A new year comes with new hopes. In NASCAR, new disappointments are also in line. The sport’s playoff format came under massive scrutiny in 2024 when Joey Logano came out of nowhere and clinched the championship. He only won one regular season race—the quintuple overtime Nashville event—and was eliminated before the Round of 8 until officials disqualified Alex Bowman. Yet he managed to outsmart six-race winner, Kyle Larson, to the Championship 4.

Denny Hamlin, among many others, voiced their concerns about the consequences of the elimination format. Hamlin himself faded away after the Round of 12, despite having clinched three trophies earlier. However, a new Silly Season rumor is making him more nervous, as he suspects NASCAR is making things worse.

Denny Hamlin warns about diluted playoffs

Before the 2004 season, NASCAR decided the Cup Series champion based on points accumulated throughout the year. However, Matt Kenseth’s shock championship win in 2003 after only one race win convinced CEO Brian France to shake things up. The 10-race championship format, ‘The Chase’, followed, then the elimination format debuted in 2014. The latter kept drivers at their edge until the very end of the season. But it also allowed shock winners to seep into the championship seed. Case in point – Joey Logano, who clinched only 13 top-tens and 7 top-fives, his lowest stats since 2012. His average finish was 17.11, as compared to Kyle Larson’s 12.91.

So the playoffs are already a little too lax for drivers. But what concerns Denny Hamlin more is leaving more room for another shock driver like Joey Logano to infiltrate the playoffs. In an ‘Actions Detrimental’ episode, he dropped the rumor he picked up apparently from a NASCAR inner circle. “I’ve heard a dirty rumor, someone from NASCAR said it – ‘Maybe we expand the championship race to five drivers.'” The ensuing reaction from Hamlin displayed his flabbergasted emotions. “Like, no! You’re going the wrong direction. Please don’t do that. You’re just watering this down more. Stop making it easier, make it harder.“

While the comments to ‘make the championship harder’ might seem ironic coming from a driver who has never won it, it does make sense. Adding another spot adds to the ambiguity of the eventual winner. With Logano virtually being out until Alex Bowman’s disqualification, it opens up more such scenarios where an unfortunate event can lead to an ‘undeserving’ driver progressing in the playoffs.

Although this is a fictional narrative, it can be scary, as meritorious drivers will be further disregarded. It might allow someone like Harrison Burton, who won the Coke Zero 400, to get ahead of Kyle Larson in the playoffs by some shock move. Burton had only 1 top-five and 2 top-tens, while Larson had 18 top-tens and 15 top-fives. Denny Hamlin continued, “You gotta build the prestige of the people. Don’t keep opening it up to more places, more spots, more opportunities. No! You gotta make it special… Let’s not even support that narrative. Let’s just say that’s a terrible idea, and you’re going the wrong way.”

NASCAR is looking into solving the playoff problem. However, it is still undecided because of various factors, and for 2025, the format is not changing.

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A lot of voices to pay heed to

Joey Logano‘s 2024 championship probably created the biggest outcry against the playoffs. However, NASCAR officials clarified that it is an uphill climb before any playoff tweaks can be implemented. Drivers’ opinions will obviously weigh in that decision, but there are other entities involved. They include team owners, manufacturers, and, perhaps most importantly, NASCAR’s TV partners. Three new media giants have entered the sport – Amazon Prime, TNT, and The CW – so their stances will matter a lot. On the other hand, NASCAR asserted that people are not sure about what they exactly want to be changed.

Senior Vice President of Racing Development John Probst stressed that this indecision is affecting any move on NASCAR’s part. “Folks who had a lot of emotion and were really outspoken in the moment (after Logano’s win), after some time went by and we discussed it further were more in the ‘I just think it should change’ (group)… You’ve got to go through and evaluate all that and then run it through all the checkboxes of folks you’d like to have on board when you make changes of that magnitude. We just didn’t get to a point where you felt like, ‘We have to do it.’ But we hear the fans loud and clear and are looking at it actively.”

Nevertheless, NASCAR is looking into possible tweaks to the format by 2026. However, Denny Hamlin is already feeling apprehensive considering the wild rumor on the block.