As the 2025 NASCAR season finished, focus turned to the off-season to address the playoff system. Fans are desperately hoping for a fix after their heartbreak in the finals with Denny Hamlin’s loss in the Cup Series and Connor Zilisch’s loss in the Xfinity Series. The community is now calling for a shift away from placing too much emphasis on a single final race.

That raw frustration boils over on social media and in garages, where talk of ditching the playoffs for a full-season points chase grows stronger every passing day now. Yet whispers from the top suggest NASCAR officials might hold onto this format. With ratings and crowds hooked on the drama, change feels like a far target to aim for.

NASCAR playoffs set to stick around

NASCAR insider Adam Stern recently noted on X, “NASCAR informed some team executives before the end of the 2025 season that retaining a playoff was the most likely outcome of its championship system review, according to people familiar with the matter, but its final decision remains unclear.”

This comes after a review committee, packed with drivers, owners, and upper-level media personnel, gave its view on the playoffs, from scrapping them entirely to tweaking the current setup.

Back in spring, they started the talks amid growing complaints about the format’s elimination rounds and single-race finale, which bred too much randomness. In fact, it sidelined consistent performers like Hamlin, who dominated the entire season with the most wins.

For fans who crave consistency over surprise wins, this insider update feels like a tough pill to swallow.

Fans see this format as prioritizing TV thrills over a pure merit-based crown that echoes old-school NASCAR glory, like Richard Petty’s run in 1975, when he won 13 races to clinch the title.

NASCAR executive Mike Forde himself laid it out plainly during the Hauler Talk podcast, underscoring why leadership keeps a close eye on the format.

“They’re going to take all the feedback they got from every walk of life and every thought on the spectrum—from no playoffs whatsoever to keeping it how it is—and really beating that all up, and an announcement to come,” he observed.

This statement by Forde nods to the balancing act: the playoffs boosted viewership to 3.5 million on average on NBC, but purists argue it gives less importance to the all-season grind, letting fluke wins or wrecks erase a 36-race haul.

Gatekeeping here? It’s about shielding a business model that attracted casual fans while risking the die-hard NASCAR fans who want a full season hanging. Forde’s words hint at tweaks, not overhauls, to keep the elimination excitement.

The real nightmare for NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell hits deeper, as Forde revealed his boss’s worst fear: letting young blood go to rivals like IndyCar or F1.

“O’Donnell is really good at looking into the future and I think one of the things that keeps him up at night is a Connor Zilisch type, whoever the 12-year-old wunderkind out there now, looks at the championship format at NASCAR and says, ‘You know what, I don’t like the fact that I can win 10 races like Connor did, and not win the championship. Let me look at F1, let me look at IndyCar… I’m going to move to this because I feel like this championship format is a little more legitimate, and I’m not going to go to NASCAR.’ That is his nightmare scenario.”

Zilisch‘s Xfinity season mirrors the fear as the 19-year-old phenom, sidelined twice by injury yet storming back for those wins, entered Phoenix as the favorite only to fade behind Love’s opportunistic title grab. It’s a pattern echoing Hamlin’s Cup near-miss, where raw talent bows to one caution call.

O’Donnell’s worry traces to gathering reports: prospects like Zilisch, who will run full-time driver in Trackhouse, could move to series like F1 or IndyCars. And losing young prospects like him could shrink the talent pool that’s already seen whispers of leaving NASCAR after 2025’s mess.

Yet if tweaks do come, they might just soften the edges without a full rewrite.

Fairer paths to glory?

NASCAR eyes a longer chase to ease the one-race pain, drawing from the old 10-race format that ran from 2004 to 2013 and balanced wins with endurance. This shift matters for keeping stars like Hamlin engaged and letting fresh talent learn consistency over one race fluke, all while syncing with the new media deal’s push for accessible drama.

Changes could lock in the top-10 point-getters and wild cards, preventing playoffs from random low-finishing winners and building season-long stories without full predictability.

Journalist Jordan Bianchi narrowed the options. “I got it down to two formats. It’s either the 10-race ‘Chase’ (a single playoff round, 10 races long) or it’s two rounds of five races each.” That setup, Bianchi notes, spreads risk across multiple events rather than all coming down to one final race.

Meanwhile, Jeff Gluck stressed protection.

“I understand what you’re saying for the ‘win and you’re in,’ but I don’t think that would work (for the Chase format). So I agree with your top 10 points (are in). Because if you were going to do a Chase, you can’t have your 30th-place guy that won a Daytona race, because you know he’s just going to finish last (in the Chase). It’s just going to take up a spot, and it’s going to be a totally irrelevant storyline.”

Gluck’s point ties to 2025 woes, where drivers with random wins and no consistency make the playoffs, often leaving out drivers with consistent runs.

For example, drivers like Ryan Preece, who have shown better consistency throughout this season, completing the second-most laps (9530/9580), still could not qualify for the playoffs because he could not win any race. In contrast, Austin Dillon entered the playoffs with one fluke win at Richmond. This shows the playoff system’s priority: surprise wins over the all-year-long grind.

Does that seem fair to you?