Has the current playoff system reached a tipping point? When the checkered flag was waved at Phoenix Raceway, fans quickly and quietly exited the grandstands instead of sitting around to watch Joey Logano celebrate his third Cup Series title. Ever since the elimination format was introduced in 2014, the system has been subjected to plenty of debates, with key stakeholders questioning the fairness of it all. However, there has been a lack of urgency from NASCAR to tweak the existing structure, despite the backlash on social media.

Proposing an alternate playoff format, legendary Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Steve Letarte emphasized the need for consistency and race wins, which will reward drivers for their triumphs instead of contenders being able to point their way through the season.

Letarte suggests a radical solution after Joey Logano’s triumph

With Joey Logano’s win resulting in a social media backlash, former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Steve Letarte suggested an alternate playoff structure. Speaking on the Actions Detrimental podcast, the 45-year-old said, “If you win a race, you’re in the playoffs. I don’t care about points. I’m not even going to count them. I’ll count them for guys that didn’t make the playoffs. You win and you’re in. We may have six, we may have 16. I’m not even going to set a number. The playoffs are only winners.”

Sharing his thoughts about the Team Penske driver’s season, the sportscaster went on to say, “You didn’t win, you’re 26 weeks in and you didn’t win. The sport is about winning.” The NASCAR playoffs currently consist of the 16 drivers who score the most points in a 26-race regular season. The playoffs are divided into four rounds over 10 races, with the first three rounds each consisting of three races and the championship round being a single race. 4 cars are eliminated after each of the first 3 rounds. The origin of the format dates back to 2003.

Matt Kenseth had secured an unspectacular Winston Cup Series championship. Knowing that a change was needed to rectify the dwindling viewership, NASCAR CEO Brian France introduced the playoff format, with a 10-week-long Chase for the Cup system. Despite an initial spike in the metrics, the ratings and attendance began dropping sharply, and Jimmie Johnson’s five consecutive wins didn’t help matters either. With desperate times leading to desperate measures, France revised the playoffs to an elimination style in 2014, a format that exists today.

While Joey Logano and his No. 22 Ford Mustang team perfectly played to their strengths in a car that struggled for pace, it’s not hard to see why fans struggled to digest his championship triumph, especially when more consistent drivers such as Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell didn’t make it to the Championship 4. On the other hand look at Logano.

Joey Logano hasn’t set the Cup Series alight with his performances during the 2024 season. He had a miraculous victory at Nashville Superspeedway, where a bold strategy call by crew chief Paul Wolfe resulted in the Team Penske driver stretching his fuel for five overtime restarts.

He was then eliminated after the Round of 12, only to be reinstated because of Alex Bowman’s disqualification. A perfectly timed caution at Las Vegas Motor Speedway allowed him to gamble with fuel once again, with the victory giving him two weeks to prepare for the championship fixture at Phoenix Raceway.

Aside from winning four races this season, Logano’s other statistics were the lowest ever (some by far) for a NASCAR champion. His average finish this year was 17.1, which ranks 13th in the series. He had just the 12th-most points scored this season — fewer than Chris Buescher, who didn’t even make the playoffs. Logano ranked 11th in top-five finishes and 13th in top-10 finishes. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson won six races in the season but didn’t make it to the final four. It hardly seems fair, right? But Logano does not agree with the criticism of the playoff.

Logano, who also won championships in 2018 and 2022, spoke to Front Office Sports after the win and defended the playoff format. He said the previous system often risked a lackluster end to the year as certain drivers would already clinch the title before the final races.

“It used to be 36 weekends and it was just whoever scored the most points. So with three or four races to go, they’re crowning the champion and the last three races a year don’t matter. No one’s gonna watch that. … It’s over, or the guys [are] so far checked out that no one’s even thinking about it,” Logano said.

Logano did not dispute the fact that he benefited from the format this year, but he also reminded critics that the previous structure before the playoffs were introduced wasn’t perfect, either. “I think you got to take a step back sometimes because it’s easy for us to look back at things to say, ‘The good old days. Oh, in the good old days, it was like this. The good old days, it was like that. Was it, though?” he said. Despite that, talks are becoming louder.

But, considering that NASCAR has been reactive instead of proactive about its playoff structure in the past, could the sanctioning body make changes to its existing format after the social media backlash?

NASCAR to review existing playoff format

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It was always going to be controversial. While the elimination format has been the perennial punching bag for NASCAR fans since it was introduced in 2014, criticism about the playoff system reached a different level of intensity after Joey Logano won the championship for the second time in three seasons. Statistically, the Team Penske driver has some of the lowest numbers for a title winner, having scored fewer points than Chris Buescher, who didn’t even make it to the postseason.

Acknowledging that the fans’ voices need to be heard, senior Vice President of Competition of NASCAR Elton Sawyer said, “We’re going to have Playoffs, we’re going to have a Playoff format, but what we will do, is we will take input from our fans, our competitors, and our industry stakeholders this off-season, and if there is a way to tweak it, make it better, we will do that.” The 65-year-old went on to say, “I think you take all that input … maybe what we have is the best model, but if it’s not, we’re open, we’re all ears on it.”

With the off-season currently underway, the sanctioning body will use this time to assess Joey Logano’s victory and potentially make tweaks to the existing playoff system for the 2025 season. However, if they choose to make wholesale changes to the existing structure, it will have to wait until the 2026 campaign as decisions such as these also affect tracks, broadcasters, and sponsors.

Despite the criticism levied towards the win-and-in system, viewership has increased by 6% in comparison to last year with 2.33 million people tuning in on average. Will NASCAR be motivated enough to make changes, even if numbers suggest otherwise? Time will tell.