The 2017 revision introduced stage racing as an inseparable component of the playoff seeding system. Each race in the regular season was divided into three stages. The first two stages, each covering roughly one quarter of the total race distance, awarded bonus championship points to the top ten finishers on a 10-to-1 scale. The final stage covered the remaining half of the distance and awarded normal race points.
Alongside stage points, a separate currency called playoff points was introduced. Drivers earned one playoff point for winning a stage during the regular season, five playoff points for winning a race outright, and graduated bonus amounts for finishing the regular season inside the top ten in the championship standings: the regular-season champion received 15 bonus playoff points, second place received 10, and the scale continued down to one point for tenth.
These playoff points were added to each driver's base points total at the start of the postseason, providing seeding advantages through the first three playoff rounds. In the Championship 4 finale, all playoff points were neutralized: only the outright race finishing position of the four title-eligible drivers determined the champion.
From 2014 onward, the playoff field has been set at 16 drivers. Qualification is primarily determined by regular-season race wins, with points-standing position used as a tiebreaker if fewer than 16 drivers have won races before the cutoff. A driver who wins a race during the regular season receives an automatic berth in the playoff regardless of their championship points position, provided they are entered full-time.
From 2023, the requirement that a driver finish at or above 30th in standings to be eligible for a playoff berth via a race win was removed, making all full-time drivers eligible.
The ten-race playoff is divided into four segments:
Round of 16: three races after which the four drivers lowest in points and without a win in those races are eliminated.
Round of 12: three races with the same elimination mechanism, reducing the field to eight.
Round of 8: three races, reducing the field to four.
Championship 4: a single race, typically at a rotating finale venue (Homestead-Miami Speedway hosted the finale from 2002 until 2019, after which Phoenix Raceway took over, with a rotational system announced for 2026). The driver who finishes highest among the four championship-eligible drivers wins the championship, regardless of their absolute race finish order relative to non-contenders.
Any driver who wins a race during the first three playoff rounds automatically advances to the next round, regardless of their points position. Up to three of the four available advancement slots in each round can be claimed by wins, with the remaining slots filled by points.
Points resets occur at the boundary of each round. In the first three rounds, all drivers remaining in championship contention have their points equalized at a prescribed base: historically 2,000 points entering the round of 16, 3,000 for the round of 12, and 4,000 for the round of 8. Playoff points earned during the regular season and preceding rounds are added to these bases. For the Championship 4, all four drivers are treated as tied and the race result alone determines the champion.
Drivers eliminated in earlier rounds retain a scoring position for the remainder of the season. Their final championship standing is determined by a formula that combines their points from the round in which they were eliminated with whatever points they accumulate in subsequent races as non-contenders.
The O'Reilly Auto Parts Series uses a nine-race playoff with a 12-driver field. The Craftsman Truck Series uses a seven-race playoff with a 10-driver field. Both series adopted the playoff format in 2016, applying the same elimination-round logic scaled to their shorter race calendars.
Starting in 2017, NASCAR began formally recognizing the driver who leads the points standings at the end of the regular season — immediately before the playoff begins — as the regular-season champion. This driver receives the maximum playoff bonus points and carries that advantage into the postseason seeding.
The elimination-round format has generated persistent debate within NASCAR. Drivers with dominant regular-season records can be eliminated from championship contention by a single poor result in a playoff race, while a driver who wins the finale among the Championship 4 can claim the title with a less impressive overall season. The format's structure heavily weights a driver's ability to survive rather than accumulate points over time, a departure from the sport's pre-2004 tradition.
The most notable controversy under the pre-2014 format involved the 2013 Richmond race, where Michael Waltrip Racing was found to have deliberately manipulated the race's outcome to influence wild-card Chase qualification. NASCAR penalized the teams, expanded the field by one, and later accelerated the move to the current elimination bracket as a partial response.