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NASCAR's director of communications, Mike Forde, has hinted at 'internal discussions' regarding the championship format. On the latest episode of Hauler Talk, Forde shared that a new format is set to be revealed, but didn't have a reliable timeline for it.
The 2025 season seems to be the final nail in the coffin for the single-race title decider. With Connor Zilisch losing the title after a ten-win season, scrutiny surrounding the current format has intensified.
NASCAR first changed the format when Matt Kenseth won the 2003 title two weeks early, owing to a consistent season full of seventh-place finishes. The Chase was then introduced, where top drivers would duke it out in a ten-race condensed season at the end of the year. Jimme Johnson dominated this era by winning five chases in a row and six championships in eight years.
Ratings dipped throughout most of that run. Consequently, NASCAR introduced the winner-take-all finale, which has failed to reward generational talents like Zilisch.
However, a new format is on the horizon, as per Forde. The Athletic's Jeff Gluck shared an anecdote from podcast, writing,
"On the new episode of “Hauler Talk,” @mforde says there are internal discussions still to be had about the NASCAR championship format and he doesn’t know if it will be announced in two weeks or two months because it’s all still TBD."On the new episode of “Hauler Talk,” @mforde says there are internal discussions still to be had about the NASCAR championship format and he doesn’t know if it will be announced in two weeks or two months because it’s all still TBD.
Mark Martin has been a constant critic of the playoff system over the past year. More than the elimination-style format, he advocated for the full-season points system, a format that other motorsports like Formula 1 practice.
Had that been the format all along, Joey Logano wouldn't have any titles to his name.
NASCAR team owner reflects on the flawed playoff format
Justin Marks, team owner of Trackhouse Racing, recently commented on the playoff format after Denny Hamlin's title loss at Phoenix. He argued that a system where a blown tire could decide a champion is fundamentally flawed. Hamlin suffered the same fate when William Byron's late-race tire failure changed the championship outcome.
In an interview with SiriusXM, Marks said,
I think that the one-race final championship was like worse trying" “It was a very transitional time in the history of NASCAR. I think it was a good experiment. I don’t think that it’s the right thing for the future... I think there’s a balance between the one final race and the 36 full races. But I think that the last race, the champion needs to be crowned (to) the person that performed the best sort of over the course of the season,” he added.2025 title winner, Kyle Larson, has also argued against the single-race title decider. Despite gaining an advantage from the format, the Hendrick Motorsports driver believes that NASCAR needs 'more than one race' to crown a champion.
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Edited by Vignesh Kanna
English (US)