Back in NASCAR’s glory days, drivers like Dale Earnhardt Sr., Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, and Jimmie Johnson weren’t just racers; they were larger-than-life icons. Their wins, rivalries, and personalities built legacies that hooked fans far beyond the racetrack. Merch flew off shelves, TV ratings soared, and even casual viewers knew their names. Today, that star power feels dimmer.

Denny Hamlin recently called it out: NASCAR’s missing those breakout icons, with old names still outshining new ones. Chase Elliott’s seven-year Most Popular Driver streak is slipping, Kyle Larson’s now topping merch sales, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. points the finger at the playoff format for stealing the sport’s ability to build enduring superstars.

Dale Jr.’s case for star power

On the latest Dale Jr. Download episode, Junior laid it out plain: “I am not sure what is right. But if you have a season-long format, you basically start the season with everybody in the bucket at Daytona, and after about 10 races, you are talking only about five or six guys. Three guys, four guys going for it with a few races left, and that is how you basically are putting the focus on specific individuals for a sustained period of time throughout the year.”

Back in the Winston Cup days, before the 2004 Chase, a full season’s grind whittled the field naturally. By midseason, names like Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt Sr., Mark Martin, or Rusty Wallace stood tall. Take 1998, Gordon and Dale Sr. were the clear titans, and fans locked in on their battle, building epic storylines that lasted years.

The playoff era, especially since the 2014 elimination format, flips that script. Resets and cutoffs keep more drivers in the hunt late, which sounds exciting but dilutes long-term narratives. “And those guys typically tend to be the same ones year after year after year, and that does in turn create a star,” Junior said. Legends like Petty or Gordon became icons through sustained dominance, not one-off playoff wins.

Today’s format, with its focus on surviving cuts, can crown champs like Joey Logano in 2024 with six top-5s, a statistically shaky title that wouldn’t shine as bright in a season-long system. That volatility, Junior argues, kills the multi-year sagas that make household names.

“We should probably invest in some studies to help you to understand like it’s not numbers and statistics, we worry too much about playoff points and numbers and how it would work with this number and that number, and we need to really focus more on the fan experience the emotional ride and that is not found in a statistical study,” he added.

The playoffs’ obsession with points, cutlines, resets, and playoff bonuses turns races into math problems. Fans get bogged down debating who’s above the line instead of cheering a driver’s journey.

Look at 2014: Ryan Newman nearly won the title with one win and spotty finishes, a fluke that season-long formats rarely allowed. Junior’s pushing for emotion over equations, saying fans crave stories of grit and rivalries, not just who dodged a DNF.

The playoff format’s always been a hot-button issue, and Joey Logano’s its biggest cheerleader, which puts him at odds with Junior’s take.

Logano’s defense sparks Dale Jr’s pushback

After squeaking into the Round of 8 at the 2025 Charlotte Roval, thanks to Ross Chastain’s tire-wear crash in a final-lap duel with Denny Hamlin, Logano doubled down. “I don’t understand what people don’t like about [the playoffs]. I really don’t get it,” he said. For him, the format’s chaos, like his 2024 title run after Alex Bowman’s Roval DQ, delivers drama that keeps fans hooked. A single point decided his Roval survival, and he loves how that uncertainty fuels storylines.

But Junior’s not buying it. “The more Joey Logano gets out of his car and talks about the playoffs, the more I don’t like the playoffs. The more he tells me why I should like the playoffs, the less I like him,” he fired back. It’s a blunt jab from a driver-turned-owner who’s seen it all.

Logano’s 2024 title, with just six top-5s, is the kind of “weak champ” critics point to; playoff resets can vault underdogs over dominant drivers like Larson, who led 915 laps in 2025 but missed the final four. Junior’s not alone; his co-host called it “absurd” to hear Logano tout his team’s championship-caliber run while finishing 20th at the Roval.

Junior’s not calling for a full 36-race system revival; he doubts NASCAR would go back, but he wants tweaks, maybe a four-race final or the old 10-race Chase. The Roval’s chaos, like Chastain’s last-lap wreck, didn’t wow him.

The season-long format let drivers like his dad or Gordon shine year after year, forging legacies fans still talk about. Today’s format, with its focus on surviving cuts, scatters that focus, and Junior’s plea for studies on fan emotion over stats hits at the heart of what’s missing: heroes who stick.