'NASCAR Did Not Get This Wrong': Kenny Wallace Staunchly Defends the Controversial Playoff System

35 races in the 2025 Cup Series season are done. One race, the season finale at the Phoenix Raceway, remains, and four drivers will compete in it for the championship. The four are Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, and William Byron. Former driver Kenny Wallace spoke about the worthiness of these drivers to compete for the title on his YouTube channel following Sunday’s race at Martinsville.

For a long while, there has been heavy dissatisfaction with the NASCAR playoff format. Fans and drivers revolted against the promotion, and we are on the cusp of seeing a major change made to it. One of the base reasons for this is the notion that the system rewards undeserved drivers to become champions. Joey Logano’s case in 2024 is the biggest example of this.

The Team Penske driver performed averagely throughout the season and won some key races in the playoffs. This put him in the Championship 4, and he eventually won the title. But what Wallace contends, in the wake of the 2025 Championship 4 list, is that the Logano occurrence was a once-in-a-blue-moon event and that it is extremely rare for it to happen regularly.

He said, “All that bitching, all that moaning, all year long about points didn’t even matter. Did not even matter. Joey Logano getting into the championship round a year or two ago was an anomaly. It was just something that rarely happened in life. That means that was weird.”

“That was strange. That never happens. It happened one time, and you all lost your ever living minds over it, and you bitched for years.” He continued about the current four drivers who will compete for the title, “We got four drivers going to Phoenix that are very worthy, and they are the right drivers. They are the winningest drivers. Denny Hamlin with six wins. William Byron with three wins.”

“Kyle Larson with three wins. Chase Briscoe with three wins. So, NASCAR did not get this wrong. And whoever wins this championship is well deserved.” He was critical of the fans who pushed NASCAR to the level where it needed to change the format to appease the fandom. Good or bad, it is all but certain that there is a change coming to the format in 2026.

NASCAR is expected to announce it once the season finale is done at Phoenix on November 2.