The Chase first launched during the 2004 NASCAR season. It removed the old season-long championship format and added a new 10-race playoff.
In 2006, Jimmie Johnson won his first NASCAR Cup Series championship. He then won four more, making it five in a row. It was something that was suppose to be statistically impossible.
In 2014, NASCAR released a new playoff format with eliminations between rounds. They have been using variations of that format through the end of the 2025 season.
Now, for 2026, NASCAR is reverting to the original Chase format. A 10-race playoff with no eliminations.
But, Kyle Busch doesn’t know why we’re doing that…
“I thought we got away from it for a reason in the past,” Kyle Busch stated via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“So, I’m not real sure why we went back to it. The reasons why we sort of went away from it was obviously Jimmie Johnson’s dominance, number one.”
“I feel like number two is there were times where guys like myself, who would have one bad race or two that would then knock them out of the championship.”
“I finished 3rd one year, 5th another year just from having a wreck in one race like Talladega. You can’t make up enough points to get back to the championship.”
“I got wrecked at Kansas one year. That put me 5th in the championship.”
“It’s just stuff like that. I don’t really agree with it. But, they racing, the way that it is today and everybody running over everybody all the time, you might see that all 16 of us have a bad race.”
“If all of us have a bad race then that could be construed as a throw away and you gotta be good in the other nine.”
“We’ll see how it plays out.”
Busch said the winners would be able to make up for a bad race during The Chase. However, he noted that there’s only a handful of those teams.
“If you’re a winner. If you’re a Hendrick, Gibbs or Penske car, yeah. Name me another team that wins races outside of those guys.”
🤔 "I thought we got away from it for a reason in the past, so I'm not real sure why we went back to it."
Kyle Busch shares his thoughts on The Chase returning, consistency, and the importance of winning, saying it still rewards the bigger teams.
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