Denny Hamlin Revealed His Favorite NASCAR Playoff Format
What’s Happening? A hot topic of late has been the former top 30 rule in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the…
During his sit-down with former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin finally revealed his ideal NASCAR Playoff format. Part of this proposed format is one change that Hamlin has repeatedly mentioned, one that makes a lot of sense.
During his talk with Busch, Hamlin told his former teammate just what he would do to maintain the NASCAR postseason, while making it more legitimate in his eyes. Hamlin’s changes mostly focus on eliminating unworthy drivers who may qualify, while boosting those who are truly championship-caliber racers.
For Hamlin, he would maintain eliminations; his first change would be multiplying bonus points to better accredit drivers for winning. “I think that I’m okay with the elimination every three races, as long as those who perform well during the regular season have a long enough jump [and] headstart.”
Hamlin states that he would like to see winners get 10 playoff points, rather than five, and two for winning a stage rather than one.
“I just said in my head ‘what if you just double everything?’ If you win a stage it’s two not one, if you win a race its 10 not five, it then really does make it rewarding to go out there and perform and get bonus points during the regular season. And it makes it harder for our favorites to get eliminated early.” — Denny Hamlin
Hamlin would then overhaul certain aspects of the Playoffs, including slimming the field, returning to your original points position once you are eliminated (as opposed to maintaining your spot in the top 12), and, most importantly, not resetting the points each round.
“Whatever points they accumulate in the first round, why does it keep getting reset, reset, reset? Like you don’t keep resetting the score in anything else. So why can’t they just keep where they are?”
Hamlin also makes it clear that he would remove the win-and-advance aspect of the Playoffs and supports the often suggested three-race championship round.
Beyond this pitch, one major takeaway that Hamlin has spoken on multiple times is slimming down the Playoff field from 16 drivers to 12 drivers. When NASCAR originally introduced its postseason, then called the Chase, in 2004, the field was set at 10; it was increased to 12 in 2007 and 16 in 2014.
However, this has come with its fair share of haters, as the 16-driver playoff often sees several drivers who can be written off immediately, such as Harrison Burton last season. Last season, NASCAR also removed the Top-30 rule, which limited drivers to a top-30 spot in points for their race win to qualify them for the Playoffs.
In this episode of Actions Detremental, Hamlin said, “I think it should be 12 [drivers], not 16. I think that will eliminate the guy in 33rd that’s gonna win a race.”
Though this is a pretty straightforward take, this is not the only time he has expressed this overpopulating problem with the current playoff format. On Sept. 24, Hamlin told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the Playoffs are “watered down,” and said that teams were the reason for the rapid expansion of the playoff field.
“You’ve got to realize this all started when we had ten drivers, right, then they [the teams] said, and it was the teams fault, the teams went to NASCAR and said, ‘Well we’re not part of it, we’re not getting coverage.’ ‘Okay we’ll go to 12.’ And they [teams] were like ‘Well we’re not part of it, our sponsor should be a part of it.’ ‘Okay fine, we’ll go to 16.’ They [NASCAR] kept adding more… I just think that it’s hard to take too much seriously when [they] just keep adding, adding, adding, just for the sake of entertainment.” — Denny Hamlin
What’s Happening? A hot topic of late has been the former top 30 rule in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the…
NASCAR’s hunt for a new Playoff system, or even a revised system, is a hot topic in the NASCAR community.
NASCAR has assembled a committee of drivers, stakeholders, and even a few Hall of Famers to discuss the issues with the current format and discuss potential changes or overhauls. Among the proposed changes are tweaks to the playoffs, and multiple reports of individuals supporting a full-season points system, something NASCAR has not used since 2003.
Last week, NASCAR announced that it would return the Championship race to Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2026. That press release mentioned the playoffs and rounds, suggesting to some that the playoffs, in some form, will return in 2026.
We have covered NASCAR’s search for a new format extensively via the link below.
What’s Happening? NASCAR is publicly seeking a new Playoff or even Championship Points system for the future. This story will unfold…
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