Chase Elliott Labels NASCAR Schedule “Stale” as Season-Long Exhaustion Fuels Playoffs Chase Elliott opens up on the grueling NASCAR grind, revealing how shifting momentum sparks fresh energy and inten

NASCAR’s marathon schedule with 36 points-paying races across a globe-spanning calendar is as much a test of endurance as it is ok skill. Drivers like Chase Elliott have called the regular-season “stale,” while Denny Hamlin has openly grumbled about burnout, with Hamlin once saying, “certainly not 36 or 38” when asked about adding more races to the slate. The grueling schedule often dampens the initial thrill that kickstarts every February opener, no matter how thrilling the clash at Daytona may be. But when the calendar finally resets and playoffs loom, everything changes.

The playoffs are a high-stakes sprint where every lap is magnified, every point hammered home. NASCAR’s elimination structure now places 16 drivers into a nail-biting 10-race showdown that starts with Darlington’s Co