Inside NASCAR's playoff committee: A desire for change, but likely not in 2026

New York Times

2 days ago

Following a controversial 2024 Cup Series playoffs, in which Joey Logano won the Cup Series title with the worst average finish for a champion in NASCAR's Modern Era, the league formed a committee to assist in coming up with a format that would crown the most 'deserving' champion and deliver enough entertainment to increase television ratings while running head-to-head with the NFL on fall Sundays.
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The group — meant to serve as a feedback forum for various proposals, not to determine the final format — consists of current drivers, former drivers, team owners, track officials, manufacturer representatives, NASCAR representatives and media members (both broadcast and print).
Like practically everyone who knows anything about NASCAR, they all had ideas in mind, but the proposals for reaching the finish line are as different as the cars' paint schemes on the racetrack each week.
After this writer has penned much commentary over the years about the need for change in a flawed system, NASCAR invited The Athletic to participate in the panel. We agreed to join with the understanding that the general discussion and process could eventually be reported on, as long as the identities of specific committee members and their specific comments remained off the record. (This writer's contributions to the discussion are noted throughout the piece.)
After two meetings — one before the Daytona 500 in February and another before the Coca-Cola 600 in May — and two email surveys, it seemed like a near certainty the playoff format would be revamped for next season.
But earlier this month, the discussions stalled out. It's now far less likely that anything drastic will change in time for 2026.
Here's what you need to know about how NASCAR got to this point, what has happened with the committee, and where the process stands now.
Under NASCAR's current, 12-year-old playoff format, 16 drivers make the playoffs and try to stay alive through a trio of three-race rounds, with four eliminated after each. In the end, the final four drivers left standing compete in a one-race championship battle. Though they take to the track with all the non-playoff and eliminated drivers, whoever finishes highest among those four title-eligible drivers is named series champion.
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While this format certainly has its cheerleaders, many (me included) feel it does not regularly reward the 'best' driver of the season, as determined by various metrics or the eye test. And that, in the eyes of critics, has eroded the credibility of what it means to win a championship that until 2003 was decided by whoever had the most points from all races in the entire season.
At that initial playoff committee meeting in Daytona Beach, an informal poll in the room showed a split between those who thought a change was desirable (again, including this writer) and those who felt the status quo was fine. But over 90 minutes of discussions, a consistent theme emerged: The current format, created to draw more eyeballs in a crowded sports landscape, is not working as intended.
That's not measured purely in viewership numbers, because those can be misleading. The committee was told, though, that it doesn't appear that using the elimination playoff format versus previous formats has made any material impact. The average viewership for the final 10 races of seasons in this era was within a half percentage point of the same races in the previous 'Chase' era — also a 10-race playoff format, but without elimination rounds.
NASCAR has other factors likely contributing to this, such as a lack of star power, rapidly changing viewership habits in the digital age, and continued competition from other sports. But if this format doesn't impact viewership and is also viewed to be less legitimate, why not make it more credible?
That logic seemed to shift the outlook for some on the committee who may not have felt any changes were necessary at the start of the process, an encouraging sign for those, like myself, who hoped the room would be open-minded.
The current and former drivers on the committee did not reach a consensus solution or opinion on a fix. Some committee members, including at least one driver, appear perfectly fine with retaining the current format.
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But the majority of drivers expressed concern over the elimination format's legitimacy, saying it was hard to sell the fans on being excited about a one-race championship when they themselves did not buy into the concept.
It's less clear how to fix it.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin has publicly revealed he was on the committee in an attempt to stump for a return to a season-long playoff format. To prove his point, Martin conducted a poll on X and asked fans to pick their favorite between four options: Traditional season-long points, the current format, the 10-race Chase or another form of playoffs. In response, Martin's followers voted 60 percent in favor of full-season points, 23 percent for the 10-race Chase, less than 10 percent for another form of playoffs and only 7.5 percent for the current format.
What point system do you think @NASCAR should use. I'm curious.
— Mark Martin (@markmartin) May 23, 2025
The Athletic then did a similar poll and got numbers in the same ballpark. Each poll received more than 20,000 votes.
But while Martin feels both polls represent a convincing majority, it's not as clear when adding up the totals who voted for some form of playoffs (ranging between 40-47 percent in the two polls) versus a full-season championship (53-60 percent). And of course, X does not represent a true cross-section of all NASCAR fans. In reality, when factoring in the world outside of social media, the existing fan base may be split down the middle.
Plus, the point of implementing a playoff in the first place was to attract new, less-hardcore fans, who are less likely to vote in such a poll and might be more enticed to tune in by the drama of a playoff system.
There's a certain romanticism to the 36-race playoff format because it is connected to NASCAR's glory days, and the current Cup Series vehicle — a spec car known as the 'Next Gen' car — has promoted parity, which keeps the standings close. After the first 22 races of this season, the top four drivers are separated by only 20 points.
