Exactly what’s wrong with the NASCAR playoff system.
Obviously there’s been a lot of chatter lately about whether NASCAR should do away with their playoffs and go back to a full 36-race points system. But one driver who’s perfectly happy with the current system is Joey Logano.
The driver of the #22 car is the defending Cup Series champion and in hot pursuit of his 4th career championship, advancing to the round of 8 in the playoffs after a heated battle at the Charlotte Roval yesterday…for 20th place.
Logano came into the race on the bubble of being eliminated, battling with Ross Chastain all day for the final spot in the playoffs. He didn’t have a great car, running mid-pack much of the day, while Chastain in the #1 car managed to earn stage points in both of the first two stages.
After the second stage, each driver knew what they had to do: With Logano holding the tiebreaker, Chastain had to finish four spots ahead of the #22 car to move on to the next round and keep his championship hopes alive.
He was in good position at the beginning of the third stage, but a costly mistake set the #1 team back after Chastain was caught speeding on pit road during his final stop of the day. After serving his penalty, Chastain ended up behind Logano on the track and out of playoff contention.
But Logano chose to run a different pit strategy than Chastain, coming in for new tires one extra time during the final stage. The gamble ended up coming down to the final laps, with Chastain several spots ahead of Logano but on much older (and slower) tires.
On the final lap, however, Chastain ended up getting passed by Denny Hamlin in the #11 car, which would have knocked him out of the playoffs by virtue of a tie in the points between Chastain and Logano. And if you know anything about Ross Chastain, you know that he’s going to do whatever it takes, pulling a hail mary move on the final lap and spinning out both himself and Denny before ultimately crossing the finish line backwards in a wild scene.
Unfortunately the move didn’t work, and Chastain ended up finishing 21st to end his hopes of moving on to the next round of the playoffs.
While Ross was obviously disappointed with his 21st place run (and his two mistakes on pit road that likely cost him his championship hopes), Logano couldn’t have been happier after the race, calling his day at the Roval a “championship performance” from his #22 team.
“That’s a championship performance from the team.”
But fans were quick to point out that finishing 20th isn’t exactly what they would consider worthy of winning a championship:
A championship performance is P17 every week thanks to the playoffs.
— Sean (@sdisbro18) October 5, 2025
Now, ultimately Logano is right: Under the current playoff system, all you have to worry about is advancing to the next round so finishing 20th WAS a championship performance. He’s obviously one of the favorites to win the final race of the year at Phoenix, so if he makes it to the championship four, chances are this WAS a championship performance.
For me though, that’s the problem with the current format. The battle all day was between Ross Chastain and Joey Logano, who finished 20th and 21st in the race. And it’s not their fault: They knew what they had to do under the current rules, and Joey managed to get it done. Can’t fault him for that, because he’s now a favorite to win the championship.
But do we really want a system where a 20th place run is considered a “championship performance?”
I know I don’t…and I really hope that NASCAR is seriously considering doing away with the playoffs altogether.
