Joey Logano’s 2024 Championship was hard to digest. When the Team Penske driver took the checkered flag at Phoenix Raceway last year, many fans quickly and quietly exited the grandstands, not waiting around to see the new Cup Series champ lift his third Bill France Cup in seven years. The disillusionment wasn’t towards the No. 22 racer, but the playoff format itself, with many motorsports enthusiasts taking to social media to describe it as ‘broken’.

Joey Logano had an average finish of 17.0 for the season with one win in the first 26 races. This is not what NASCAR fans are used to when they see a championship-caliber driver. The playoff format rewards singular moments of greatness over season-long consistency, and it’s a format Joe Gibbs Racing’s #11 Denny Hamlin isn’t particularly fond of either. This might come as no surprise, given his lack of a championship at NASCAR’s highest level. However, his former teammate, Kyle Busch, doesn’t mind the ‘Win and In’ playoff system, although he thinks changes can be made to decide the champion.

Kyle Busch would like NASCAR to bring back its old format

Denny Hamlin was brutal in his take on the Championship format, boiling down to one race after 10 weeks of grueling playoff action. After Logano’s championship in 2024, Hamlin took to his Actions Detrimental podcast and said, “The reason I don’t love it coming down to one race is that racing is a sport where luck is involved. And it’s not… luck is a very loose term that people use… There’s 33 other guys out there that can completely screw up your day.” His views resonated with many, however, Kyle Busch has benefited from this format, and he was more in two minds about it, with a preference for the classic style of racing.

Kyle Busch has two Cup Series trophies to his name, both coming under the current format, and he doesn’t feel strongly against the current system. However, he does have his gripe with increasing rounds for the Championship finale, an idea Hamlin has called for in the past. Busch said on the Actions Detrimental podcast, “I heard a lot of different variances. I think the three or four race one is pretty cool, but if you have one bad race in those three or four races, you automatically eliminate yourself.” Meanwhile, Hamlin has been a promoter of his three-race format, saying in 2024, “Why don’t we have a championship round? Challenge these drivers at multiple different racetracks.”

However, Kyle Busch’s gripe with the playoff format lines up with Denny Hamlin’s for not liking a one-race decider. However, Rowdy feels NASCAR should revert to its classic points system. Busch added, “It coming down to a one-race take-all moment. I don’t know. I don’t mind it. I don’t know how to make it better… I guess I’m just maybe sort of a purist of NASCAR, and having the points go all the way throughout. So I still kind of enjoy that and think it’ll be cool to see that again.”

Is it a feeling of nostalgia, or did Kyle Busch genuinely enjoy the pre-2004 era? In 2003, Matt Kenseth showed great consistency to win the season-long championship, a format that NASCAR CEO Brian France felt didn’t inject as much ‘drama’ into the sport as he would have liked. While some would argue it was fair and rewarded consistency throughout the year, others, like France, felt that the sport lacked excitement in those days, as Kenseth won the title with one race still left on the schedule!

Denny Hamlin made his Cup Series debut right around the time the ‘Chase for the Cup’ format was introduced. It was a system that the No. 11 racer and Kyle Busch weren’t particularly fond of, with ‘Rowdy’ even saying, “I always kind of hated the 10 race thing. Because how many times did you or I have a bad race or two in the 10 race format, and then you’re fifth in points?” As for the Florida native, the playoffs have brought nothing but disappointment for two decades, and Kyle Busch’s comments would have revealed old scars for Hamlin.

In the 2023 playoffs, Denny Hamlin started in blistering form, with one win and top-5 finishes in the first 5 races. He sat comfortably around the top of the playoff grid, with his sights set on a maiden Cup Series Championship. However, the next three races read 37th, 10th, and 30th for Hamlin. A sub-par three-race run after a season filled with dominance ruined his shot at a championship. It was the format that let him down, not his driving.

However, there is another tweak to the playoff format that was in rumors earlier this year, and that scared Hamlin more than anything.

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Hamlin wants NASCAR to make the playoffs harder

Denny Hamlin is always up for a challenge. Even though the Bill France Cup has eluded him for two decades, the veteran isn’t keen on the playoff format becoming ‘easier’. There’s been some chatter in the background about potentially increasing the championship race to five drivers, a prospect that the 44-year-old isn’t happy about, even though it would give him a bigger chance of competing for NASCAR’s biggest trophy in the winner-takes-all race.

“I heard a dirty rumor and someone from NASCAR said it that maybe we should expand the championship race to five drivers,” said Hamlin on the Actions Detrimental podcast earlier this year. “Please don’t do that. You’re just watering this down more. Stop making it easier; make it harder. Make it harder, you got to build the prestige of people.” He went on to say, “Don’t keep opening it up to more places, more spots, more opportunity. No, you gotta make it special. Let’s not even support that narrative.”

With the likes of Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell missing out on the Championship 4 race in Phoenix last year, it’s not surprising that some within the NASCAR community are in favor of the winner-takes-all event expanding to five drivers. However, even though the sanctioning body continues its tug-of-war between maintaining tradition and evolving the sport, Hamlin feels that it’s a “terrible idea”. Perhaps a complete overhaul of the postseason format in the years ahead might be the way to go? Time will tell.

What do you think should happen to NASCAR’s playoff format? Let us know in the comments!