NASCAR chief breaks his silence on the ‘one idea’ that was 'kicked off' in the playoff goal talks

Lately, there have been talks about revisiting NASCAR’s playoff system. The NASCAR playoff committee held its first meeting about two weeks ago at Daytona International Speedway. The panel of over two dozen members pitched several ideas.

One of those pitches was bringing about a seven-week playoff system followed by a three-race championship. Mike Forde, managing director of Race Communications, NASCAR, opened up on the same in a statement recently quoted by Jayski.

Forde started by mentioning how diverse the panel was. Notably, there were active and Hall of Fame drivers, series executives, OEM representatives, and media personnel. Forde further noted,

“The first to speak was a retired NASCAR Hall of Famer who had a bunch of very well-prepared research, and his idea or pitch was to go back to the 36-race season championship. Others went the opposite direction and said, ‘Well, I like the playoffs. I think that it is important to have eliminations but how will we do it a little bit differently? Is it a seven-race lead-in to a three-race championship?’ That was one idea that was kicked off.”

The panel also discussed how feasible it would be to reduce the field from 16 to 12 or even 10 drivers. The day was all about throwing ideas, good or bad. The end goal is to come up with a system that “crowns a deserving champion” whilst increasing fan engagement, be it from a social or digital perspective.

“The goal is a playoff system, whether it’s keeping it or changing it, that crowns a deserving champion but also maintains or elevates fan engagement,” Forde added.

That being said, no changes will be implemented during NASCAR’s 2025 campaign. The sport is currently preparing for its first road course race of the season scheduled for March 2 at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). Fans can watch the event on FOX or listen to live radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio from 3:30 pm ET onwards.

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“We hear loud and clear”- NASCAR president discusses fan feedback amid 2024 controversies

Last year, Joey Logano won his third NASCAR Cup Series championship. Despite finishing 15th in regular season points, also the lowest since the usher of the stage-point era in 2017, the Team Penske star took home the ultimate honor.

On the other hand, Kyle Larson, who won the most races in 2024, did not even make the coveted Championship 4 and finished sixth in points. To some fans, this seemed egregious.

Reflecting on the same, John Probst, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said,

“The playoffs were meant to create those moments, which I feel like they did. And on the other hand, there's the fan feedback, which we hear loud and clear, on this particular driver should have been here, or that particular driver won this many races, so he should have been automatically in and all of that."

The industry-wide committee is in the process of determining what changes could be made for the 2026 season. But one thing is certain; there’s no way NASCAR will move away from the playoffs in the years to come.