You won’t hear Joey Logano calling for change to the NASCAR playoff format. It’s no surprise he’s in favor of the 10-race, elimination style format introduced in 2014, as he’s won three Cup Series championship since 2018.
At Playoff Media Day last week, Logano pushed back on his critics who believe his 2024 championship was undeserved: “As a fan, I want to see [drivers] scared, and our playoff system now does that. I’ve always been the person to say, ‘If you’re complaining about it, then just do better.’ If you scored a bunch of points during a regular season and you didn’t make it to the Championship 4, then shame on you. You had a head start, and you still couldn’t do it. But don’t say it’s not legit. You could have gone out there and won to get in. You didn’t. Just because it didn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean change the rules.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. challenged Logano’s stance on Tuesday’s “Dale Jr. Download.” Earnhardt does believe that Logano — despite winning last year’s championship with an average finish of 17.1, the worst of any driver in a championship-winning season — is a legitimate champion. Earnhardt still believes there’s a better way to decide a champion than the one-race finale.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: ‘Joey Logano is a legitimate champion’
“You can believe that Joey Logano is a legitimate champion, and still believe that the playoffs should be different,” Earnhardt said. “I think that Joey is a legitimate champion. I think that Joey’s trophies that he has in his possession are as cool and as real and as historic as any other champion in our series — ever. All through the history of NASCAR, every championship has been won under a different set of circumstances, whether it be how the playoff points are tallied, whether it be the competition level.
“… But I don’t think the single-race format is the best way to decide the champion. It doesn’t mean that Joey doesn’t deserve to be celebrated, and it doesn’t mean that if they were to change it, it doesn’t really dilute or take away from what he accomplished.”
Logano isn’t the only driver to have capitalized on the current playoff format. In 2020, there was zero doubt that Kevin Harvick was the best driver throughout the course of the season. He tallied nine wins and led the series in top 5s and top 10s. Harvick was eliminated in the Round of 8 after a 17th-place finish at Martinsville Speedway. Chase Elliott was crowned champion the following week at Phoenix Raceway.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes change is coming
Logano has done it three times under this system, making him the face of the playoff era. But the calls for a new format have been louder over the past calendar year. NASCAR put together a playoff committee consisting of former drivers, media partners, team owners, manufacturers, track representatives and independent media to determine if the playoff should change in 2026, such as potentially doing away with the one-race finale. Earnhardt feels some sort of change is coming.
“I just feel like change is coming, and I think NASCAR has warmed up to the idea they’re hearing enough to convince them that they probably need to make an adjustment,” Earnhardt said. “What that is? I would say, if I had to guess, we’re looking at a three or four-race round to decide the title. I [like that], but Joey can go to bed feeling comfortable and confident — I know people use him as an example as to why we need change, it’s a good example to use — but he did win it. He has the trophy; his name is on the f*cking stat sheet forever, just like Benny Parsons winning in 1973 only finishing on the lead lap once all year long.
“[Matt] Kenseth in 2003, he wins a race and just consistently was awesome all year and won it early over guys like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. No matter how it’s won, it’s won. But I think we can all agree there’s not a perfect system, there never will be a perfect playoff format, but we all do think there needs to be a little bigger of a sample size of final races for that final round. I think that’s probably what we’re going to get.”
