Calls have been emanating from around the NASCAR world of late, from the likes of Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr., for a change to the divisive current winner-takes-all Playoff format, which replaced the 36-race championship back in 2004. And after Joey Logano recently fiercely leapt to the format’s defense, it hasn’t taken Earnhardt long to fire back at the three-time champion’s comments.

The current format sees the top 16 drivers at the end of the regular season compete against one another in four rounds – the Round of 16, Round of 12, Round of 8, and the Championship 4 – during the final 10 races of each year. 

The benefit of such a system is that it keeps the championship race unpredictable and helps ensure each race serves a purpose until the very end. Among the downsides of the format, not only can it minimize the importance and impact of extremely strong regular seasons, but also non-Playoff drivers can also inadvertently hugely impact the race for the title.

Discussing the format, Team Penske’s Logano believes the onus is on the drivers to maximise their opportunity within the existing format, rather than pushing for it to be changed to better suit them. 

“As a fan, I want to see (drivers) scared, and our playoff system now does that,” he told The Athletic. “I’ve always been the person to say, ‘If you’re complaining about it, then just do better.’ If you scored a bunch of points during a regular season and you didn’t make it to the Championship 4, then shame on you. You had a head start, and you still couldn’t do it.

“But don’t say it’s not legit. You could have gone out there and won to get in. You didn’t. Just because it didn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean change the rules.”

Logano’s comments did not go unnoticed by Hall of Famer Earnhardt on his latest recording of the ‘Dale Jr. Download’ podcast, with the 50-year-old reiterating his stance that change is necessary.

“First thing I want to say is this. You can believe that Joey Logano is a legitimate champion and still believe that the Playoffs should be different,” he said. “So, I think that Joey is a legitimate champion. I think that Joey’s trophies that he has in his possession are as cool and as real and as historic as any other champion in our series, ever.”

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Earnhardt noted how each championship has been won in a slightly different manner, with the competition being more fierce today than in decades gone by, and the way points are amassed also having regularly changed. 

“My point being that not just the Playoffs and how you score points has changed. The sport’s evolved. Every championship is unique. So are Joey’s,” he said.

“But I don’t think that the single race format is the best way to decide the champion. It doesn’t mean that Joey doesn’t deserve to be celebrated. And it doesn’t mean that if they were to change it, it doesn’t really dilute or take away from what he accomplished…

“If we could look at it, at the end of the regular season, he was over 200 points behind the leader (in 2024). That advantage was erased (at the start of the Playoffs) in his favor. He went from how many races out of the points lead to like one… Joey went from eight races behind the leader in points to one race. I mean, that’s nice.”

Should Logano win a fourth title in 2025, this would further reinforce Earnhardt’s point, given that the driver of the No. 22 Ford finished the regular season 12th with just one win, 224 points behind champion William Byron.