The announcement ahead of the announcement has been made. NASCAR has a new championship format to tell fans about. Officials will announce the new championship format for the 2026 season and beyond.

Monday, January 12 at 3:30 PM ET. Fans can watch the announcement live on NASCAR.com, NASCAR’s YouTube page, or on the NASCAR Channel. There will be a speical “Inside the Race” studio show that will follow the press conference.

There is no mention of the word “Playoff” in the announcement for the annoucement. However, that might not mean much. Will we get a return to a full season poins championship or something more akin to the old Chase?

It sounds like NASCAR plans to make it a special event. With a post-presser show planned, it is clearly going to be something that the sport wants to have discussed among fans and the media.

At the end of last season, the Championship 4 format was exposed in many ways. It showed how easy it is for a dominant driver to lose a championship that should have never been in question when Connor Zilisch lost to Jesse Love. Then, we saw how the Championship 4 format can even ruin its own storylines, like the run we saw from Denny Hamlin that came up short due to a late caution and overtime restart.

The departure of Commissioner Steve Phelps is also something to keep in mind. You could argue that with him out of the picture, it likely gave Jim France more of a voice and a say in what the format will ultimately be.

If you think that there is going to be a full season points format, I hope you’re right. However, I can’t help but think that is not the direction the sport is going to go. Whatever they decide, it has to be simple to understand, authentic to NASCAR and stock car racing, and ultimately, has to have legitimacy. It has to feel like the championship is earned by an elite few, not just up for grabs to anybody.

A new NASCAR championship format could be a change of pace or more of the same overly complicated solutions for rather simple problems. NASCAR can’t afford to burn up any more goodwill for the time being, and has a lot of healing to do with the fanbase.