Ahead of the 2026 season, NASCAR finally listened to the fans and made a change to its playoff format. As they bid goodbye to the unpopular elimination-style playoff format, they brought back the previously used Chase. However, with this, they are rewriting the schedule for the year, and this puts the iconic historical track schedules in uncertainty.

This is because with the change in format, naturally, the scheduling will get affected too. It especially targets the latter half of the season. Addressing this, Mike Forde, the Racing Communication Officer of NASCAR, shed light on the scheduling flexibility and revealed why the regular long-held track traditions are in jeopardy.

NASCAR boss revealed the changing truth on long-held track traditions

The current playoff format includes 26 regular-season races and 10 races during the Chase. This allows NASCAR to hold 26 races regularly, like every other year, and then give importance to the 10 most important tracks on the calendar, accordingly.

However, until 2025, the Championship 4 race used to be the most important race of the season, along with the Daytona 500. As a result, the track where the season-ending race used to take place always had an upper hand in terms of broadcasting and popularity.

As things changed coming into 2026, the flexibility also increased. Addressing the same, this is what Forde said in the recent Hauler Talk podcast, by giving an example of Talladega, the track which hosted two important races in the calendar:

“Yeah. I mean, it just seems like you have a little more latitude now, where in the past with Talladega, you could have it in the playoffs, but you knew there were three dates. You didn’t know which ones they were specifically, year to year, but you knew every year there were three dates where Talladega could not be placed during those final 10 races.”

Following this, the NASCAR executive further stated how the Talladega Superspeedway will not hold the final race of the season, but will hold one of the last 10 races in the playoffs. This shows that Talladega is, and will always be, an important track for NASCAR.

“Obviously, it’s never going to be a championship race; it’s never going to be a penultimate race. But it just, it feels like it gives you a little more flexibility in terms if you want to put it in the final ten. Now you can put it really kind of, yeah, anywhere two through eight, whereas in the past that wasn’t really possible, which is interesting to me,” Forde further added.

Taking on from Forde, it is understandable that Talladega Superspeedway will host one of the final 10 races, but with NASCAR now having greater scheduling flexibility, its placement within the postseason could shift rather than being locked into a traditional spot like it usually is.

For instance, Talladega Superspeedway hosted the third-to-last race in 2025 (Round of 8), the Yellawood 500. In 2024, it hosted the second race of the Round of 12. This goes on to show its traditional importance. According to Forde’s words, NASCAR needs to schedule races, keeping the weather in mind. One such race is the Bristol Motor Speedway race.

“I think whatever you can think about is is possible depending on weather. So although we’re racing in Winston Salem on February 1st, so it’s maybe weather. People when they move to Bristol were worried about like, would that be too late in the year? And but yeah, I’m biased because my first Bristol Night race was 2002, which, look it up, is one of the most famous Bristol Night races in history.

“But to me, that race is synonymous, synonymous with that late August weekend. That is like a peak NASCAR time and a peak period for NASCAR to be at Bristol Motor Speedway. So I’m sure Ben Kennedy is listening and taking notes,” he further added.

Going by the 2026 season’s schedule, Talladega will host two races, the Jack Link’s 500 and the YellaWood 500, in April and October. Daytona and Bristol also have two races to their names. The Daytona 500, Coke Zero Sugar 400, Food City 500, and Bass Pro Shops Night Race, respectively.

With Talladega, Bristol, and Daytona being three very important tracks on the calendar, tracks like Charlotte and Darlington, among many others, also command attention.

Now that the upcoming season’s schedule is already out, all eyes will be on 2027 to see how the stock car racing body incorporates the schedule with the Chase format. Speaking of that, now that the playoffs are a past, Dale Jr. freely vented about it.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. was almost out of love with NASCAR

The playoff format had managed to trouble almost everyone leaving a few, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. He recently revealed how it he didn’t feel like tuning in everyday due to it.

“We had lost that. I had lost that, I was not being drawn to the sport every weekend, I was not wanting to devour it up,” Earnhardt said on his podcast. “I was sitting there going, ‘You know what, I kind of know who’s in the playoffs can kind of check out. I’ll see the highlights in the middle of the week. I can miss this one, I don’t need to tune in today.'”

Because of the predictability of the playoff format, individual races didn’t feel so important to Dale Jr to watch races live each time. However, since he holds a senior role in the sport, handling multiple responsibilities, he couldn’t afford to do that very often.

“I’m careful to admit this because (expletive) man, I’m a broadcaster. I got all kinds of roles and responsibilities. I don’t know if that hurts my position in the sport to say sh-t, I was falling out of love with it. I really was.”

Nonetheless, Dale Jr. is happy with the current full-season format. “I’m a fan of the sport, and now I’m compelled to plug in every single week because I know there’s a long-form objective for my driver to accomplish to be able to give himself the opportunity to win the championship.”