NASCAR explains decision to ditch regular season title as Denny Hamlin leads points standings

A senior NASCAR figure has explained why the sport has done away with the regular season championship for 2026.

The award was introduced for the 2017 season for the driver who racked up the most points before the beginning of the playoffs, but has been knocked on the head after just nine seasons.

William Byron was the last recipient of the regular season championship trophy, which will now go dormant while the sport officially refers to the points leader heading into the Chase as 'the No. 1 seed'.

The conversation was sparked by a tweet from NASCAR journalist Kelly Crandall, who wrote: "A reminder for those like me who are struggling to break from the vernacular of using 'regular season champion' that it's simply the top Chase seed with the reset."

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Hamlin laments NASCAR decision

That sparked a few conversations around the sport, with Denny Hamlin joking on his Actions Detrimental podcast that NASCAR just doesn't want him to win a championship of any kind, adding: "It’s incredible. The one time you win the regular season, they get rid of it.”

NASCAR Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde discussed the decision to move away from the short-lived trophy on the Hauler Talk podcast this week, explaining that while he doesn't particularly mind what phrasing people use, the choice was made as part of the move away from a playoff system for 2026.

He said: "Here's where NASCAR stands, in a way: I don't think we care what anyone calls it, really. We're not going to call it the 'regular season champion', we're not going to call it 'playoffs' and that comes from feedback from the playoff committee."

"From the very first meeting, day one – I'll give credit to Mark Martin here – he said that one of the things we should do is get rid of the term 'playoffs'," he said. "We don't play in racing. We're racers, we race.

"That idea picked up speed and as the feedback came from the committee and the fans especially, they didn't love the playoff vernacular or any vernacular that had anything to do with playoffs. They did like the Chase, that was a positive.

"Regular season champion, there's only one champion per season and that's the one who takes home the big trophy, so don't need that anymore either, and that was sort of the feeling with NASCAR as well.

"There's not going to be a regular season trophy, regular season champion. I guess in essence there will be, it's whoever finishes first in the regular season, but we're calling it the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs."