When Joey Logano won his third Cup Series title, he set a trend. It was not a good one, as fans and veterans of NASCAR rallied to bash the playoff format. Logano’s 2024 season included only six top-five finishes (11th most), 13 top-ten finishes (13th most), and an average finish of 17.1 (13th best). The latter was the worst of any NASCAR Cup Series champion in history. Hence, although over 6 months have passed since the 2024 title, Dale Earnhardt Jr harps on his demand.

The Cup Series veteran has experienced the full tumult of playoff formats. From the Winston Cup format to the current stage racing ‘win and you’re in’ format, Dale Earnhardt Jr has seen and raced under the ever-changing rules. But he worships only one format among them, as he stressed recently.

Dale Earnhardt Jr wants to see the spark again

Granted, the old format had its caveats. Several championships in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s were decided with races still left on the schedule. Legends like Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt were trumpeted as the champions long before the final race. But what was a big disadvantage for entertainment was conversely a huge advantage for the excitement within the sport. The stakes were high in the season-long championship format. From when the green flag dropped in Daytona, fans and drivers alike had a sense of urgency. A single broken engine would be enough to derail a driver’s entire season. That heightened risk made the highs more enjoyable as well, as the champion at the end of the season was truly the best driver of that year.

That is what is missing from the current playoff format. Dale Earnhardt Jr professed his opinion on a recent Dale Jr Download episode: “The drivers who go to Phoenix, we’ve heard them say, ‘It doesn’t feel as valuable…as the old way of winning’…You’ll see their enjoyment and excitement when they win the championship – Joey Logano, Larson, Chase Elliott, Blaney…there’s a thrill. But would it feel comparable to the Jeff Gordons, Cale Yarboroughs…to the 40 years that we raced under the original system? If we have like a 3-4-5 race final round, it would feel earned, instead of more happenstance, luck, or fortune. That’s what we got to obtain, deliver if there are some changes…When we see the champion crowned, we all can say, that guy did it better than anybody else…He wasn’t just good on one day.”

Hence, Dale Earnhardt Jr came up with a possible solution. Joey Logano’s shock championship in 2024 provoked conversations in the NASCAR fold. Possible changes involve a 30-race regular season, a 6-race playoff segment, or 4 drivers qualifying for the playoffs. Dale Jr harped on his solution: “You wouldn’t have the eliminations; you get rid of rounds 1, 2, 3. You get rid of all that s—…You would basically treat the regular season as the semi-final round of the playoffs…You take the 4 or 5 best that have done well throughout the year, and they are the ones that get in there…We’ll see what they do, my idea probably won’t be done…they’ll probably expand the final round.”

Clearly, Dale Earnhardt Jr intends to push NASCAR till it does something about the playoffs. Like he wants the older system back, the veteran also wants an older driver to remain in the series.

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A lot to leave behind

The eldest active driver in the Cup Series grid has a very hectic schedule. Denny Hamlin juggles several duties like wheeling the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, managing his top-contending 23XI Racing team, and running the ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast. Currently, a fresh dad duty has sprung up for him, as Hamlin awaits the birth of his third child. The 44-year-old driver has 57 Cup Series wins over two decades, so questions of retirement have been floating around him. In Michigan, Hamlin became only the 10th-ever driver to win a Cup Series race after hitting the 700-race milestone. He also became JGR’s winningest driver, further hinting at a climax of his career. But Dale Earnhardt Jr begs to differ.

A two-time Cup Series champion like Kyle Busch is prolonging his winless streak every weekend. On the other hand, Denny Hamlin is still picking up plenty of victories. This should be motivation enough for the JGR icon to continue racing, as Dale Earnhardt Jr recently said. “The guy may be looking at two years, but if he still wins three races, is he really gonna retire if he’s still winning? You don’t think he’ll be lured to go drive for his own team for a little while? I think he has a plan in his mind when he thinks he’s going to retire, but I think that he’s going to find out when he gets to that doorstep, it’s going to be harder to do than he thinks.”

Clearly, Dale Earnhardt Jr is all in for retaining the older aspects of the sport. Let us see how NASCAR responds to his demand for a playoff tweak.