 20th in the standings with the season winding down fast. Then everything changed within just seven remarkable weeks of racing. Nobody saw it coming at all.
He surged from twentieth all the way to ninth place over that six-race stretch. Wins at North Wilkesboro and Richmond Raceway provided the decisive momentum boost. His crew chief called it a real turnaround.
Crew chief Paul Wolfe openly credited Logano with keeping team morale high during their early-season struggles. Sometimes teams simply break under pressure instead of fighting back together toward redemption. This team clearly did not.
The 253-point boost explained
Logano finished the regular season 318 points behind Denny Hamlin in the overall standings. After NASCAR’s new postseason reset, however, Logano begins The Chase only 65 points behind Hamlin.
The difference between those two deficits is 253 points. Logano did not receive 253 additional points; instead, the reset dramatically reduced the gap separating him from the regular-season champion.
The new format gives Logano a much narrower deficit heading into the 10-race Chase, creating a substantially different championship starting position from the one suggested by the regular-season standings.
Fun fact: Long before NASCAR stardom, Logano was already collecting championships. He won the 1997 Eastern Grand National Championship in the Junior Stock Car Quarter Midget division at age 7.
Wins are now worth more than ever
NASCAR increased the value of a race win from 40 points to 55 points this season. That 15-point jump rewards aggressive racing heavily. Drivers no longer need to simply survive each week.
Stage points still matter too, with the top ten finishers earning bonus points during each race’s first two stages. A perfect race can theoretically earn 75 total points. That is a huge single day.
This is a sharp departure from the old system, which rewarded conservative points racing over bold, win-now aggression each week. Drivers today have every reason to push hard for the checkered flag each time.
Logano’s championship pedigree and history
Joey Logano is a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, with titles won in 2018, 2022, and 2024 while driving for Team Penske. He became the 10th driver in NASCAR history to win at least three Cup Series championships.
Logano has built his championship résumé under several different playoff formats, including the elimination system used from 2014 through 2025. His three titles remain the defining achievement of his Cup Series career.
Fun fact: Joey Logano carried the nickname “Sliced Bread” as an 18-year-old prospect entering NASCAR’s top level.
What does this mean for the rest of Chase?
Analysts already expect this to be one of the most unpredictable championship battles NASCAR has seen in years, with all 16 drivers remaining in the field throughout the 10-race postseason.
Racing Insights ran more than 25,000 simulations of the new 10-race championship format. In those simulations, the champion came from the top six seeds 85% of the time, while the top three seeds accounted for 69% of the simulated championships.
Logano enters the Chase as the No. 9 seed, outside that top-six group. However, his recent surge and three previous championships give him a legitimate opportunity to challenge for a fourth Cup Series title.
TL;DR
- NASCAR brought back a modernized version of The Chase for 2026, ending the 12-year run of the elimination-style playoff system.
- Logano finished the regular season 318 points behind Denny Hamlin but enters The Chase only 65 points behind him after the reset.
- The difference between those deficits is a 253-point reduction in Logano’s championship gap.
- Race wins are now worth 55 points instead of 40, while stage points remain part of the scoring system.
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This article was made with AI assistance and human editing.
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