HAMPTON, Ga. — As NASCAR moves beyond Daytona, the sport faces questions about its biggest race and how it crowns its champion.
Denny Hamlin’s rant on his podcast this week about how luck can play a dominant role in the outcome of the Daytona 500 is not a new argument. Drivers have raised similar issues in the past quarter century but momentum among competitors is building for changes.
Change also could be made with the playoffs. NASCAR decided not to alter how the champion is determined this season. Instead, a group of competitors and industry insiders will examine what, if any, changes to make for the playoffs in 2026.
While the focus for fans is on the racing on track— the Cup Series competes Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway — what NASCAR decides in the coming months with Daytona and the playoffs could significantly alter the sport.
The image of cars three wide for several rows at more than 185 mph at Daytona is impressive — unless you are in one of those cars stuck in traffic. One mistake can wreck several cars.
Hamlin worries that the prestige of the Daytona 500 and its winner is being tarnished because of the role luck plays in missing the inevitable crashes.
“Are we now going to start viewing the Daytona 500 winners like we question our champions?” Hamlin said this week on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. “ … This is their big moment to shine and it’s a big accomplishment (winning the Daytona 500), but I hate the fact of how much luck is involved in NASCAR now.”
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Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano have been among the best drivers at the reconfigured Atlanta track.
Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 champion, said driver ability used to play a bigger role in the outcome of the 500.
“I feel like we’ve lost that,” he said. “It’s just a matter of wrecks at superspeedways. I feel like the Daytona 500 is a microcosm of our sport in general when it comes to how we crown our champion as well.
“This started with the competition group a decade ago when we started cutting horsepower because we wanted to look good on TV. We want you think that they can pass, not that they can actually pass.
“It’s just, for me, it’s gotten to the place where … the entertainment of it has far overtaken the sport of it. I don’t know how we reverse things.”
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The Daytona 500 annually has NASCAR’s highest TV ratings each year and has been sold out the past decade. Races at Daytona and Talladega typically have among the highest TV ratings for Cup races each season.
Asked if there is a better way to race at Daytona and Talladega, Brad Keselowski said: “There’s always a better way. It’s just finding it. I don’t necessarily know how to find it.”
Then Keselowski noted Atlanta Motor Speedway and the hybrid drafting style this race provides since being reconfigured after the 2021 season.
“This track almost kind of proves there’s a better way,” Keselowski said. “This is a track that runs two- or three-wide, puts on a fairly exciting race but still just exhibits tradecraft, whether it be the teams or car performance, or the drivers and the moves they make with their racecraft. I think it’s kind of a poster child for the idea that both can exist at the same time in the right conditions.
“The Cup Series is in this interesting spot right now. I think some days we have to decide if we’re the Harlem Globetrotters or not. I don’t know if I have a perfect answer for that and maybe there is a balance. What we need is for this series to be completely legitimate at all times and for racecraft, tradecraft to matter.”
William Byron isn’t apologizing for being a two-time Daytona 500 winner — after going from ninth at the start of the final lap to the front as the leaders crashed on the backstretch of that race.
“When I started superspeedway racing, I treated it as luck, and I didn’t think strategy really worked out very well,” Byron said. “So for me, I just go into it and try to control the things that I can control.
“Obviously I was fortunate in that situation, but I made moves leading up to that that put me in that position. I sensed that it was coming and just tried to position myself. So I don’t know. I don’t really read too much into stuff outside of my circle of people. Obviously I’m proud of the win. I’m not going to apologize for it.”
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The 1.54-mile track produced the closest three-wide finish in NASCAR history a year ago.
Kyle Larson’s philosophy is simple for how to handle the matter.
“Outside of the racing, you’re trying to make the entertainment better,” he said. “You have more stuff for the fans to do before or after the race. Entertainment value of that. But then making the race pure and have it play out pure is what I love about it.”
Depending on one’s viewpoint, the playoff system can provide that purity. To others, it does not.
After seeing some championship races settled even before the final race of the season, NASCAR changed its way to determining a champion in 2004. Back then it was 10 drivers over 10 races. The driver with the most points among those 10 was the champion.
The system has morphed through the years. Now 16 drivers make what is called the playoffs. The playoffs remain 10 races but four drivers are eliminated after every third race in the Cup Series, leaving four drivers to race for the title in the season finale, which has been held at Phoenix Raceway since 2020.
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While there has been some controversy with a winner-take-all-event for the championship, it was nothing like this past season when Joey Logano won his third Cup title.
Logano was 15th in points before the standings were reset at the start of the playoffs. Had he not won in the regular season — winning in a five-overtime finish at Nashville — Logano would not have advanced to the playoffs. In the playoffs, Logano won three races, including the final at Phoenix to claim the title.
“They capitalized on it, they did it,” Kyle Busch said of Logano’s title. “It wasn’t a skilled team that played throughout the whole year perfectly. I would say Larson was probably a better team. I would have said the 45 (Tyler Reddick) was probably the best team there late in the going. So they were more deserving champions when you look at the competition aspect of our sport, but when you look at how the rules are and everybody plays by the same rules, Logano got it, so it kind of is what it is.”
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So, what to do with the playoffs, if anything, beyond this season?
The industry group examining the playoff system had its first meeting last week at Daytona.
“Good dialogue, great discussions,” said Keselowski, who is on that group. “Appreciate the openness that NASCAR has to listen. Just proud to be a part of it.”
As for the first meeting, Keselowski said: “It’s nice to hear other perspectives. I’m limited to my own visor as both an owner and driver. Got to hear from media members, other team members, of course, broadcast partners and the tracks. … I think ultimately, we’re just looking for the highest level of legitimacy we can have.”
