The talk surrounding the NASCAR Cup Sequence championship format has reached the excessive desk with sturdy opinions coming from the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott. Whereas Junior is okay with adopting the Chase format once more, he doesn’t assume that NASCAR will ever return to a full-season factors championship. Former driver Kenny Wallace agreed with this for essentially the most half.
He spoke about Junior’s phrases on his YouTube channel and detailed why he couldn’t get behind the thought of going again to the Chase format. Junior had replied on X to a fan asking if he can be okay with returning to the Chase format, “Certain. 10 drivers, 10 races. Or 6 drivers and 6 races. Or 5 and 5, or 4 and 4. All these sound good. Only a common season and a remaining spherical.”
Wallace mentioned in response, “I’ve at all times thought one race just isn’t good to find out a championship.” He then used the instance of Kyle Larson’s championship victory at Phoenix in 2021 to make his case that it isn’t determined till the final minute who the champion can be. Preserving issues as they’re is one thing {that a} choose few within the racing neighborhood stand for.
Most not too long ago, journalist Danielle Trotta confronted main backlash for arguing that NASCAR ought to transfer ahead, and never backward by going again to the previous full-season factors championship. This was not appreciated by droves of followers, in addition to by the long-lasting Mark Martin, who has been the loudest voice for change on this challenge. Amid all of the chaos, Elliott, too, has a powerful opinion.
Which championship format does Elliott want?
This whole dialogue stemmed from a query concerning the championship format debate that veteran reporter Jeff Gluck had requested Elliott. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was crystal clear on the stand that he favored a full-season factors format akin to the way it had been a long time in the past.
He mentioned, “The system can be simply high quality should you simply had a full season. And if anyone runs away with it, so what? Let’s have a good time the truth that anyone ran away with it, that anyone was simply that good. Motorsports doesn’t must be like all people else to achieve success. And I’ll stand by that until I get finished.”
Elliott is a giant title to have in a single’s nook in such issues. In any case, he’s the most well-liked driver within the sport and carries quite a lot of authority. Hopefully, the sanctioning physique will ship some key modifications within the 2026 season.