Denny Hamlin calls for championship-changing NASCAR shakeup

Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin has called for NASCAR to make a big change to how it crowns the Cup Series champion.

Currently, the Cup Series winner is decided via a playoff format, with 16 drivers qualifying come the end of the regular season, and then competing over four rounds and 10 races to crown a champion at Phoenix.

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Some have called for the playoffs to be scrapped altogether, with the argument being that the best driver across the entire season does not necessarily become the champion.

Last year, for example, Joey Logano won the Cup Series title at Phoenix in November after an excellent playoff run, but in the regular season, he finished ninth. The season before, Ryan Blaney had finished 13th in the regular season, but went on to peak at the right time and win the championship at Phoenix.

Whilst Hamlin is not one of those suggesting an overhaul of the system, he has called for a championship-changing tweak to the playoffs to be made.

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Denny Hamlin calls for NASCAR playoff change

Currently, the championship round is a single race, held at Phoenix but set to move to Homestead next year, whereas the rounds of eight, 12, and 16 are all three-race rounds.

The Joe Gibbs Racing star believes that this isn't right, and that the championship round should also be held over multiple races.

“I certainly would be in favor of a championship round,” Hamlin said on the Dale Jr Download podcast following his win at Dover.

"You have all the other rounds, why not a championship round? I think there’s enough compelling stories that TV could make it work.”

The Joe Gibbs Racing star also said: “I think that that would reward the better champion,”

“Not that there’s been a champion that’s not been deserving, but it’s certainly the bigger the sample size that you give, it’s going to be more indicative of your top drivers that perform week in, week out like you talk about. Not just one particular week.”

NASCAR confirmed in January that they were set to consider changes to the playoff format for 2026, but as of yet, no tweaks have been confirmed.

A move away from the playoff format is off the table, however, with Steve O’Donnell, who was NASCAR’s chief operations officer at the time, saying in January: “We’re not going to go away from playoffs,”

“We’ll absolutely look at what form the playoffs take in the offseason. You always learn. … But playoffs in and of itself ... you cannot argue with the quality of racing that the playoffs have delivered.

"You can talk about the format if we do some different things, but absolutely we’re going to stick with it.”

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