NASCAR insider reveals Mark Martin’s ‘passionate’ plea has gained immense traction inside the playoff committee

Renowned NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck touched upon a feedback forum inside NASCAR that took Mark Martin's thoughts regarding the playoffs seriously. In a recent podcast, Gluck revealed how the playoff committee gave the 36-race playoff format serious thought after Martin's constant call for a change in the existing format.

Martin, the former NASCAR Cup Series driver, has been an active supporter of the 36-race playoff format. He is far from impressed with the current 26-race regular season races and 10-race playoff rounds.

Over the years, Martin, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, has let his feelings known on social media and called for a change. Numerous renowned personalities, such as Chase Elliott, the Hendrick Motorsports driver, and Brad Keselowski, the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing co-owner and driver, were among many who supported this thought of changing the format.

Gluck, in the recent The Teardown podcast by Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media, addressed this and stated how Martin's suggestions found traction within the community. Speaking about this, here's what he said:

"So Tim Clark (NASCAR Senior Vice President) opened up this recent meeting and he said, "Has anybody's opinion changed from the start of the year?" because in the first meeting of the year, um, one person passionately spoke up for 36 races and everybody else was trying to think of something within the framework, whether it was the old chase or modified playoffs or something like that."

"And it didn't really feel like at the beginning of the year that 36 races was even a possibility at all. This meeting was interesting in that numerous people maybe half a dozen spoke about 36 races and made the case for 36 races and why they feel that would be the best thing for the sport. And it was compelling," he further added.

Besides Elliott and Keselowski, Hendrick Motorsports' Alex Bowman, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell, and RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher also supported Mark Martin's 36-race format. Whereas Denny Hamlin, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and 23XI Racing co-owner, also emphasized how he wanted a less reset system in the playoffs.

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What did Mark Martin say about 36 race playoffs?

Mark Martin has often been vocal about the change in the current playoff format, where drivers have to go through multiple hurdles to be crowned a champion. According to him, a straight 36-race format where the driver with the maximum points after 36 races should be crowned a champion.

NASCAR Busch Grand National Series driver Mark Martin (60) during qualifying for the NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Daytona International Speedway - Source: Imagn

Taking to his social media account, X Martin shared his thoughts. Here's what he once wrote about it, and criticized the NASCAR authorities over the current format:

"I think they prefer it because they don’t know or understand Car Racing. Only stick and ball sports. They want it to be like what they know. Only problem is they don’t understand why there 36 teams play in our championship game instead of two like they are used to."

Mark Martin has 882 races under his belt in 31 years, where he racked up five runner-up positions in the championship, 40 wins, 56 pole positions, and 453 Top 10s. He also has 236 and 25 Xfinity and Truck Series races to his name.