“We wanted to simplify our system,” Steve O’Donnell said back at the end of 2013 while unveiling NASCAR’s current playoff format, arguing that American sports fans naturally understand eliminations and winner-take-all drama. At the time, it sounded logical. A decade later, that NASCAR news has aged…poorly.

Fast forward to now, and the playoff format has become one of the most polarizing topics in the sport. Fans have booed it, drivers have questioned it, and yet it keeps coming back like an unwanted sequel. NASCAR did promise changes for 2026, hinting that lessons were learned. But after journalist Bob Pockrass confirmed what’s actually returning, fans aren’t laughing with NASCAR anymore. Instead, they’re laughing at it.

An answer fans didn’t want

It started with a simple question. A fan asked Bob Pockrass on X whether there was any news coming on NASCAR’s long-debated changes to the points or playoff system. Pockrass’ reply was short, calm, and explosive in its own way: “Don’t expect NASCAR to announce new playoff system until sometime in January.”

That one line told fans almost everything they needed to know.

For years now, a loud section of the NASCAR community has pushed for a return to a traditional, season-long points format – one that rewards consistency across 36 races instead of a handful of perfectly timed wins. The argument has always been straightforward: championships should be earned week after week, not decided by who gets hot at the right moment.

But Pockrass’ update all but confirmed what many feared. Whatever NASCAR rolls out for 2026, it won’t be a true return to the old system. There will be playoffs. The only mystery left is what version of it fans are being asked to accept. That lines up with what NASCAR officials have already hinted.

Just last month, the managing director of racing communications, Mike Forde, made it clear that the discussion phase is over.

“Where it stands right now… I don’t think the playoff committee is going to meet again. I think we have gotten all the feedback that we needed from them. Awesome job, by the way, from the playoff committee. … Now, it’s in NASCAR’s hands.”

Translation? NASCAR has heard the complaints. And it’s choosing a direction (a playoff format instead of a full-points season) anyway.

For fans hoping January would bring a dramatic reset, this feels like déjà vu. The sport keeps promising “adjustments,” not change. And as soon as Pockrass’ response went live, it opened the floodgates. Because if there’s one thing NASCAR fans never lack, it’s opinions. And with this NASCAR news, they’re not holding back.

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Fans react with confusion and sarcasm to the NASCAR news

The moment Bob Pockrass used the words “new playoff system,” a lot of fans felt the floor drop out from under them. “Wait a second,” one fan summed it up, “I thought we were getting the Chase back and getting rid of the playoff system.”

That confusion is understandable. For months, the hope was simple: fewer gimmicks, more racing math. Instead, the conversation had narrowed to two familiar options: either a 10-race Chase (the 2004–2013 original model) or the rumored “five and five” format, with shorter rounds designed to keep elimination drama alive.

And that’s where the frustration really kicks in.

One fan perfectly captured the mood with a brutal analogy. “NASCAR is that one kid in the class to whom if you ask to make a stick figure in the exam, will draw a whole a– sketch of a mediaeval queen for no reason whatsoever, just to complicate things up.”

The playoff system started as a relatively clean idea in 2004. Since then, it’s been revised, tweaked, layered, reset, and re-explained so many times that even longtime fans struggle to explain it without a flowchart. The 2026 “adjustment” feels like more of the same.

Then there’s the timing. Announcing the format in January has drawn mockery too. One sarcastic fan, channeling peak Tony Stewart energy, joked, “Why announce in January? They should run the whole season and not reveal the format until a week after Homestead in November and just tell us who the cup champion was then.”

And they are not wrong. With the Daytona 500 kicking off in mid-February, waiting until January for the NASCAR news related to the format leaves very little runway for fans to actually understand what they’re watching. Finally, some reactions have gone fully absurd.

One fan commented, “New Point System – after every race the top 16 drivers get out of their cars and beat the shit out of each other.“The Roval Rumble.”” It’s humor, sure, but it’s also exhaustion disguised as comedy. And it’s perfectly understandable.

But the final, most telling reaction? “This is somehow gonna be worse than what we had, isn’t it?”

Right now, there is no NASCAR news on the confirmed solution. But, the fans…they already don’t trust it.