NASCAR Chase: What to know concerning the postseason with two races to go

Simply two races stay till the postseason begins for the NASCAR Cup Sequence.

And, you would possibly bear in mind, the format is completely different this season.

Following 12 years of the win-and-in elimination-style playoff format, the Chase is again. This postseason system is designed to award consistency and drivers who’ve achieved success over the stretch of a protracted season — that started all the best way again in February on the Daytona 500 — slightly than drivers who merely gained one race amid an in any other case mediocre season.

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“I really feel like how I’ve approached racing within the Cup Sequence was in all probability higher suited to the Chase format,” Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 45 Toyota, not too long ago informed USA TODAY Sports activities. “I really feel like certainly one of our strengths as a group is consistency. One other certainly one of our strengths is the battle we put up, the grit that we have now. Now we have days that do not go easy, however we do not let it derail us.

“So, I really feel like for us, what we have been via, how we deal with the issues that come our method, we have now the precise qualities to be good within the Chase.”

The purpose standings have been fascinating to comply with all season lengthy.

After profitable 5 of the primary 9 races, together with three in a row to begin the season, Reddick constructed an enormous lead on the prime of the standings. However 45-year-old Denny Hamlin, nonetheless in pursuit of his first championship, had a midseason surge amid some struggles for Reddick and ripped off three consecutive wins at Nashville, Michigan and Pocono. Hamlin has maintained his place on the prime of the standings with top-five finishes in 5 of the final six races.

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