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AVONDALE, ARIZONA – NOVEMBER 09: NASCAR Hall of Famer and JR Motorsports owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Justin Allgaier, driver of the #7 BRANDT Chevrolet, winning the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on November 09, 2024 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Dale Earnhardt Jr. opened up about some big playoff changes coming to NASCAR<\/a> in 2026. He mentioned it on the Dale Jr. Download<\/a>, casually dropping that the updates won\u2019t just hit the Cup Series but will reach Xfinity<\/a> and Trucks<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n According to him, NASCAR is ready to basically \u201cmove the furniture around\u201d and shake up the entire system. He also mentioned that his JR Motorsports<\/a> group wants to have four drivers fighting for a title.<\/p>\n Dale Jr. shared all this while recalling a talk with NASCAR executive Steve O\u2019Donnell during championship night in Phoenix. The single-race championship format has been used for years. Dale Jr. said change is coming, and his chat with O\u2019Donnell confirmed it.<\/p>\n Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains why he expects changes<\/p>\n On the podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he is ready for next year. \u201cI\u2019m excited about next year.\u201d He added, \u201cWe got a lot of things, we\u2019re going to kind of move the furniture around in the room and change some of the pieces on the chessboard, so to speak, to try to be in a better spot and get everybody happy.\u201d<\/p>\n He also stated a specific goal. He said<\/a>, \u201cThrough some things that we\u2019re going to do, we\u2019re going to have four drivers, hopefully, driving for a championship next year.\u201d<\/p>\n JR Motorsports has drivers who run well each season in the Xfinity Series. Dale Jr. believes his team will have four drivers racing for a title in 2026. He did not break down the details about the exact system. He spoke only about the target and the plan to adjust the format.<\/p>\n Conversation with NASCAR\u2019s Steve O\u2019Donnell<\/p>\n Dale Jr. revealed the key moment when he received confirmation of playoff changes. He described leaving the garage on championship night in Phoenix. Earnhardt walked out with NASCAR President Steve O\u2019Donnell<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI had an opportunity just by chance to exit the race track Saturday night with [Steve] O\u2019Donnell, walking through the Cup garage as the 2 team was celebrating their championship.\u201d<\/p>\n Dale Jr. asked about format changes.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Hey, Steve, a lot of people talking about the Cup stuff, we know that\u2019s probably coming in terms of a change to the format, but nobody ever says a thing about the Xfinity or Truck, and I guess we\u2019re all just assuming that whatever happens to Cup, something similar will happen,\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. O\u2019Donnell replied with a short answer. \u201cYeah, something similar will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n This confirmed that the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are not the only format under review. The same direction applies to Xfinity and Trucks.<\/p>\n Dale Jr. stopped short of sharing any exact structure. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to see what the format is Dale Jr said.\u201d<\/p>\n The current system uses elimination rounds and ends with one race for the title. Dale Jr.\u2019s comments show that the final race style is under review across all three national series.<\/p>\n Drivers, teams, and fans wait for NASCAR to share the new format. Dale Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s confirmation shows that decisions are already in progress. NASCAR has given no date for an official announcement. The next update will come from NASCAR leadership.<\/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 AVONDALE, ARIZONA – NOVEMBER 09: NASCAR Hall of Famer and JR Motorsports owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-267864","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\/267864","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=267864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}