NASCAR likes to pretend it’s a ball sport, having gone to the playoff-style “Chase” system to attract more attention to the end of the season. Tonight’s announcement revealed NASCAR will be interrupted after periods of time, like quarters in a football game. Stranger yet, championship points will be awarded after each segment during the race instead of only at the race end in order to encourage on-track action to heat up earlier.
NASCAR races in all three of its national series—the Monster Energy Cup, Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series—will now be divided into three segments at certain intervals with 10-minute breaks in between each segment. The length of the segments will be based on each individual track’s length, which will reportedly be specified later this month. Championship points will be awarded based on the running order at the end of each segment.
Pit road will be closed for five laps, and at then end of the each stage the top 10 drivers will be awarded from 10 points to one point. At the end of the race, the winner will win 40 points, and second-through-35th place will be awarded on a scale of two-to-35 points. All lower positions get one point each.
The winner of each individual stage will be awarded one playoff point. The overall race winner will win five additional playoff points and a spot in the playoffs. Regular season playoffs will determine which drivers make it, and then all points reset, but the regular season points leader, who carries 15 points into playoffs.