NASCAR exec says 'hand-wringing' about playoff format began after 2024 season

NASCAR officially revealed its new championship format on Monday, unveiling a return to a 10-race Chase that replaces the elimination-style playoff system that was used from 2014-25. But the debate about replacing the playoffs began internally at the conclusion of the 2024 season. 

On Tuesday, NASCAR executive vice president Tim Clark revealed the timeline for NASCAR's decision to change its points system and move away from the playoffs in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. 

"I think probably the beginning was the culmination of the 2024 season," Clark said on "The Morning Drive," referring to Joey Logano's 2024 controversial championship run. "I think there was a little bit of hand-wringing around Joey's championship. It died down a little bit over the offseason." 

Clark said that over that offseason, a few individuals — including Clark, fellow EVP Ben Kennedy and managing director of racing communications Mike Forde — "had a dialogue" that frustrations with the playoff format were not likely to go away quickly. That led to the creation of the NASCAR Playoff Committee, which heard arguments from various people within the industry regarding a change in NASCAR's points format. 

The first meeting came in the week leading up to the 2025 Daytona 500. Originally scheduled to last for only a single hour, it ran for nearly three. 

"To say the conversation got off to a big start would be an understatement," Clark said. 

The evolution of the conversation

Clark said the the conversation regarding a new format "was all over the place." That included Hall of Fame driver Mark Martin strongly advocating for a full-season, 36-race format with no form of postseason that hadn't been used since 2003. On Monday, Martin said he was the most ardent supporter of a full-season format, but was happy with the ultimate compromise of the 10-race Chase. 

"Mark's right, he was not only the first person that spoke up in favor of full season, he was the first person that spoke, period. He came out of the gate strong and had a big opinion." 

Clark said that he and others from NASCAR walked into the room with specific goals as to what they wanted to accomplish. 

"Once you started to listen to other people talk and hear other perspectives, things started to change wildly. So, I'd say one of the reasons it took so long and this process played out over such a long period of time is, there weren't as many easy answers as a lot of people were expecting." 

By late 2025, NASCAR had narrowed its decision down to two options for the new format, eventually landing on the Chase format.

Clark says that the Chase format provides two distinct traits for the Cup Series moving forward. 

"One, a bigger emphasis on winning," Clark said. "I think there was, amongst the drivers — both current drivers and former drivers — the emphasis on winning from a points perspective was a really, really big deal. I think we've checked that box." 

Under the new format, winning a race will now be worth 55 points, with second-place receiving 35. A race win had previously been worth only 40 points, making it mathematically possible for top 10 finishers who accrued more stage points than the race winner to score more points than the winner. 

"The second one was simplicity," Clark said. "We wanted to keep this as simple as possible."

Going into 2026, NASCAR has a fresh, simpler championship system that gives the sport some momentum going into the 68th running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15. 

Quotes provided by SiriusXM Radio.