With Joey Logano crowned the 2024 Cup Series champion, NASCAR’s playoff format is once again in the spotlight. Introduced in 2004 and revamped to an elimination style in 2014, the format is thrilling but divisive. Critics argue it prioritizes moments of drama over a season of consistency, allowing only four drivers to compete for the title in the final race—even if they weren’t the most consistent performers. These drivers clinch their spot by excelling at the right time, making for high-stakes races but raising the question: does the format truly reward the best driver of the season or just the most clutch?

Those who showed consistency throughout the season did not contend for the championship, like Kyle Larson, who was the winning driver of 2024 with 6 checkered flags and the best average finish of the season with 8.8. But this is how it is in this current format. Well, what needs to be changed? What is a perfect NASCAR season? Recently, Hendrick Motorsports ex-crew chief shared his version of an ideal season.

Is the NASCAR format not ideal?

Joey Logano’s path to the 2024 Cup title, despite just four top-5 finishes and a single regular-season win, has stirred up debate about NASCAR’s playoff format. After a critical win in the playoff opener at Atlanta, Logano had a mix of mediocre finishes until he advanced to the Round of 8 due to Alex Bowman’s post-race penalty at the ROVAL. A win in Las Vegas secured his Championship 4 spot, and he clinched the title with a victory at Phoenix, despite a 17.1 season average finish—the lowest ever for a NASCAR champion. While some argue this makes him unworthy, veteran Steve Letarte believes NASCAR should focus on historic venues and crown jewel events to enhance season-long excitement.

Letarte on Denny Hamlin’s ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast said, “I think a perfect NASCAR is this you run the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500 there’s probably a few more that I’m missing. Every year there’s one or two marquee things on the schedule that are new that we can celebrate it was Chicago next year we’re going down uh to Mexico City like those that need to be celebrated. And I’m good with it and if you want to change the playoffs I’m okay with it.”

According to the former HMS employee, Joey Logano winning in this current format is technically the same as the pre-playoff champions. The format was different, and drivers and teams adapted to it accordingly. Logano’s season shows that the team did all they needed to do to win the title.

“I believe that Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jimmy Johnson, with seven championships each, are the Mount Rushmore; put them up there; they’ve all done it. I don’t care the formats; I don’t care that that Richard did it. In like in their world they were the best in their time to win seven of them, right. Like you can’t unpeel the onion and say like Joey Logano didn’t need to run well in the next two races but you can’t go back and say see he wouldn’t have been the championship I’m like oh so you don’t think Paul wolf would have done something different if he had to go run great at Martinsville,” Letarte added.

Amid this, NASCAR has spoken about possible changes in the upcoming season, but the playoff format is here to stay!

Official’s stand on the playoff format and possible changes

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The playoff format has been around since 2004 (earlier called the chase) and has gone through many changes, with NASCAR finally adopting the elimination style in 2014. For two decades we have had the playoffs, and obviously, NASCAR has benefitted from it. Like the 2024 playoffs, we saw a 6% increase in viewership from last year. And naturally, the racing organization has no plans to roll back on it.

NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell recently said, “The format is one thing. But playoffs, we’re not going to go away from playoffs. We read fans [reactions] and everything. So, we will as we always do, absolutely look at what form the playoffs take in the offseason. You always learn, but playoffs in and of itself, you cannot argue with the quality of racing that the playoffs have delivered. You can talk about the format and if we do some different things. But absolutely we’re going to stick with it.”

Followed by the outcry of the NASCAR community, they might look at tweaking the format a little bit to reward consistency. According to Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern, one senior team executive recently said, “Topics that should be examined include whether a win should automatically qualify a driver for the playoffs, as is the case now, and possible changes like whether the regular-season champion should get locked into one of the latter rounds of the playoffs, whether the final round should have more than four drivers, and whether the final round should be contested over multiple races instead of just one.”

Well, only time will tell what changes are brought in the format for the 2025 season. What do you think should change?