Before the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, NASCAR got rid of a small yet significant performance clause that made the so-called "win and in" playoff format not truly a "win and in" playoff format.
In order for a win to vault a driver to the top of the playoff picture and effectively lock them into the 16-driver postseason, that driver needed to be inside the top 30 in the point standings.
For years, there had been calls for NASCAR to make that rule stricter, perhaps top 25 or even top 20. Instead, they got rid of the rule altogether.
It made no difference for 2023, but in 2024, Harrison Burton got in with a late season win at Daytona International Speedway, despite the fact that he was 34th, last among full-time drivers, in the point standings. He would not have gotten in without that quiet rule change.
In 2025, all drivers who qualified for the playoffs were inside the top 30 in the point standings. However, what this season has shown is that NASCAR needs to bring that rule back and indeed make it stricter.
NASCAR playoff rule change needs to be reversed ASAP
I've been all abord the Shane van Gisbergen hype train all season long. It's not because I think he "deserves" a playoff spot; it's because I know, for a fact, that he earned it.
He won while other drivers didn't, and that's what's most important in this format. The rules are the same for everybody, and for as much as fans like to claim that certain drivers (like Burton) merely "backed into a win" or "got lucky", van Gisbergen didn't do that. He dominated four races. He finished the regular season tied for the series lead in wins, and he got in.
But on the flip side, the fact that a driver who won four races was still only 25th in regular season points says a lot, and that needs to be addressed.
Van Gisbergen, barring an absolutely disastrous round by four other playoff drivers, never had a remote chance to get out of the round of 16.
He didn't finish a single regular season oval race higher than 14th place, so his finishes of 32nd, 25th, and 26th in the three round of 16 races at Darlington Raceway, Gateway, and Bristol Motor Speedway, respectively, surprised absolutely no one.
I'm not advocating for a full-season points format. Such a format is not only outdated in the era of stage racing, but under the current points format, it would only reward drivers who hide out in 11th every week. Avoiding bad results literally means more over the long haul than winning if we're talking about how points are awarded these days, and that is a flaw.
But there needs to be some kind of a performance clause that goes beyond "win and in", and SVG's season needs to be the nail in the coffin that ends this debate.
For as much as van Gisbergen has learned on ovals in his rookie season, those 21 oval races in which he was mostly a backmarker and rarely a mid-pack driver meant absolutely nothing; his playoff ticket was punched. Meanwhile, several other drivers were consistently performing at a much higher level for the majority of the season and were ultimately penalized for simply not beating him on four road courses.
Of course, such a change unfortunately doesn't look likely to happen, especially after NASCAR literally did the exact opposite of what fans wanted by removing the top 30 rule altogether before the 2023 season.
NASCAR appears ready to turn the four-round playoff format into a three-round format and simply make the championship-deciding round a four-race round rather than a single-race round, while nothing else looks likely to change.
A four-race championship format certainly rewards consistency more so than the current format, and when you think about it, it would be the only portion of a season not characterized by a "win and in" approach.
Perhaps NASCAR should add another by mandating that all race winners be inside the top 20 in total points to qualify for the postseason. These multi-month "bye weeks" have gone too far, and nothing backs that up better than the contrast between SVG's win tally rank and his points rank.