Chase Elliott admitted he would like to see a change in how the NASCAR Cup Series champion is crowned, especially with so many drivers, such as Denny Hamlin, looking like legitimate contenders. 

Elliott, the Hendrick Motorsports star, is looking to add another championship to his already impressive resume. However, he will have to battle other stars in order to do so, leading to his comment on a different style of determining a champion. 

Many have criticized the current playoff format, with Elliott being the latest one. In particular, the 29-year-old hopes to see it changed back to what it was in the past. 

“We’ve had a really good and competitive battle to the regular season (championship) over — correct me if I’m wrong — the last two or three years,” the 2020 Cup Series champion told Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. “It’s really been pretty tight all the way down to Daytona.

“If you just take that as your sample set over the first 26 weeks, it looks pretty solid to me. The system would be just fine if you just had a full season. And if somebody runs away with it, so what?”

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Despite the fact that his opinion might not be the most popular, Elliott claimed he would not try to change it and believes that is how the Cup Series championship should be determined. Before the current playoff system was implemented in 2004, drivers with the most points won the Cup Series championship.

“Let’s celebrate the fact that somebody ran away with it, that somebody was just that good. Motorsports does not have to be like everybody else to be successful. And I’ll stand by that til I get done,” he concluded. Of note, Elliott is currently leading NASCAR in points, with 702, while William Byron is second with 686.

And while Elliott would like to see a change in how the championship is awarded, fellow NASCAR star Ryan Blaney defended the current system. In particular, the star bashed those who criticized the current format, instead lauding it for the opportunity it affords playoff drivers. 

“What kind of bugs me a little bit is the people that are so diehard on like if you’ve won a championship in this format, that we have now, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Mickey Mouse championship, and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t count,’” he said during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. 

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“It’s like, man, everyone has the same opportunity as the guy who won it. This isn’t the full season points. Everyone always talks about, ‘Oh, you know this guy’s, you would have won the full season points.’ Well, that’s great, but we haven’t used that format in 20 years.”

Blaney added: “I mean, everyone can have their opinion. It gets under my skin a little bit when they’re like, ‘You guys don’t didn’t deserve that championship.’ It’s like, what are you talking about, man? Like we went through the grinder, everyone digs in, and you know, we were resilient when it mattered.”

It remains to be seen if NASCAR will change the current format despite its criticisms. NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a brief reply when asked if the Cup Series would return to strictly points, stating on X: “It’s unlikely there would ever be a full season points championship.”