Insider sets the record straight on whether NASCAR will have a new playoff format in 2026

Following the latest episode of Hauler Talk, a rumor surfaced on Reddit that NASCAR will have a new playoff format for the 2026 season and that the deciding committee will be finalizing it in this coming week’s meeting. However, the rumor is false.

On that note, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, also a member of the playoff committee, shared his thoughts through a post on X. According to Gluck, NASCAR will have a meeting next week on the matter, but none has been confirmed yet. And neither did Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications. He said on the Hauler Talk podcast.

“I’m on the playoff committee and didn’t know this was so definitive, so I listened to the episode and…it’s not,” Gluck wrote. “There is a meeting next week but this post makes it sound like it’s already decided — and that’s not what @mforde (Forde) said on the show.”

There was a lot of noise within the community after Joey Logano won the championship last year with an average finish of 17.1. Per reports, that was the worst for a Cup Series regular in a season that brought them the titular victory.

The 2025 playoffs are already underway, and the schedule for the 2026 season has been announced. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that NASCAR is under some pressure to tweak the system at least a bit.

NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell said in a statement:

“We’ve tried to talk to as many of the stakeholder groups as possible, we have a couple more of those conversations to have. And I think for us, the decisions are going to be do you immediately put something in the Cup Series? Do you try something around next year’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Truck Series? Do you try three different things?”

“If we want to tweak it, OK, let’s make those tweaks and put it to the next level.’ We’ve historically not done that. So, we’re just going to try to beat up a lot of those things,” he added.

All eyes are on this coming weekend’s races at Bristol Motor Speedway. The track will host the opening race of the 2025 Xfinity Series playoffs and the last race of the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 16.

NASCAR sends a warning to the drivers about post-race landscaping

Ahead of this coming weekend’s races at Bristol, NASCAR made it clear that teams could face repercussions for driving off the track into the dirt during cool-down laps. This comes off as an effort to maintain the weight of the cars for the post-race technical inspections.

“We’re going to just remind teams this is something where we actually have a rule,” Mike Forde said in a statement. “I think we’re going to give (Trackhouse) a little bit of a warning. But there is a rule that says what they did — you could argue — broke a rule, and there could have been repercussions for it.”

“But I think we’re going to allow the teams sort of a gimme here and say moving forward be aware that we are going to be looking at this,” he added.

If a team overdrives during cool-down laps, it would violate Rule 6421.b of the NASCAR Rulebook, which states that cars may not be altered or adjusted after the race and before they reach the inspection center.