Dale Earnhardt Jr. Stands With Chase Elliott and Mark Martin on Playoff Debate originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The big storyline in NASCAR circles this week was the ongoing debate of whether the playoffs versus the classic 36-race points system is the best way to determine the championship. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and TNT personalities Larry McReynolds and Danielle Trotta stirred the pot discussing the topic when they said that the old system isn’t coming back and then called out a driver on the playoff committee for “screaming” to go back to the original format.
There was some confusion on whether the pair was referring to Hall of Famer Mark Martin or Denny Hamlin, although Trotta replied to a post on X addressing the former, suggesting that the playoff system is better and we need it, to which Martin simply replied: “NO WE DONT.”
On Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck asked Chase Elliott if the full season would be a good system for determining the winner of the Cup Series
“Yeah, I mean I think it is a good system,” Elliott said. “You know, I think it’s fine. I think we’ve had a really good and competitive battle to the regular season over the last — correct me if I’m wrong — but the last two or three years I think has really been pretty tight all the way down to, what’s it been, Daytona, I guess has been the been the final race now.
“So, I mean, yeah, I think if you just take that as your sample set over the first 26 weeks, it looks pretty solid to me. But, I think that it’s a situation that I’m never gonna have the keys to and neither are y’all. It’s fun to talk about and I appreciate that but we don’t make the rules, right?
“I think the system would be just fine if you just had a full season and if somebody runs away with it, so what. Let’s celebrate the fact that somebody ran away with it. You know, like somebody was just that good. Motorsports does not have to be like everybody else to be successful and I’ll stand by that until I get done.”
A short time after the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s remarks made it on social media, both Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. responded.
I can’t argue with this. https://t.co/p1axIAffx5
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) July 25, 2025
“Mad respect for @chaseelliott here,” Martin replied. “Check it out.”
“I can’t argue with this,” Earnhardt offered.
Then a fan questioned Junior if he’d be OK with the original Chase format.
“Yes,” the 50-year-old replied.
The sport’s most popular driver and its biggest ambassador are proponents of going back to the older system. Will it happen?
Related: Chase Elliott Defends Longtime NASCAR Tradition and Questions Need for Change
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 25, 2025, where it first appeared.
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