NASCAR chief reveals major playoff timeline update

NASCAR managing director of communications Mike Forde has offered a major hint as to when the stock car racing series could announce big changes to the current championship format.

NASCAR's current playoff system has come in for a lot of criticism over the last few seasons, and with the playoffs currently underway in all three national series, it is under more scrutiny than ever. However, change is on the way.

Back in January, NASCAR revealed that they were set to consider making changes to the current format for the 2026 season and beyond.

At the time, it was revealed that "no definitive change has been suggested, nor any alterations guaranteed for the 2026 season", but that the series would put together a committee that sought "opinions from drivers, teams, manufacturers, media and officials".

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When will NASCAR confirm 2026 format?

Well, on September 17th, that committee met for the last time, with Forde now revealing the next steps and when an announcement on the future of the playoffs could arrive.

In an appearance on the Hauler Talk podcast, Forde confirmed that it will come after the conclusion of the current season, meaning fans still have weeks to wait: “The next step is NASCAR is going to get its leadership in position and really have a discussion and lock ourselves in a room and figure it out from there.

“Take all the feedback from the committee and come up with the best decision for the entire sport and our fans moving forward.”

Forde continued: “We don’t want to announce a format prior to Phoenix [championship weekend] and then have everyone either devalue this year’s championship or sort of make another set of points of who would be the champion if a new format was in place.

“So I think that would be after this year.”

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Championship race set to go

There are several formats that NASCAR could use to crown their champion, whether it be a full points season, a 3-3-4 playoff format, a 10-race chase, or otherwise.

However, it does appear that the current system of having one single race decide the championship is set to go.

“I would be very surprised if the one-race championship is still around,” Forde added.

“That was a big talking point of we need a bigger sample size if we’re going to keep the playoffs, and the championship needs to be more than one race.”

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