NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin didn’t wait long after losing the 2025 championship to reignite one of the biggest topics of debate this season—the playoff format. In the recent episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin delivered a blunt critique of NASCAR’s championship format, arguing that it always punishes the season’s dominating driver and gives mediocre drivers a path to “steal” a title.

Despite having a season-high six wins and leading a race-high number of laps at the Phoenix finale race, Denny Hamlin lost the championship to Kyle Larson in the end.

In his first Actions Detrimental podcast since losing the Cup Series title, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver didn’t pull punches when addressing drivers who support the one-race title-deciding race format that rewards mediocrity.

“For people like myself, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick… I think we’re all for bigger sample sizes. If I didn’t list your name, of course you love a 1-race format. It rewards mediocrity for a bulk of the season,” Hamlin said [36:58].

The same happened in 2024, where Kyle Larson dominated the season with six wins and 15 top-5 finishes, but he wasn’t able to win the title.

The three-time Daytona 500 winner noted that drivers who consistently run, those who stack wins, dominate laps, and perform throughout the season are the ones who get burned by a system that resets everything for a single race.

Expressing his frustration on the format, Hamlin continued:

“You’ve never had one ripped out of your hands. You’ve taken out of people’s hands but you don’t know what it’s like to dominate a season when all of a sudden the format resets the score on you and you lose in overtime. Those are the people who were able to steal from others… Mediocre people want as small sample size as possible. The greats want a larger size.”

Denny Hamlin called Hendrick Motorsports: “One of the best at grinding out throughout the season”

Denny Hamlin also made sure to acknowledge another driver he considers a model of consistency, the 2020 champion Chase Elliott. Despite missing his name in the initial list, Hamlin called Elliott one of the best performers in the 36-race schedule. Elliott had an average finish of 12.6 in 2025, recording two wins, 11 top-5s, and 19 top-10 finishes.

In the aforementioned interview, Denny Hamlin said:

“There might be others, I want to be careful… Can’t forget Chase Elliott, he is one of the best grinding out throughout the season.”

As per reports by insider Adam Stern, NASCAR is leaning toward retaining the current playoff format in 2026, albeit with possible revisions.