In late May, NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin conducted a poll. To gather support for a return to a season-long NASCAR playoff format, he posted a poll on X for fans to choose among four options. These included a traditional season-long format, the current format, a 10-race Chase, or another form of playoffs. The first option won with 60% votes while the current format fizzled out with 7.5% of the votes. At the same time, 10% of people voted for another form of playoffs – and now that may be taking shape.

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are underway, with four drivers facing the gallows after Gateway. Among them is Shane van Gisbergen, who accrued 4 road course wins altogether. To give him and other deserving drivers some meritorious chances in the playoffs, NASCAR insiders slipped an alternative format for the future.

Is NASCAR eyeing the NBA?

Talking about a NASCAR-NBA crossover, one name looms large in our minds. Michael Jordan, a six-time NBA champion, owns 23XI Racing. Yet the sport’s executives may be delving deeper than the bond with this legend. The NBA playoff format consists of a four-round tournament where 16 of 30 teams qualify. In each round, the team with the better regular-season record gains home-court advantage. Also, each round uses a best-of-seven format. If one team wins the first four games, they will progress to the next round. The winners of Series 1 and Series 4 play each other in each of the Conference semi-finals, as do the winners of Series 2 and 3. This route to the NBA championship has apparently struck a chord in the NASCAR playoff committee as well.

That is what Jordan Bianchi slipped out in a recent episode of ‘Door, Bumper, Clear’. He floated a three-round championship format to Austin Cindric. Bianchi said, “You could have three races, and then another round of three races. From that, you could whittle down to whatever number the driver count is. And that number of drivers over four races are racing for the championship. Would that be a fair compromise? You still have a mentality to go out there and win it. You gotta be aggressive, because it helps you, but you also have a little more of a runway where ‘the better team’ is gonna be more.” This would potentially give drivers like Joey Logano, who won the 2024 Cup title despite being 17th in points, more challenges to win.

Austin Cindric, who is currently 12 points above the playoff cutline, slipped another hint: “Sounds like Jordan knows something that I don’t.” Then Cindric drew the parallel between NASCAR and the NBA. He spoke optimistically about a revamped NASCAR playoff format, although personally, the Team Penske driver favors the current format. “I mean, you’re essentially taking what the NBA does. It’s a series. Each round is a series, and the more wins and better finishes you get in a series, then bam, you are the champion…It’s all stuff that’s been done before; it’s just how we apply it in our format.” 

While Austin Cindric thought long and hard about this new NASCAR playoff idea, fans gushed over it.

Craving a fresh change

Well, Joey Logano‘s clutch championship in 2024 did leave a bitter aftertaste. He got into the playoffs with just one victory in Nashville and was almost eliminated from the Round of 8. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson could not crack the Championship 4 even with 6 victories under his belt. Hence, fans are happy with Jordan Bianchi’s suggested format change. Somebody wrote, “Much better than what we got…Almost like Chase+” Even if it is not a complete return to a full-season points format, the idea still gives meritorious drivers to compete comfortably in a round. Another fan wrote, “Would I prefer 36 race? Of course..Could I accept a format that bare minimum has final 4 be an actual round? Yes.”

Other fans were a little worried in case NASCAR ends up adopting this format in 2026. In the 2025 schedule, Talladega Superspeedway is the second race in the Round of 8 – with Bianchi’s truncated schedule, the championship race would be at the Alabama oval. Known for spurring freak crashes and dangerous risks, Talladega’s prospect made a fan shiver: “Ok this is awesome and everything, but if it’s for 2026, that means Talladega is determining a champion.” Another fan advocated for a round of top 8 drivers instead of top 4, but was still apprehensive about Talladega. “If this ends up being Top 8 drivers over Phoenix-Talladega-Martinsville-Homestead it’ll surely be better than what we have at least.
I hope this doesn’t invite Talladega 2 ever being the final race of the season.”

Another fan detected a spoiler alert in Jordan Bianchi’s comments. Although Austin Cindric seemed confused, it was pretty evident that the news was lurking behind the shadows. They wrote, “Sounds like Jordan knows something that I don’t” poor Cindric used as disguise for opinion but really was a bridge for Jordan to drop the news. He was definitely confused when Jordan kept saying “hypothetically… 4 races” lol”

Clearly, the winds of change are blowing for the NASCAR playoff format. Be it NBA style or the traditional NASCAR style, fans are ready for something new.