The 2026 StatChat NASCAR Games - After COTA

Adam Carabine
7m
2 min read

By Adam Carabine

Welcome to the StatChat NASCAR Games!

We are now three races into the 2026 season, and I thought it might be fun to share some of the silly little games I play on my NASCAR Excel Sheet.

BRACKET GAMES

These games are similar to NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament, as created by Denny Hamlin, but it lasts all season long.

Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from myself. Each week, whichever driver finishes better in each matchup moves on to the next round.

Winning also gives you points which grow with each round.

Round 1 win: 1 pt

Round 2 win: 2 pts

Round 3 win: 3 pts

Round 4 win: 4 pts

Finals win: 5 pts

Those points then determine the seeding for the next round of the Bracket Games, and they continue until the end of the season. Whichever driver has the highest points at the end of the season wins the Bracket Game!

There is a bracket for each of the three NASCAR Series. Let’s see how things look in Week 3:

Cup Series

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

Craftsman Truck Series

ELIMINATION GAMES

These games are just another fun way I like to keep things interesting throughout the grind of the long NASCAR season. These games only follow the NASCAR Cup Series, though that could change in the future.

Because there are 36 races, and 36 full-time drivers in the Cup Series, this works out very nicely. The first elimination happens after Race #2, and continues through the season, so there will be a final two head-to-head matchup at the final race.

Each week, a new driver is eliminated in each game. The criteria for each game is different, so it’s not always the same driver being eliminated in each game.

Power Rankings Elimination

Whichever driver has the worst score in the StatChat Power Rankings gets eliminated.

After Week 2, Josh Berry was eliminated.

After Week 3, Erik Jones was eliminated.