NASCAR made its reformat official, announcing in collaboration with industry stakeholders, a new competition program that will be implemented in all three of its national series – the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR XFINITY Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Details will see races will now consisting of three stages, with championship implications in each stage with the top-10 finishers of the first two stages awarded additional championship points. Meanwhile, the winner of the first two stages of each race will receive one playoff point, and the race winner will receive five playoff points. Each playoff point will be added to his or her reset total following race No. 26, if that competitor makes the playoffs. All playoff points will carry through to the end of the third round of the playoffs (Round of 8), with the Championship 4 racing straight-up at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the title. Finally, the race winner following the final stage will now receive 40 points, second-place will receive 35, third-place 34, fourth-place 33, and so on.

“Simply put, this will make our great racing even better,” said Brian France, NASCAR chairman and CEO. “I’m proud of the unprecedented collaboration from our industry stakeholders, each of whom had a common goal – strengthening the sport for our fans. This is an enhancement fully rooted in teamwork, and the result will be an even better product every single week.”

NASCAR also unveiled a playoff bonus structure that will see the regular season points leader honored as the regular season champion, earning 15 playoff points that will be added to the driver’s playoff reset of 2,000. In addition, the top-10 drivers in points leading into the playoffs will receive playoff points, with second place receiving 10 playoff points, third place will earn 8 points, fourth place will receive 7 points, and so on. All playoff points will carry through to the end of the Round of 8.

“This is definitely going to enhance the experience of the competitors as well as the viewers and fans at home,” said Jeff Gordon, FOX NASCAR analyst, following the announcement. “Just being a part of this in that room, collaborating and hearing the different views and hearing everyone’s input from team principals, track operators and owners, drivers, NASCAR, networks, was a pretty amazing experience. What came out of it was this balance between what fans are asking for, what we can do to make the races even more exciting and make more moments, but also balancing out competition and what the competitors are going to go through. I think we came out with something really incredible. I had a new perspective last year being in the booth, so I’m really excited about getting back in the booth and calling the races with the stages.”