In 2025, Hendrick Motorsports dominated the NASCAR Cup Series like never before, boasting four drivers nestled in the top 10. William Byron is leading, Kyle Larson is right behind, Chase Elliott is fourth, and Alex Bowman is rounding out the set at 10 in points. The team’s synergy and collective push have translated into multiple victories, including Byron’s dramatic second straight Daytona 500 win and Larson’s explosive Kansas triumph, his 3rd of the season. But while organizations soar, Bowman finds himself in a desperate fight for survival, and just how dramatic that has become in the NASCAR field.

With 26 races without a win, yet a commendable 14 top-10s, 6 top-5s, and a couple of poles, Bowman has kept himself safely at striking distance, though barely at 16th in the standings. Then came the high-stakes drama at the August Daytona regular-season finale, where Bowman was sidelined early due to a crash and had to wait nearly three hours to learn that he’d slipped into the playoffs, thanks to Ryan Blaney’s last-lap sprint to victory. Still reeling from the near-death playoff scare, the question looms: Is it enough to inspire Kevin Harvick’s proposed overhaul of the system, one that he boldly lays on the line?

Kevin Harvick calls for points protection amid playoff chaos

As the debate over NASCAR’s playoff format intensifies, Kevin Harvick, in his Happy Hour podcast, accompanied by co-hosts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mama Smith, offered sharp insights on what truly matters: wins, consistency, or the business side of racing. Talking about the Daytona race, Harvick didn’t mince his words. “There were so many of those guys up in the front of the pack there at the end, as you see the trouble that they had,” he noted. “This wreck, I really think it was on the 23, just squeezing down on the 22. And, unfortunately, that got the 8, that got the 48, got several of those cars that were in there… I think Alex Bowman deserves to be in there. That’s the part that I don’t like about the current points system is there’s nothing that guarantees rewarding all 26 weeks in there currently.” But this scenario wasn’t new.

Daytona’s 2020 cutoff race also saw William Byron advance with a win, while fan favorite Jimmie Johnson was eliminated in a crash not of his making, showing the cruelty of last-lap wrecks. “I’ll just tell you, Cole Custer was in the mix. He’s 33rd in the points,” said Harvick. “And to me, that’s tough to knock a guy out by winning one superspeedway race over a guy like Alex Bowman who’s put together 26 weeks.” Superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega often produce surprise winners because of the drafting packs and crashes. For instance, Justin Haley’s 2019 Daytona win as a part-time driver, where he clinched victory after rain cut the race short despite running in the back most of the day. Harvick’s point is that a driver like Bowman, who entered Daytona 60 points above the cutline despite being winless, has delivered steady results across a full season, unlike Custer, banking on one lucky day.

On being asked by Vincie if there is a caveat to the system that could change the prevailing order, Harvick offered his personal perspective. “If you want to just leave it like it is, okay, that’s not the way I would do it,” he suggested. “But I think there needs to be two or three guaranteed spots for the points. And if you have too many winners, then just start the first round with too many cars. If you can still earn your way in with wins, but start the first round with too many cars and just eliminate more cars in the first round.” In 2014, NASCAR introduced the win-and-in playoff model, but required drivers to be inside the top-30 in points to qualify to prevent a backmarker team from sneaking in with one fluke win. His idea echoes NASCAR’s flexibility in expanding the playoff field in 2013, when Jeff Gordon was added as a 13th driver after the infamous Richmond manipulation scandal.

Smith reciprocated that sentiment. “Yeah, I like that idea. I think when it comes to the points and like people have said 20, it should be less… They’re devaluing them as far as what they can sell for sponsorship and the business side,” he said. “Like the business side takes a massive hit when you’re a 25th place team, but you’re like, all right, we have six super speedways… Well, now it’s like, how are you going to get a sponsor to spend $30 million on a program when they don’t think that they can really win to get into the playoffs anyway?” Sponsorship is NASCAR’s lifeblood, as smaller teams often secure funding by selling the dream of sneaking into the playoffs through a superspeedway. Shane van Gisbergen‘s 2023 Chicago win boosted his stock and opened sponsorship doors, showing how underdogs use one race to sell potential.

Harvick agreed to this, stating, “But I think the incentive to win needs to stay there. But I think there needs to be something more for the points. The full body of work. I think that being able to eliminate those guys in the first round anyway… I think that there’s a number of different ways you can do this if we’re going to change the points system.” His logic is clear: drivers who lack week-to-week speed will be gone from the very beginning, so why not let point earners in and then filter them out naturally? Formula 1, for instance, rewards constructors’ points consistency, preventing one lucky result from outweighing a season’s work. And Bowman, entering the 2025 playoffs with just two playoff points, makes him the perfect case study for Harvick’s argument.

Harvick sounds alarm on Penske-friendly playoff slate

Kevin Harvick has questioned whether NASCAR’s playoff calendar leans too heavily toward Team Penske’s strengths: “When you look at the playoff races, I mean half the tracks are pro-Penske with the places that they can perform well. And you know they’ve been good at Kansas. They’ve been good at Vegas. You show up at Richmond, they got three cars in the top five.” With Penske’s recent form, the critique landed at a time when the playoff field is already under scrutiny.

Harvick doubled down by highlighting Joey Logano‘s ability to fight through adversity: “You just can’t never count these guys out. Logano has the trouble in practice here. He has a flat tire in the race and still finishes in the top five. And from what he said after the race, a car that was capable of winning the race and those guys have been dominant at St. Louis.” His words point to Penske’s uncanny knack for turning setbacks into podium finishes, a pattern that fueled Logano’s 2018 and 2022 championships.

Gateway, Kansas, Las Vegas, and Richmond all feature prominently in Harvick’s case. He wrapped his argument with a reminder of timing: “It’s that time of year where the Penske cars show back up, and here they were at Richmond.” With Blaney finding momentum, Cindric ending his drought at Gateway, and Logano thriving in pressure moments, Penske’s triple top-five at Richmond looked less like a coincidence and more like a playoff preview.