DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The 2017 NASCAR season is one of hope and change.

Please don’t misconstrue this as a political reference. It is strictly business: Important business for everyone in NASCAR from suits in the office buildings to fire suits inside the cars.

NASCAR dramatically altered its playoff format in the offseason, and the big reveal comes this week at Daytona International Speedway. It’s the Big One, in so many ways.

Biggest race. Biggest wrecks. And a big-time move to re-engage fans — old ones left behind, with a sprinkle of new-bloods.

“I don’t know what all is going to happen,” said Darrell Waltrip, a three-time Cup season champion and now a Fox Sports analyst, encapsulating the murky circumstances.

To review, industry leaders — including a handful of drivers — came together during the offseason and blew up the Chase for the Cup format. Races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series now will consist of three stages, with championship implications in each stage.

The new format also will award an additional playoff point to each winner in the first two stages, and the race winner will receive five additional postseason points. So get those calculators out for Sunday’s Daytona 500 (as well as the qualifying races).

The revamped system could lead to a huge weekend for a driver with a dominant car. For the first time, the Duels on Thursday night will have an added value of 10 regular-season points for a victory. The Daytona 500 brings the potential to earn a total of 70 regular-season standings points for the weekend: A Duels victory (10) and a 500 triumph (40) along with capturing both segments (10 each). Other races will offer a maximum of 60 points.

Points will continue to accrue through the first 26 races and will carry over for the 16 drivers who qualify for the playoffs that consist of the last 10 races of the season. The operative number remains at four in a winner-take-all-format in Homestead in November.

“It will be fun to watch the teams get their feet wet with this new format and figure out how to capitalize on it before the next guy does,” Waltrip said. “Great minds are breaking it down right now, as they do any time something new is introduced. What exactly that will look like, I doubt anyone knows yet. The new format will take a little adjustment for all of us — drivers, media and the crews.”

Waltrip and others in the loop say it will take about five races into the season before everyone — from the drivers to the fans — sorts it out and decides whether the new format is the Next Great Thing or racing’s equivalent to New Coke.

NASCAR needs a pick-me-up, and maybe a hopeful metaphor is the new Cup Series title sponsor, Monster Energy.

There has been a lot of noise from traditional fans over the last few weeks since the changes were announced. That’s a key demographic. NASCAR can’t afford to keep losing fans, whether it’s live or in front of the TV set.

There also has been a smattering of complaints from fans that the outfits worn by the Monster Energy girls at Daytona are too sexy and revealing. That won’t make or break NASCAR. But it’s a bit of collateral damage for a sport that needs to get its groove back.

“You may not like it because you don’t want it to be different than when you watched David Pearson and Richard Petty battle,” said veteran former driver Jeff Burton, now a racing analyst with NBC Sports. “If that’s what you want, anything other than that you’re not going to like. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but would it have been more fun to watch Richard Petty and David Pearson battle with this?

“I would say this makes it better because it would have given them more reason to race each other.”

Elliott wins Cam-Am Duel: Pole-sitter Chase Elliott could have taken his lumps, learned his lesson and looked to make a better run from the No. 1 spot during the Daytona 500.

Instead, Elliott fought back from a seemingly ruinous start to earn a come-from-behind win during the Thursday’s opening Cam-Am Duel. In the process, the 21-year-old validated Sunday’s pole position and established himself as one of the drivers to beat on the sport’s biggest stage.

“We would rather it be on Sunday, but at the same time it means a lot to me,” Elliott said. “It means a lot to our team — just a great way to start the season.

“We really earned it tonight to start on the front row Sunday.”

Elliott, the son of Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, now will look to see how he and his car hold up during a much longer race with a star-studded field, including 2016 Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and two-time winner Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Hamlin and Earnhardt duked it out during the second Cam-Am Duel. Hamlin, using a push from Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch, passed Earnhardt with two laps to go. Earnhardt led 53 of 60 laps during the 150-mile race.