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MADISON, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 06: William Sawalich, driver of the #18 Soundgear Toyota, and Austin Hill, driver of the #21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet, race during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog at WWT Raceway on September 06, 2025 in Madison, Illinois. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs are supposed to pack drama into every lap, but if you ask the drivers themselves, not everyone\u2019s thrilled with how the system works. Some want more races, others want fewer. A few even want to tear the whole thing down and go back to the good ol\u2019 days of straight-up points racing.<\/p>\n
So, if the guys behind the wheel could change one thing about the current playoff<\/a> format, what would they actually do?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s just say the answers<\/a> were all over the place, and honestly, it makes for a fascinating \u201cwhat if\u201d conversation.<\/p>\n Several drivers want to see the championship decided<\/a> over a slightly longer span, rather than hanging on one winner-take-all race.<\/p>\n Connor Zilisch<\/a> didn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cMake the final round three races.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheldon Creed<\/a> echoed that thought with a bit more detail, \u201cI think I would go to a 3-round Final Four. Kind of best-of-three series.\u201d<\/p>\n That \u201cbest-of-three\u201d concept gets thrown around a lot in NASCAR circles. It would give championship contenders a chance to rebound from bad luck or a blown tyre, instead of seeing their whole season collapse in one afternoon.<\/p>\n A three-race finale could reward consistency, not just clutch performance, something fans and teams might actually appreciate.<\/p>\n Bringing Back the Old-School NASCAR Xfinity Points Battle<\/p>\n Then there are the traditionalists, the ones who think the whole playoff system is just too gimmicky.<\/p>\n Austin Hill<\/a> was blunt about it, \u201cI\u2019m extremely old school. So, you know, it would kind of just do away with the playoff format. And just race like old-school point system throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a certain appeal to that, right? Back when every lap of every race mattered from Daytona to Homestead, and the champion was simply the most consistent driver across the season.<\/p>\n Harrison Burton<\/a> leaned in that same direction, just a little softer: \u201cMaybe incentivise season-long points a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n And Sam Mayer would love to rewind the clock, too: \u201cI\u2019m a huge fan of the ten-race Chase. I thought that was a lot of fun when we had that. Sometimes it can take away from having that final race at Phoenix or Homestead or wherever it is. Think I\u2019d change a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s clearly nostalgia for a time when the grind of the full season held more weight than a single dramatic finale.<\/p>\n Tweaking the Cutoff Rules and Win Priority<\/p>\n Some drivers don\u2019t want to scrap the NASCAR Xfinity format entirely; they just want to fine-tune it.<\/p>\n Brandon Jones<\/a> offered this middle ground, \u201cI love the \u2018win and you\u2019re in\u2019 kind of thing. But maybe if you had a cut-off line, then you still had to make it in on points.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Nick Sanchez<\/a> wants victories to carry even more weight: \u201cI feel like wins should separate you, maybe a little bit more, from the guys that are in on points. I think that would be something they\u2019d be interested [in].\u201d<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s Taylor Gray, who didn\u2019t mince words at all: \u201cHonestly, probably scrap all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s no unanimous answer here, and that\u2019s probably the most telling part. Whether it\u2019s adding more races, emphasising season-long consistency, or just tossing the system out, drivers clearly see room for change.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDogli Wilberforce<\/a> is a sports writer who covers NASCAR, Formula 1 and IndyCar Series for Heavy Sports. With bylines at Total Apex Sports and Last Word on Sports, Wilberforce has built a reputation for delivering timely, engaging coverage that blends sharp analysis with accessible storytelling. Wilberforce has covered everything from major football transfers to fight-night drama, bringing readers the insight and context behind the headlines. More about Dogli Wilberforce<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Image MADISON, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 06: William Sawalich, driver of the #18 Soundgear Toyota, and Austin Hill,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-154890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}