Elton Sawyer: NASCAR ‘Open’ to Making Tweaks to Playoff Format

In the weeks leading up to and throughout Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway, discussions in the NASCAR world have been centered around the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs format, and whether it’s an adequate method for selecting a champion.

Saturday’s State of The Sport address saw NASCAR executives Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell double down on the validity of the format, while many fans, media figures, and various drivers competing in NASCAR’s National Series feel differently.

Using a full-season points format, Joey Logano would have been ranked 12th in final point standings, but under this format — where a victory at Nashville got him into the post-season, a victory at Atlanta got him to the second round, and a victory at Las Vegas got him to the Championship 4 — the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang clinched the championship.

This outcome added gasoline to the fire of an already ignited debate, which led to Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, talking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about the topic.

“We look at it this way — you look at our format, it has delivered some great, exciting moments over time,” Sawyer said. “Joey [Logano] won five races this year if you count. the All-Star Race. He has shown year-in and year-out, time and time again, that once he gets into the Playoffs — and they just barely got in this year […]. Joey and Team Penske, they win races at the right time of year, and our format has delivered.”

Sawyer pointed out the excitement brought to the table by the current system, referencing Ryan Blaney’s run in the penultimate event of the season at Martinsville Speedway, where he drove to the victory and locked himself into the Championship 4. Sawyer adds, “You don’t have those moments without our format.”

While NASCAR is aware that the current playoff format isn’t universally admitted, Sawyer backs up the words of Steve O’Donnell and Steve Phelps from Saturday, in that the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs are here to stay.

However, the sanctioning body is open to suggestions.

“We’re going to have Playoffs, we’re going to have a Playoff format, but what we will do, is we will take input from our fans, our competitors, and our industry stakeholders this off-season, and if there is a way to tweak it, make it better, we will do that.”

“I think as we take a deeper dive and look at this and look at how you get in the Playoffs, and how you get from round to round. Is that equitable? Is that the best way to do it? I think you take all that input — and we have some really smart people in our industry, with our teams and drivers, and being able to get feedback — maybe what we have is the best model, but if it’s not, we’re open, we’re all ears on it.”

Whether the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs format will be revised for the 2025 season remains to be seen, but NASCAR’s willingness to listen to feedback is a positive sign.