Last weekend, the NASCAR community witnessed a spectacle. Shane van Gisbergen extended his road course winning streak to five trophies, only one race away from tying Jeff Gordon’s record. As a cherry on top, SVG finished a full 15 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. Despite his dominance on the road courses, the Kiwi speedster was eliminated from the playoffs after the Round of 16. The irony of these two realities created ripples in the sport, the impact of which reached the NASCAR executive fold.

It’s official: NASCAR is moving towards a tweaked playoff format. It took long waves of criticism after Joey Logano won the 2024 Cup Series championship with the worst average finish of 17.1. And the need for change is getting more serious in recent times.

NASCAR yields in the conversation

In previous playoff formats, including the ‘Chase,’ wins did not lead to automatic postseason berths. There were no playoff rounds as well. So dominant drivers could fully showcase their abilities without the hindrance of points resets or a one-race championship. That is what led to the star power of legends like Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon. There are so many stars at present as well, like Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Denny Hamlin. Yet all of them have slipped out of the title conversation several times due to petty reasons. And this has elicited concern from the NASCAR president.

Steve O’Donnell recently appeared on a Dale Jr. Download episode, and he outlined his worries about the future. He does not want to make aspiring racers feel disadvantaged: “I don’t want the next Christopher Bell, who is ten years old right now, thinking about NASCAR, wanting to go to NASCAR, wanting to be a champion, and say, ‘Huh, this is a little bit more of a chance on a one race, right?'”

Christopher Bell, who currently sits four points below the cutline, is a big threat to his rivals. He made it to the Championship 4 consecutively in 2022 and 2023. Steve O’Donnell continued how the 13-time Cup race winner is already a legend: “Christopher Bell, to me, is a superstar in our sport. You roll off four championships in a row with eight wins and a body of work, whatever that may be, that’s good for our sport. People are talking about him.” Bell recently said publicly that he is in favor of a full-season points format, which NASCAR has not utilized since 2003.

Despite O’Donnell paying heed to Christopher Bell’s opinions, he admitted that nothing is changing for now. The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season will go on under the current format: “We got rules in place for this year. What I don’t want to do is take away from whoever wins the championship this year. Those were the rules. Everybody knew them. Let’s go race, and whoever wins that championship, I’m going to stand behind that driver and team and say that’s our champion.”

Nevertheless, changes are underway, and many drivers are banking on them. Like the playoff format, even the Next-Gen car is up for some tweaks.

Time to welcome more thrills

Ever since the Next-Gen car debuted in 2022, fans and drivers alike have complained. The single-spec parts reduced parity, and the aerodynamic challenges made it hard to pass on track. An overarching point of scrutiny has been the excessive use of fuel mileage, as drivers often go half-throttle throughout races to capitalize on their track position. All these concerns have been piling up for ages, and now NASCAR is finally willing to yield. President Steve O’Donnell announced something on the Dale Jr. Download podcast that is music to fans’ ears.

NASCAR will increase the power limit for Cup Series cars from 670 hp to 750 hp on road courses and ovals shorter than 1.5 miles. What is more, the sanctioning body may open the door to more engineering and innovation again. O’Donnell said, “The ability for a team to maybe tweak on the car, find an advantage, do something cool. What’s the next iteration of that that can come from a race team? Now that we’ve got the parts and pieces, I think long-term, you can look at maybe a race team making parts again. Maybe some different things you can open up. Could you ever look at a cost cap, right? So, you open those things up.” 

Clearly, the winds of change are rustling NASCAR’s checkered flags. With 2026 only a few months away, we cannot wait to see what the future holds!