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The White Zone: I won’t miss this championship format

Originally posted on SpeedwayMedia.com | By Tucker White | Last updated Nov 4, 2025 12:41 AM ET

Three laps.

Denny Hamlin was three laps away from his first NASCAR Cup Series championship. He dominated the day, leading 208 laps and won the second stage. In the closing laps, he pulled away to a three-second lead, like he did all day. After almost 20 years in the Cup Series, the stars finally aligned for the driver from Chesterfield, Virginia. At long last, Hamlin would unshackle himself from the ghost of 2010 and the four other Championship 4 appearances where he came up short.

Then William Byron cut a tire and hit the wall.

With overtime coming up, all but three drivers pitted under the caution. Hamlin took four tires, while several others, including Kyle Larson, took two. He restarted two rows behind Larson, but ran out of time and finished runner-up in the points.

If this was the last winner take all championship race, I won’t miss it.

It was a perfect little microcosm of my biggest problem with the championship race: Rather than season-long performance dictating the champion, we leave it to a game of roulette where any problem outside of your control can cost you the championship. We almost saw this, Friday, with the Craftsman Truck Series race. We saw this, Saturday, in the XFINITY Series race and we saw it, Sunday, in the Cup Series race.

All this leaves us with fans complaining about the outcome and questioning the legitimacy of the champion. To the point that people track how the championship would’ve played out in a 36-race format in comparison.

It’s happened year after year since the introduction of this format in 2014.

Thankfully, this was almost certainly the last time we’ll see it.

The White Zone: I won’t miss this championship format

Making the rounds in the rumor mill for months now is that NASCAR will change the playoff format for the 2026 season by moving away from the championship race format. What I’ve heard the most is either a three or four-race final round, a return to the original playoff format of a 10-race mini-season or even doing away with the playoffs entirely and returning to a 36-race points season.

Now as much as the purist in me wants the latter, my money’s on the first two options. Even though any argument against a full season points battle, particularly with attention spans and whether people will watch if the title is clinched before the final race, falls flat when the NTT IndyCar Series has seen its ratings climb for years, including 2025, even with a season-long format.

But that’s neither here nor there.

The point is that this was probably the last winner take all championship race we’ll see in NASCAR. And while I have problems with a three or four-race format and a 10-race mini-season, it’s a step up from the winner take all format.

We’ll find out sometime during the offseason what the new format is. If this was the last, however, I won’t miss it.

That’s my view, for what it’s worth.

This article first appeared on SpeedwayMedia.com and was syndicated with permission.

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