Mark Martin Isn’t On Board With NASCAR’s Potential Playoff Overhaul — He Wants the Old System Back

Now that the 2025 Cup Series season has come to an official close and Kyle Larson has been crowned champion, NASCAR could come out at any time with an announcement about a change to the current playoff format. The former driver, Mark Martin, played a very important role in getting the sanctioning body to arrive at this position from its steadfastness.

The rumor mills have been whispering quite strongly for a while now that a playoff format in which drivers race for the championship across four final races, instead of one, would be the way that NASCAR goes. But Martin doesn’t like this idea.

Speaking to Kenny Wallace recently, he underlined what the change that he would like to see is and explained why such a 3-3-4 format simply doesn’t work:

He said, “I am all in with 36. I think we need to debate how you award the points. That’s a debatable subject, but first you have to say, ‘Yes. We’re going to go with a full season. However, I know we’re almost positive we can’t get NASCAR to do that. And so, I could get behind a 10-race chase format as a compromise, nothing less. If they come with this 3-3-4 business, it’s not going to resonate with the fans.”

With Wallace asking him to detail what the 3-3-4 format was, Martin got down to breaking down the potential outcome. As is currently done, the regular season will decide on 16 drivers who get to race for the title in the postseason. These drivers will go through a couple of three-race rounds and get promoted or eliminated based on their performance.

The shortlisted drivers who make it alone will race for the title across the final four races. The one with the most points at the end of these races will be crowned the champion. So, why is this such a terrible idea? The icon said that NASCAR is not a ball sport and that it should not be treated as such. He doesn’t believe in the idea of a playoffs at all and wants to go back to a full-season championship format.

He concluded, “We are not ball sports, you know. We don’t play. We shouldn’t have playoffs. We don’t have timed races. We don’t have overtime. We’ve got a green-white checkered, or a race. A race-off instead of a playoff. Trying to make it a ball sport is part of what has pissed off so many race fans. The traditional race fans don’t like to see that. They don’t recognize what they’re seeing.”