“They seek legitimately and fun over chaos”: Veteran Insider reveals the fans’ blueprint to fix NASCAR 

NASCAR insider and veteran reporter Jeff Gluck has shared a handful of issues and fixes fans want from the sport. Changing the playoff to a full-season points system, increasing horsepower, points for winning, and improving TV broadcasts were some of the top suggestions.

The 2025 NASCAR season ended with disappointment for Xfinity Series' rookie Connor Zilisch and Denny Hamlin in the Cup Series, and the biggest topic of discussion was the faulty playoff format, which is set to change in the upcoming season.

But in Tuesday's episode of The Teardown podcast, Gluck shared a larger blueprint to fix the sport after asking fans on X. He got about 1,700 replies and asked xAI's Grok to outline the popular issues.

"The common themes were full season points, ditching the playoffs, ditching win and in, boosting horsepower, fixing the car for better racing and tire wear. Eliminating the stage cautions but keeping the stage points. Ending overtime green-white-checkered finishes, which was interesting," Gluck said. "And improving the TV broadcasts in terms of more access, you know, better TV, you're not having to find different channels, better coverage, overall. And it ended by saying fans seek legitimately and fun over chaos," he added.

This season, NASCAR Cup races were split between four networks. After the new broadcast deal for NASCAR, Fox Sports aired the first part of the season (12 races), Amazon Prime Video and TNT handled five events each, and NBC Sports had the final 14 races.

Fans criticized this patchwork schedule and being forced to buy multiple subscriptions or hunt for the right channel. Some fans, including NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, also disapproved of the broadcast's focus on playoffs and the championship, instead of the race.

NASCAR did announce some changes to the playoff format and horsepower package for the upcoming season, but it is still up for debate if they will make a noticeable impact.

NASCAR playoff format and horsepower changes for 2026 season

NASCAR announced that cars competing on all road courses and oval tracks under 1.5 miles will use a higher horsepower package. Teams will test the 750 hp package at Bristol this month before races next year.

However, according to multiple NASCAR personalities, including former champion Kevin Harvick, the small increase from 670 won't be much noticeable. NASCAR is also reworking the championship format. It formed a working group of media partners, OEMs, Goodyear, and drivers to review the playoff system to discuss the end of the single-race championship finale.

However, it is yet to be seen if fans will get a return of the much-missed 36-race points system, a multi-race title decider, or a longer playoff window.

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Edited by Hitesh Nigam