Justin Marks has never been one to bite his tongue, and this time his criticism hit NASCAR right where it stings: the playoff format. As the owner of Trackhouse Racing, Marks has his eyes set on building a lasting legacy with Ross Chastain, Shane van Gisbergen, and young phenom Connor Zilisch. Amid his ambitions, Marks insists the sport’s ultimate prize, the Cup Series championship, shouldn’t hinge on luck, bad timing, or a blown tire.
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Marks aimed at NASCAR’s one-race championship structure, calling for a shift toward rewarding season-long excellence rather than a single shootout. “You have to balance what’s required in the world today to be an entertainment property that gets people excited with the fact that you are running a sport,” he said.
“And when you run a sport, you’re not going to have those game five buzzer-beater moments, those bottom of ninth home run World Series moments every single time you go,” opined the 44-year-old.
Marks acknowledged that the playoff system injected life into the sport when it was introduced in 2014, with viewership reportedly increasing, but he also believes the current model, where mechanical gremlins or tire failures can decide legacies, has worn thin.
“I think that the one-race final championship was worth trying. I really do. It was a very transitional time in the history of NASCAR. I think it was a good experiment. I don’t think that’s the right thing for the future.”
Marks didn’t call for scrapping the playoffs altogether; he called for balance. “The last race, the champion needs to be crowned by the person that performs the best, sort of over the course of the season,” he continued, arguing that while excitement sells tickets, integrity sustains the sport.
He wants NASCAR to strike a middle ground, something that honors consistency without killing the crescendo that fans crave in the final stretch. The debate took the prime spot last season, when Joey Logano advanced to the Round of 8 only after Alex Bowman was disqualified at Charlotte Roval for a car-weight infraction.
Eventually, Logano went on to win the championship despite averaging a 17th-place finish through the season, reigniting criticism of the format’s fairness. This year also, luck overpowered the number of wins and consistency to some extent, as Denny Hamlin, favored to capture his first title, finally saw his dream implode after a late-race tire failure for William Byron brought out a caution, reshuffling the deck in Kyle Larson’s favor.
The #5 HMS driver, who hadn’t won since May, rode that call all the way to the championship, while Hamlin once again settled for second. For Marks, such endings might make for television gold, but they undermine the sport’s foundation.
He admitted that playoffs are important, but the championship should be earned, not handed to whoever catches the lucky break. Eventual changes from NASCAR are on the horizon for the upcoming season. It now remains to be seen what they actually are.
