NASCAR has finally reached a consensus on the championship format. The sanctioning body is set to reveal the title-decider on Monday, January 12.
The playoff system has irked drivers and fans alike. The elimination-style playoffs were introduced in 2014, and Kevin Harvick won his maiden title that year. However, he’d go on to witness the pitfalls of the system in 2020, when he led the series in all categories with nine wins, 20 top-5s, 27 top-10s and 1531 laps led.
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Nonetheless, Harvick missed out on a final four spot despite such a dominant year. Connor Zilisch’s 2025 title bid had a similar ending, as his 10-win season failed to fetch him a championship.
That said, the governing body tried to address these issues with a playoff committee in 2025. The group held a year-long discussion on potential changes to the format, while Mark Martin and many others argued for a full-season championship instead.
The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck shared an official timeline for the championship format reveal, writing,
“The moment we’ve all been waiting for: the new NASCAR championship format announcement is Monday afternoon (3:30 pm ET). It will be streamed on NASCAR.com, NASCAR’s YouTube and The NASCAR Channel.”
Mark Martin doesn’t expect a return to th full-season format, but is ‘impressed’ that it was considered nonetheless. Many expect that a modified playoff with a three or four-round finale.
“That’s so dumb”: Mark Martin blasts NASCAR’s playoff system
Mark Martin recently appeared in an interview with The Racer, where he fired shots at the playoff system. The Hall of Famer has been a vocal critic of the format throughout 2025.
“So what they have done is alienated a lot of the core fans not all of them, but a lot to try to get new fans, because they think the older fans are going to die one day, which is dumb. That’s so dumb, because those are the people who watch the pre-race show, the race, and the post-race show,” Martin said.
“The people they’re trying to get to watch these playoffs which,” he added, “there ain’t nobody playing out there it’s not really a playoff. They should call it a race-off or whatever, but don’t call it a playoff. It’s not a playoff.”
Martin wasn’t the only one sounding off on the format. The veteran found a backer in former Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, who believes that the sport shouldn’t shy away from rewarding season-long dominance under the classic points system.
He’d also noted that the current system forces drivers to change their driving style by stacking up stage points instead. According to the HMS driver, a lot of these stage points ended up affecting the overall standings.
Edited by Vignesh Kanna
