NASCAR star Kyle Busch has spoken out about his ideal playoff format for the Cup Series going forward.
The two-time champion is currently mired in the longest winless streak of his career, sitting at 93 races coming into the 2026 season, but still has some thoughts on the shape of the postseason.
NASCAR was widely expected to announce a major change to the format shortly after the season wrapped up but, nearly two weeks later, the shape of that change is still unclear.
Officials high up in the organization haven't been shy about revealing that it's overwhelmingly likely that there will be a new championship format for 2026, but the form that takes – 10-race playoff, 36-race points standings, etc. – is still to be decided.
Busch suggests five-race playoff format
Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio this week, Busch gave his own suggestion, explaining: “I think we need a little bit of a hybrid of what we have currently, versus a full 36-race schedule versus a 10-race playoff format, which is what I won under." [Note: Busch also won in the current single-race format in 2019]
He continued: “I think you need a five-race style format, and you keep some points from the regular season, but it’s the five races, and you accumulate as many points as you can during those five. If you’re lucky enough to have four or five points in the bank coming into the final race, you use that to your advantage.”
This year's final race saw Denny Hamlin dominate until a flat tire for William Byron brought out a caution with just three laps to go, with Kyle Larson pipping him at the overtime restart to deny the 44-year-old his first title.
Hamlin's heartbreak, combined with the fact that Larson eventually won the championship without leading a single lap of the final race, drew fierce criticism from detractors of the single-race format, although the Hendrick Motorsports driver had also collected enough points to win the title in a 36-race or 10-race format.
