When Team Penske's Joey Logano secured his third career NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway in November, it didn't take long for the "fake champion" and "fake playoff format" comments to make the rounds on social media.
Logano finished in 15th place in the regular season point standings and only qualified for the postseason as a result of a win in a race that produced a five-overtime finish at Nashville Superspeedway.
Yet because of the "win and advance" playoff format, Logano advanced all the way to the Championship 4. Even with a series-high three playoff wins, which ultimately meant that he was competing for absolutely nothing in four of the nine playoff races leading up the title decider, he didn't finish the season in the top 10 in total points scored.
Make no mistake about it: two things can be true. Logano is a legitimate champion; everybody knows the format, which is, in fact, the same for everybody, and he and the No. 22 team did what nobody else could.
But on the flip side, there is certainly room for the playoff format to improve.
NASCAR Senior Vice President of competition Elton Sawyer stated that NASCAR likes what they see from the playoff format and that it forces drivers to "bring their A-game" each race. Yet Logano's average finish during his de facto four-week bye was 20.25, hardly an "A-game" for a three-time champion who statistically had the worst full season for a champion in series history.
All things considered, the criticism is fair, and the playoff format probably should be assessed. The plan is for it to be assessed in 2025 and for potential changes to be considered for 2026.
That's all well and good. But what NASCAR did do for the 2025 season is counterproductive.
Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson missed the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway when he opted to remain at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and compete in the rain-delayed Indy 500 back in May. Because he did not compete in the Cup Series race, he needed a playoff waiver to be allowed to advance to the postseason.
Larson had already clinched his playoff berth with two early-season victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. Yet the decision to grant him a playoff waiver included a long drawn-out process and a somewhat intense debate in certain circles regarding whether or not a waiver should be granted.
Had a waiver not been granted, Larson would not have been allowed to be in the playoffs.
What's crazy about that is that, on one hand, the very fans who think Logano is a fake champion were, just months prior, kicking and screaming that Larson shouldn't even be in the playoffs because he missed a race. His points position suddenly didn't matter, and they were willing to overlook his two wins.
Despite missing that race and missing out on the regular season championship because of it, Larson entered the playoff points as the No. 1 seed, with far more playoff points than anybody else. His four regular season wins were tops in the series, and he ultimately finished the season with more total points scored (and wins) than anybody, despite having started one less race.
I don't understand how you can argue that Logano didn't have a good enough year to be champion, while also arguing that Larson shouldn't have even been allowed in the playoffs with the year he had, simply because of one last minute, unexpected absence.
I don't foresee a circumstance like Larson's happening again, even with him set to attempt the Memorial Day Double again this year.
His priority is the Coca-Cola 600 this time around, and every NASCAR driver's priority will have to be NASCAR races over any other races moving forward due to new playoff rules that were instituted for 2025.
NASCAR institutes new playoff waiver rules for 2025
Tony Kanaan has already been confirmed as Larson's backup driver for the Indy 500 (for what would be his fifth "Last Lap" retirement tour, for those of us still counting), and he is indeed eligible this time around after taking part in a veteran refresher test earlier this week.
If a playoff waiver is granted for anything other than a medical-related reason, and the driver who is granted the waiver still makes the playoffs, he would start the playoffs without any playoff points, regardless of how many he earned during the regular season.
It feels like a fair compromise, and you have to credit NASCAR for realizing that the rule was a bit up for interpretation and actually doing something about it.
But when you realize that Larson would have dropped from the No. 1 seed to the No. 16 seed in last year's postseason, all that does is bring more questions to the forefront.
Even this year, if Larson were to, for whatever reason, still miss the Coca-Cola 600 (whether it's a late Indy 500 red flag or even a brief rain delay that makes that difference), he would have to forego the series-high 23 playoff points (three wins, eight stage wins), he has earned this year, as well as any further playoff points he can earn in the second half of the regular season.
Again, if Logano isn't good enough to be a "real" champion, why are we in favor of hampering the driver who literally had (and, once again, has had) the best season of anybody?
It's not as if he only competed part-time or set out to intentionally miss a race just because he could afford it. His missed start came about at the last possible minute, and that should not undermine his entire season. And it did actually prevent him from winning the regular season title, so he did pay a price for it.
What this change does it put NASCAR between a rock and a hard place when they do assess the future of the modern playoff format. Because no matter what changes are made (or, if no changes are made), somebody is going to be upset, and there will be nonstop complaining, regardless of how things play out.
It happens with everything else in NASCAR, and this would be no exception.
Sometimes it's justified, and sometimes it isn't. Regardless, there will never be complete satisfaction from everybody, and there will always be an element of "fairness" that is questioned.
It's a bit of an unrelated example. But a comment on Reddit from after the first race was run at the "new" Atlanta Motor Speedway configuration in 2022, a race many enjoyed and found to be entertaining, about sums it up: "I don't understand why people can't just enjoy the race without putting a negative spin on it."
Any time NASCAR races at Atlanta now, there seems to be endless criticism that it's "not real racing", simply because there is drafting and pack-style racing like Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway produce.
Yet the overarching feeling, among those not complaining for the sake of garnering engagement on Twitter/X, is that the majority of fans do actually enjoy these events.
NASCAR is a whole lot more enjoyable if you focus on the actual on-track product rather than the likes and comments and social media clout. Unfortunately, we live in a world where these factors have come to dominate the world of sport, not just motorsport, and negativity dominates regardless of what happens. Some fans aren't happy unless they are being critical of something or someone.
And sometimes those complaints result in changes that maybe aren't completely necessary, changes that arguably make things worse.
NASCAR is in a no-win situation here, and the playoff waiver alteration proves it.
Even a full-season points format, at this point, would be outdated, given the nature of stage racing and the fact that a race winner isn't guaranteed to score the most points.
Regardless of what the playoff format looks like in 2026, there will be complaining, and there will be attempts to discredit, in some way, shape, of form, the sport and whoever is crowned champion.
Just like any other year.