A flurry of discussion has circulated around the NASCAR world ever since the promotion announced on Monday that it will bring the Chase format back to the Cup Series in 2026. Weighing in on the debate, former driver Kenny Wallace suggested that fans are against drivers like Shane van Gisbergen, whom he labeled as one-trick ponies, making the playoffs.
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Wallace, on his YouTube channel, questioned SVG’s overall body of work, asking, “Where was SVG with 10 races to go here? That’s what I’m saying. I don’t know where he was exactly, but for the most part, he was 20-something in the points.”
While the idea of van Gisbergen using his road course expertise to make a playoff push is intriguing from a driver’s perspective, Wallace believes fans do not see it the same way. That disconnect, he argued, is what led to the uproar and eventually to this significant change in the format.
“He ended up 12th or somewhere around there,” Wallace continued. “But for most of the year, people were upset, saying, ‘Oh my god, he’s won three races, but he’s 28th in the points.’
“In the end, he did come on, but the bottom line is this. Where was SVG with 10 races to go in 2025?”
Wallace delved that it was Mark Martin who taught him to see as the fans did and changed his mind about the stories of those like van Gisbergen, Harrison Burton, and Austin Dillon. Winning one or even multiple races in a year isn’t likely to mean a lot anymore unless a driver is consistently high-performing throughout the rest of the season as well.
Charlie Marlow, who was alongside Wallace at the table, made some interesting points as well. When Burton made it to the playoffs in 2024 after winning at Daytona, or when van Gisbergen made it in 2025, it was always a given that they were never going to win the championship. There were clear reasons as to why they were there in the first place.
With five wins in 2025, van Gisbergen deserved to be in the playoffs. But he was never actually going to win the title. So, perhaps, the notion of such drivers being in the postseason isn’t as important as some make it out to be. The Chase format is more likely to put the best-performing drivers into the postseason table and give them a legitimate shot at winning the title.
