Dirt Late Model series denounces playoff format after three years

After three seasons utilizing a playoff format of some kind, the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series is reverting back to a season long championship format.

The first version, attempted in 2023, basically culminated with a one-race winner-take-all style championship race amongst four drivers that NASCAR has ended its seasons with since 2014. The past two seasons feature a four-driver finale but amongst multiple races.

Tour director Rick Schwallie said that will change on Saturday during the season ending banquet.

“For the 2026 season, we are going to return to a traditional points format next year and go away from the Chase format,” Schwallie said. “We tried something. We wanted to elevate our program. We more than doubled our points fund in that time. In those three years, we had clients like Big River Steel and ARP that helped us doing that, and really we wouldn’t be here — over $1.2 million today (for the points fund) — if it wasn’t for that.”

“So I don’t look back on that as any sort of failure by any stretch of the imagination. I really think it was a success. It took us to new places, and a place that’s more lucrative for our race teams. But I also think that we’re at a place where we tried different formats, different tweaks to that format. Here we are, three years later, we’re going to just return to a traditional format for next year and the points fund will remain the same.”

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