NASCAR insiders reveal expected timeline for possible playoff format changes

This past Friday, NASCAR introduced several rule changes for the 2025 Cup Series season. Among them, complete overhauls of the damaged vehicle and playoff waiver policy.

NASCAR notably did not make any changes to the much-scrutinized playoff format. Speaking on “The Teardown” podcast this week, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic said that if changes to the playoff format are on the table, they will be announced “later this month.”

“The one thing that hasn’t been said yet is changes to the playoff format,” Bianchi said. “And we don’t know if any changes are going to come to that or not. But that is expected — if something is to happen — later this month.”

Jeff Gluck, Bianchi’s colleague at The Athletic, added that the playoff format not being included in the rule change bulletin “doesn’t indicate either way” whether changes are coming.

“I asked NASCAR specifically — there was no playoff format changes in this bulletin. So, that does mean that there’s nothing coming? And I was told not to read into it either way. Could still happen, maybe won’t so happen, we don’t know. But this rule change bulletin and not being included in that doesn’t indicate either way, we were told.”

NASCAR playoff format comes under fire

The current playoff format came under fire following Joey Logano’s victory in the Cup Series championship race at Phoenix, in which the Team Penske driver captured his third title. Logano had an average finish this past season of 17.1, the worst for a driver in a championship-winning season. But in the playoff format, adopted in 2004 and tweaked along the way, winning is everything. NASCAR switched to an elimination style format in 2014, where 16 drivers make up the field. Winning at least one regular season race grants entry into the postseason, as Logano did at Nashville.

The playoffs take part across 10 races with four drivers eliminated after every three races until four remain. The season finale at Phoenix is a winner-take-all championship race. Logano has mastered the format, winning all three of his championships since 2018.

Steve Phelps explains process for NASCAR considering changes to playoff format

The sanctioning body left the door open for tweaks to be made to the format this offseason, and NASCAR President Steve Phelps provided an update on where things stand while speaking last month with Bianchi. Phelps said they will look at any possible tweaks. He did not, however, guarantee any would be made.

“We are going to look at it. And that will be an industry-wide decision, just like the existing format is,” Phelps said. “So, we’ll get a cross-functional team consisting of drivers, teams, NASCAR folks and sit in a room and see if there’s something better. Because for everyone that wants to make a change, you have some on the other side that doesn’t want to make a change. And I heard that all last weekend [during the NASCAR awards ceremony], ‘Please don’t change the format, the playoff system works really well.’ And others were like, ‘Please change the playoff format.’

“A lot of it is just personal preference, and I think it’s easy to put your own lens on it. What would be good for my driver? Or what is best for my team? Self-interest is a very powerful thing. With that said, are we going to make a tweak to it? I’m not sure. But, again, it’ll be getting input from a lot of different places and then from there we will make what we believe is the best decision for the sport overall.”