A chunk of NASCAR fans will hate the new playoff format set to be introduced next season, although the majority will love it.
That's according to Kaulig Racing CEO Chris Rice, who claims that he knows what's coming when the sport makes expected changes to its current playoff format.
The NASCAR playoffs have come in for a lot of criticism in recent years, with the biggest negative being that the championship is ultimately decided by one race, which doesn't necessarily always crown the best driver across the entire season.
The cruelty of a one-race decider was on display for all to see at Phoenix in November, too, with Connor Zilisch missing out on the Xfinity Series championship to Jesse Love, despite Zilisch having dominated the series and broken several records along the way.
The Cup Series championship was also ultimately decided by one strategy call late, with Kyle Larson snatching the title from Denny Hamlin after a two-tire switch heading into overtime. Up until that point, Hamlin had dominated the race and was cruising to victory when through no fault of his own, one of his rivals wrecked, bringing out the caution and sending the race to overtime, where Larson and his crew pounced.
Larson was a worthy winner across the season, of course, but it once again highlighted that an entire 36-race season can be defined by a single moment in the current format.
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Playoffs change 'not' what everybody's expecting
Even prior to this year's proceedings, changes were expected to be announced to the championship format for 2026, with some even hoping that the playoffs will be scrapped altogether in favor of a 36-race points system.
However, speaking on the Kenny Wallace YouTube Channel, Kaulig CEO Rice claims things do not need an overhaul, but simply a tweak. When asked what he knew about the decision to change the format heading into next season, Rice let on that he was very much in the know.
“I know a lot more than you think,” the Kaulig Racing President explained. "It got put on the back burner, I’ll be honest with you, it got put on the back burner.
“I talked to Mark Martin [former NASCAR driver and avid playoff hater] a lot, believe it or not. You're gonna like it. You will like it.
“It’s not exactly what everybody's posting about, I don’t think, I don't think they had made the final decision the last time I was involved. We need an adjustment. Do we need an overhaul? No, but we need an adjustment.”
"I enjoyed going back to Homestead [for the final race next season] but we don't need one race to make the difference, because we know going to Homestead, if Kyle Larson's in the final four, who the heck do you think's gonna win? If Tyler Reddick’s in the final four, who the heck do you think’s gonna have a shot, like, come on.
“We've listened as a sport, and it's gonna be great.”
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Rice: 75% will like playoff change but 15% will hate it
Despite that positivity, Rice concedes that not all NASCAR fans will like or love the new system set to be introduced, even going as far as to admit that a good chunk of fans - albeit a minority - will still hate it.
“What I do know is I feel like 75% of the people are gonna love it,” Rice continued.
“10% are gonna be ‘ah okay, right’. That's gonna leave 15% of the people that's gonna hate it.
“So with that being said, the traditional way of doing points would be tough to do in this era because we are looking towards a younger group of people, right?
“So that’s what we got to think about. I’ll go back and watch them old races on Tubi and like, dude, it might be one car in the lead lap and somebody's winning the point series by 487 points.
“That ain't exciting to the young guy or the young woman, so we gotta make it exciting.”