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But while that sounds good in theory, there's trepidation among some committee members about it all going wrong. If someone runs away with the title or even a two-driver battle is not viewed as compelling enough, the impact on TV ratings and racetrack ticket sales is feared to be significant.
Some stakeholders even expressed concern that a multi-race championship round with four drivers might not have an exciting enough finale, though The Athletic noted in the meeting that the champion from the 10-race Chase format was never decided prior to the finale.
The committee meetings have trended toward a compromise: A modified playoff system with a longer championship round of some kind. This writer, seeing that as the most realistic path to generating a move away from the one-race championship format, is also in that camp.
A three-race championship round among the final four drivers, promoted by committee member Denny Hamlin on his podcast, has been one of the more-mentioned possibilities. But others in the room have felt that it doesn't go far enough in restoring lost credibility from the one-race championship. In addition, this writer asked panel members to consider if fans would tire of hearing about the same four drivers for three straight weeks.
That has even prompted suggestions of a five-race championship round (with more than four drivers) or a return to the 10-race Chase. From this view, the preferred format would be either one of those. If not a full 10-race playoff, then perhaps a compromise would be having a five-race opening round, one elimination to cut the field in half and then a five-race mini-Chase to determine the champion.
Overall, committee members seemed to largely agree that the goal is to make the championship feel earned, meaningful and worthy of celebration. At the same time, they also recognized the need to keep the excitement of the playoffs while rewarding the consistency of the best drivers.
Even after the second committee meeting in May, there has yet to be any talk of fully-formed playoff systems. Rather, there have been loosely floating elements and concepts that people in the room seem to like — but it's unclear how they could be integrated.
Some of the discussion has included:
• A desire to reward winning further. The committee members would like to see more points given to a race winner, which could help the best drivers of the season bolster their hopes of reaching the championship round and boost legitimacy for the winner.
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• Reducing the playoff field. If there were only 12 drivers in the field instead of 16, one regular-season victory would not be enough to clinch a playoff berth. That would lessen the chances of a scenario such as Daytona last summer, in which 34th-place Harrison Burton won his way into the playoffs with a superspeedway victory.
• Carrying points through the playoff rounds. Right now, drivers who advance through the elimination format have their points reset at the start of each round (they only have the 'playoff points' they earned from the regular season). Some on the committee would like to see drivers who are having an excellent playoffs be rewarded by retaining the points they have earned so far when the next round begins.
• Keep it simple. The committee's consensus is the current playoff system is far too complex and a barrier to new fans trying to learn about NASCAR. Any changes made to the format need to make the playoffs easier to understand.
• Figuring out a way to make every race matter again. Once a driver has already locked into the playoffs, teams and manufacturers revealed they shift their best equipment (cars and engines) to other drivers who have not won a race yet. That means an early-season victory can actually result in a driver being penalized until all of his teammates win, since the goal for organizations is to qualify as many drivers into the playoff field as possible. In turn, that erodes weekly competition by making some of the midseason races feel like filler events and hurts NASCAR's ability to sell fans on the importance of every race.
Given all of that conversation, it felt like the current one-race format was on life support by the end of the May meeting.
On July 8, though, the committee was informed that discussions would be tabled for at least six weeks. Although NASCAR still planned to seek feedback on some potential formats, executives first wanted to have a private meeting with NBC Sports — one of four Cup Series television partners, and the one that happens to broadcast the playoffs.
And because NASCAR said it could not meet with NBC until August, any changes for 2026 would now be in jeopardy because the Cup Series schedule had to be finalized — or very close to it — sooner rather than later.
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The schedule piece matters because if NASCAR ultimately opts for a three-race or five-race championship round, it would want to curate the tracks that decide the champion. This season, Talladega Superspeedway is the third-to-last race — which means if the schedule remains the same, then Talladega (a chaos grenade of a race) would be in the championship round of a three-race playoff.
That is not what NASCAR is looking for if the new format is meant to introduce more legitimacy to the championship.
Though it's unclear what NBC wants, going away from playoffs and eliminations is likely not on the list. Eliminations give something for TV to promote, and flashing the live points in the final laps of an elimination race is a powerful draw to retain viewers.
Certainly, an argument can be made that NBC has too much power in this conversation, and that the broadcast partner shouldn't be dictating how a sport's championship is decided. Then again, NASCAR's four Cup Series TV partners are paying a combined $1.1 billion per year over the next seven years, and executives don't feel comfortable changing the very thing NBC signed up to televise without giving the network a chance to weigh in.
So despite a process that has stretched more than six months and was filled with optimism through the early summer, the committee now finds itself in a similar position as everyone else who cares about NASCAR as much as its members do: Playing a game of wait-and-see to learn what TV executives believe are realistic changes that can be made, and even then, perhaps not until 2027.
(Top illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Jeff Robinson / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)