NASCAR fans made their disdain for the NASCAR Playoff format abundantly clear over the 2025 tournament's run, which culminated in victories for Kyle Larson (Cup), Corey Heim (Truck) and – most controversially – Jesse Love (Xfinity).
For NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt Jr. the format isn't just a problem, it's a "betrayal" of what the NASCAR season is supposed to stand for. On Tuesday's edition of his Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt went on an expletive-filled rant where he declared that the format of having the Championship Race decide the entire thing was "egregious"
“The format betrayed us really badly,” Earnhardt said. “I’m trying to understand where my frustration or my angst is, what is to be directed at. We’ve had this format for a while. It’s done this before, but I’ve never walked out of there going, ‘(expletive), dude, that was way (expletive) egregious.’ What is it about this particular year? We’ve had this format, a lot of people don’t like it, we’ve all kind of not said too much (expletive) about it over the years. Now this year, everybody went full scorched Earth on this format. We did, we all did and about damn time.
“It took everybody a long time to come around to really what I’ve been feeling about this format since it came into existence. Like, one race to decide it is too aggressive, but we all lived with it for a while. But I never walked out of Homestead or Phoenix going, ‘That was just (expletive) wrong.’ Well, one time. Carl Edwards… That was the one year that I walked out of there kind of nauseous, and I’m not a Carl Edwards fan at that time. I like Carl now, we’re good. But I was sitting there like that was (expletive).”
This heartbreak is only a speed bump in the road for Connor Zilisch's career. 📈
A new @DaleJr Download just hit your feeds. 🎙️
Apple: https://t.co/Hd8RJPd1us
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YouTube: https://t.co/aBaqgylAtupic.twitter.com/lvI3ifTQ5R— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) November 4, 2025
Personal Grievance
Dale Jr's gripe with the NASCAR playoff format goes deeper than just dissatisfaction with the format and how the race played out. He had two drivers under his JR Motorsports banner in position to win the Xfinity and Truck Series championships after Connor Zilisch and Corey Heim won their respective regular season titles.
While Heim got the job done for JRM, Zilisch was not only deprived of the win, but a slew of other racing opportunities as well.
The silver lining to this whole debacle might be a complete revamp of the playoff format or maybe the total elimination of the playoffs in favor of a full-season championship.
But the powers that be in sports always believe that the magic ticket to greater ratings is a longer playoff series with more teams and athletes competing in it. There might be a compromise, but it's probably not going to make anyone happy.
This story was originally reported by The Spun on Nov 6, 2025, where it first appeared in the NASCAR section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
