NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell is introduced before the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn. NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell is introduced before the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn., Sunday, June 1, 2025. | Image credit: Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

According to Christopher Bell, NASCAR’s Playoff Format Delivered at Martinsville: ‘Four of the Right Guys Made It’

Originally posted on The SportsRush
By Gowtham Ramalingam | Last updated Oct 27, 2025 1:59 AM ET

A No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE that handled poorly led to Christopher Bell being knocked out of the battle for the 2025 Cup Series championship at Martinsville on Sunday.

Despite the disappointment, he admitted in his post-race interview that the playoff format was at its best self in the final Round of 8 race and that it has picked four well-deserved drivers for the Championship 4.

He said, “I think the format has a lot of positives around it. This year, four of the right guys ended up making it. I think whoever the champion is out of those four is going to be a deserving champion. This year, the format worked out. I am content with the results.”

William Byron and Kyle Larson are the drivers who joined Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin to complete the Championship 4.

Due to this satisfaction, Bell is also not as heartbroken as he was in 2024. He added, “I’d say it feels a lot better than last year, for sure. I genuinely feel like the four going there are very deserving, and it is what it is. We knew coming in here, we were going to have to outrun [Larson], and we didn’t do it.”

Christopher Bell on elimination and just needing to have more consistency over the course of the season pic.twitter.com/lF9eMwuRd2

— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) October 26, 2025

NASCAR’s Loop Data revealed that Larson had a superior average running position of 5.13 compared to Bell’s 8.03. The Championship 4 drivers will fight nail and tooth for the trophy at the Phoenix Raceway on November 2. While Bell will not be racing for the title, he can still cause an upset by winning the season finale.

NASCAR has all but confirmed that some kind of change to the existing playoff format will be announced after the season finale at Phoenix. Many expect this to be the addition of a multi-race round that decides who the champion will be, instead of the current one-race final.

Mike Forde, the promotion’s managing director of communications, said in an episode of “Hauler Talk” last month, “We don’t want to announce a format prior to Phoenix and then have everyone either devalue this year’s championship or sort of make another set of points of who would be the champion if a new format were in place. So I think that would be after this year.”

Like Bell, there are some who still see a lot of value and potential in the current format. But with all the demands for a change, it seems to be an inevitable outcome that the format will be altered in 2026.

This article first appeared on The SportsRush and was syndicated with permission.

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