{"id":201819,"date":"2025-10-10T04:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201819\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T04:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:30:07","slug":"dale-earnhardt-jr-suggests-current-nascar-playoff-format-is-most-difficult-way-to-win-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201819\/","title":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt Jr. suggests current NASCAR playoff format is ‘most difficult’ way to win championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR<\/a> president Steve O\u2019Donnell said in an interview<\/a> with Dale Earnhardt Jr. that the sanctioning body will not announce any potential changes to the playoff format before the end of the 2026 Cup Series season. Earnhardt believes that is the correct decision from NASCAR. <\/p>\n

Yes, Earnhardt would prefer a different format to determine a champion. No, that doesn\u2019t mean that any championship won under the current format is less than, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do not want it to make a Joey Logano, a Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott \u2014 I don\u2019t want them to ever feel like that means that the championship they won under whatever format is less than. The way we do it today is the hardest, most difficult way to win a championship,\u201d Earnhardt said on Tuesday\u2019s Dale Jr. Download<\/a>. \u201cTo put four guys on the track and you only have one race, and it has to go right, the odds are against you in this format more so than any other, in my opinion. I say that to help those guys feel like they\u2019ve achieved something difficult. <\/p>\n

\u201cIs it my favorite way? No. Do I prefer another way? Yes, but it doesn\u2019t mean that championship that they got and that trophy they got in their house isn\u2019t as valuable or as neat or as cool or as appreciated as any trophy or championship that was won in the first 50 years of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talk of the playoff format and whether that will look different next year has dominated discussion off the racetrack.\u00a0Earnhardt reiterated his belief that he favors a 36-race, season-long format. He added that this year\u2019s playoffs have left him \u201cexhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dale Earnhardt Jr. \u2018exhausted\u2019 by 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs<\/p>\n

Logano, a three-time champion under the current format, is a fan of NASCAR having a postseason. He talked up the playoffs in his post-race interview after this past Sunday\u2019s Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte ROVAL. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe playoffs create drama,\u201d\u00a0Logano said.\u00a0\u201cIt creates storylines. It creates awesome moments like that. I don\u2019t understand what people don\u2019t like about it. I really don\u2019t get it. And if you\u2019re one of those people who say the regular season doesn\u2019t matter, playoff points don\u2019t matter \u2014 one point would have been the difference there. I preach that all the time. I\u2019m not just saying that because it works for us. I\u2019m saying it because it\u2019s true. Everyone likes to look at it in other ways, but like I said, one point was the different there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have cutoff races and things like that, what are you even talking about today? How Shane [van Gisbergen] waxed everyone\u2019s butt? That\u2019s what you want? I\u2019m just saying, this playoff format is wicked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earnhardt appreciates Logano and his opinion. However, he\u2019s finding is difficult to enjoy the 2025 playoffs. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can appreciate Joey Logano, he is a Hall of Famer, he is a multi-time champion, a true badass, clutch driver. Give him the car, he gets the job done. I\u2019ve seen him do things that just really sets him apart from most race car drivers on the racetrack,\u201d Earnhardt said. \u201cI\u2019m just having a hard time watching this year\u2019s playoff play out.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell said in an interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr. that the sanctioning body will not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-201819","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\/201819","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=201819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}