NASCAR Executive Appears To Inadvertently Reveal Changes To 2026 Cup Series Playoff Format

Did we just get some breaking news from NASCAR?

Obviously there’s been a lot of chatter lately about whether NASCAR should do away with their playoffs and go back to a full 36-race points system.

NASCAR first adopted a postseason points format back in 2004 when it unveiled the “Chase for the Nextel Cup.” Previously, the series had simply awarded points based on finishing position and whoever had the most points at the end of the season was a championship. Simple enough, right?

But back in 2003, NASCAR Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth stunk up the show. He dominated the points standings despite only winning one race the entire season, and was so far ahead before the final race of the season that he had already locked up the championship – making the season finale essentially meaningless.

In an attempt to boost ratings at the end of the season when NASCAR was competing with the NFL for viewers, they’ve since gone to some sort of a playoff system, though the format has changed over the years.

Under the current system, which was largely implemented in 2014, a driver can lock themselves into the playoffs with a win during the first 26 races, regardless of where they are in the points standings. The thought was that it would incentivize drivers to race hard to compete for a win each week, but there’s one obvious problem: If a driver who was well below the cut line somehow manages to sneak out a win, they take a spot in the playoffs away from a driver and team who performed better throughout the season.

The current system also results in a lot of “manufactured drama” rather than simply rewarding the best finishing drivers, like last weekend at the Charlotte Roval when all the attention was on Joey Logano and Ross Chastain battling for the final spot in the round of 8…while racing for 20th position on the track.

Last year’s champion, Logano, heard plenty of criticism over his championship run during what was, overall, a pretty lackluster season. There’s no real arguing that his season was pretty average, but a win at Nashville locked him into the playoffs and he managed to win at the right times during the final 10 races to secure the championship.

All of the controversy has led to renewed calls for NASCAR to do away with the playoff format altogether and go back to simply crowning a championship based on who has the most points at the end of the season. It not only rewards consistency, but it places a higher value on running well throughout the season and doesn’t risk a driver winning a championship based on what critics call “arbitrary” rules.

But over the past few years, the conventional wisdom has been that the television networks were against eliminating the playoffs, wanting the drama they created to boost viewership during a tough time for the sport. But when you look at the ratings for the last few races, they’ve been…well, pretty abysmal.

NASCAR has been open about exploring changes to the playoffs for the 2026 season, with one proposal floating around that would take the 10-race playoffs to three rounds instead of four, with a final round of 3 races instead of just a single race to decide the champion.

And it was recently reported that NBC, the network that broadcasts the entirety of the Cup Series playoffs, had taken themselves out of discussions about the format and was leaving the decision entirely in NASCAR’s hands.

So what is NASCAR going to do? Well, we may have just gotten a big hint…

Mike Forde, NASCAR’s Managing Director for Racing Communications, appeared on the Door Bumper Clear podcast where he appeared to inadvertently reveal what the playoffs are going to look like next year.

During a discussion with DBC hosts Freddie Kraft and Tommy Baldwin over whether the playoffs hurt drivers’ star power, Baldwin mentioned a “hypothetical” points system in which the Cup Series had a 32-race regular season and a 4-race “playoff,” and instead of the points completely resetting to put all of the playoff drivers back even with each other, the drivers being seeded and given playoff points based on how they finished in the regular season:

“I think the biggest thing that people complain about is the guy that dominates the year. If it’s a 32-race championship and that’s four races playoff, whatever, that guy, whoever wins, should start with the most points, right? There shouldn’t be back to zero and, okay, thank you for us talking about you all year long.”

And Forde seemed to confirm that was what NASCAR was looking at for 2026:

“I think that’s probably going to happen.”

Now, whether Forde was referring to Baldwin’s idea of a 32-race regular season and 4-race playoff, or resetting the points to reward regular season performance, or both, is yet to be seen. And of course there’s also the possibility that NASCAR could change their minds before any changes are announced.

But I have to say, I don’t hate the idea of a 32-race regular season and 4-race playoff. Is it as good as a full-season points system? No. But it’s way better than what we have now, which puts too much emphasis on winning a race and not enough on performance in races where drivers DON’T win.

It’s a fair compromise, and if it’s the best we’re going to get from NASCAR, I wouldn’t be mad at it.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if Forde accidentally revealed NASCAR’s plans, or if we end up with something different entirely.

@dirtymomedia_

Is that the sound of breaking news we hear?

♬ original sound – Dirty Mo Media – Dirty Mo Media

The post NASCAR Executive Appears To Inadvertently Reveal Changes To 2026 Cup Series Playoff Format first appeared on Whiskey Riff.