In a weird way, the Cup Series champion was the one who was the most consistent all season, not the one who won when it mattered most.
NASCAR’s attempt the last 12 seasons to have a playoff-style format with a simple, easy-to-understand, one-race championship event has not resonated with fans, despite creating an unprecedented intensity and occasional controversy.
As NASCAR explores new championship formats, one thing appears clear: NASCAR will abandon the one-race championship where the four drivers are eligible for the title and whoever finishes the best in the finale is the champion.
Kyle Larson celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix in 2025.
“Something that as you look at the future of the sport, making sure that a driver who has delivered all season long has the ability to be named a champion and not have something maybe come down to one race. That’s really been the focal point,” NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell said during the NASCAR state of the sport news conference Friday about the potential changes in the championship format.
“We want to reward winning. We’re going to continue to do that. Whatever model we come up with, winning is very important. The one-race thing has been a factor … there’s a lot of circumstances that can happen.”
To get the one-race championship, drivers have had to survive three-race playoff rounds where a win advances them to the next round; without a win, they can advance on points with bonus playoff points from throughout the year for race wins and stage wins and regular-season points standing being added to their totals.
After a late caution at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin lost the NASCAR title in heartbreaking fashion.
There was a lot of math leading to the championship, but at the championship race, the math was thrown away. And it seems like fans might hate math, but what they hate more is a driver who has had a dominant season not winning the title.
Drivers would rather deal with math, too, even if that means a four-race final round (one of the possible scenarios), a 10-race playoff (like the original Chase from 2004-2013) or a traditional full-season points championship.
“Any track, you can throw any track [in there], whatever it might be — 10, four, 36, I would feel my chances are better,” said 2025 Cup champion Kyle Larson.
The day before the Cup championship, Jesse Love won the Xfinity title with a great race for his second victory of the season. While Love drove the best race that day, Connor Zilisch, who won 10 races (or nine, considering one of those who relinquished the seat to Parker Kligerman early in a race at Daytona) ended up without a title.
Then on Sunday, a late caution and a decision to take four tires thwarted a dominant Denny Hamlin. Kyle Larson ended up winning the title.
Larson finished the year with three wins but none over the final 24 races. He did earn the most points throughout the season, so he arguably was the most consistent, while Hamlin won six times.
Hamlin is still without a championship in his 20th year in the sport and with a career 60 Cup wins (10th on the all-time list). And this situation has brought to the forefront how a late caution or some freak occurrence can change the championship.
It’s nothing new, but in a year full of talk about how the format should be, it delivered the message that this is not it.
“[NASCAR Commissioner] Steve [Phelps] and I have certainly heard the industry, understand the challenges that are out there,” O’Donnell said. “So the goal is to balance some of those moments that we’ve had with the great racing but also deliver a little bit more of I think what the fans and the industry is asking for.”
Denny Hamlin exits pit road during the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway
With so many eliminations, there has been a feeling that the top drivers weren’t getting enough attention and that the attention fell to those on the bubble in each round.
“One of the concerns is future drivers coming up through the system, having multiple wins and not necessarily winning a championship,” O’Donnell said the day before Zilisch didn’t win the title. “I think that’s a challenge for a sport where I think the light really goes on is having that driver be deemed a potential superstar.
“We looked at this [system] looking at more moments, more drivers, more drivers having the ability to go out there and win. That maybe takes away from the one-driver story. It’s probably harder to write just the one-driver story over and over again, but it does create a real star.”
Ultimately, fans did not gravitate to this format as they do in other sports tournaments that have a single-event champion, such as the Super Bowl, the World Cup final and the NCAA championships.
“Our fans, right or wrong, are different than other stick-and-ball sports,” O’Donnell said. “That’s OK. When the Giants win the Super Bowl, I’m a Giants fan — nobody questions it. Everyone says, ‘Giants are Super Bowl champions.’
“Our fans don’t do that. That’s been a learning process for us as well.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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