NASCAR Playoff Committee meets on 2026 season, potential changes

The NASCAR Playoff Committee recently met at Daytona International Speedway, and an NASCAR official is sharing details. On the Hauler Talk podcast, Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications, attended the meeting and gave information on the type of people on the committee and what was discussed.

Forde said that Ben Kennedy is the chairperson of the playoff committee and Julia Landauer, who has competed in several NASCAR races, is Kennedy’s “right-hand woman.” He also said that Tim Clark, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief brand officer, is “leading the blocking and tackling” and has “put together a lot of the names.”

Speaking of names, Mike Forde said that “a lot of the biggest drivers that would imagine,” as well as team owners, manufacturers and broadcast partners are on the playoff committee. “It was a really interesting discussion,” Forde added when talking about the playoff format. “You have names that are pro how it is right now want to keep it that way, names that aren’t so pro and want to change it completely.”

Forde did not reveal all the names of those on the playoff committee. However, he revealed that Christopher Bell is part of the committee because “NASCAR turned to him as a leader in the garage.”

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“We have recognized his talents, we’ve recognized his voice,” Forde said. “I think how he handled the disappointment of Martinsville, we took notice of that. He was vocal and super candid, as you guys all remember in the media center, and I think a lot of people would probably assume that we didn’t care for that, but the opposite.

“We met with him prior to that engagement in the media center, we met with him in January again to talk about where we were in the playoffs to invite him as part of this committee. He did speak up in the committee and gave some ideas and things that we should maybe think about. Rotation of the championships, for instance, was a big one on his mind.”

As far the conversations during the meeting, Forde said it was an “educational” and “valuable” discussion. He also said the committee includes 25 people, including a NASCAR Hall of Famer driver who said he wants the governing body to have a 36-race season and 36-race championship. Other people in the committee said they like the playoff format because eliminations are “something TV embraces.” However, a suggestion made about the playoffs was NASCAR having a seven-race lead-in to a three-race championship. Another suggestion made was to reduce the playoff field from 16 drivers to 12 or 10.

We’ll see if NASCAR officially makes changes to the playoffs for the 2026 season as they continue to meet throughout the year.