NASCAR's Mike Forde reacts to resurgent playoff debate, reveals likelihood of 2026 format changes

Ahead of the 2025 season, NASCAR assembled a group consisting of drivers, team owners, manufacturers and media partners to determine if the playoff format should look different in 2026. The playoff committee was created after many in the industry felt that Joey Logano‘s championship, in which he had the worst average finish for a driver in a championship-winning season, was undeserved.

The committee has met multiple times since February. August has arrived, and there’s still no decision on what the 2026 playoff and championship format will look like. Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications, said on Wednesday’s “Hauler Talk” that the next step is having a discussion with NBC, which has owned the broadcasting rights to the 10-race postseason since 2015. From there, NASCAR will conduct a fan survey to get their feedback.

“We’re going to have a discussion with our broadcast partners at NBC,” Forde said. “NBC does have a seat at the table and they have a member of their team [on the playoff committee]. … There are other people at NBC who have a huge voice. Obviously, they are spending a lot of money to broadcast NASCAR. They do have a large seat at the table, so we’ll be talking to them and getting their opinions on that. I feel like people have kind of scoffed at that move and have been incredulous that NBC does have such a huge voice — that feels strange to me. I feel like that is a pretty obvious thing that we need to do. They have a big voice because they write the biggest check.

“But once we come upon a menu of options, we do plan to have a fan council survey that goes out to get the fans’ point of view. I know Mark Martin has put an X poll out there, Jeff Gluck has put an X poll out there, so we are also going to take a survey of our fans — that’s part of our plan anyway.”

NASCAR’s Mike Forde reveals next step for playoff committee

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic is a member of the playoff committee. He said this past Sunday’s “The Teardown” podcast that while those in the room are in favor of change, NBC‘s opinion is that they want a playoff and eliminations. NASCAR’s media rights deal is worth $7.7 billion from 2025-31, so they are writing some massive checks.

As for potential changes for 2026, Forde isn’t completely ruling it out. That being said, they don’t want to make a change unless they “feel really, really good” about it.

“TBD on really when the next step is and if we have enough time to get changes in place for 2026,” Forde said. “I think that’s something we’ll work towards but making that happen as we’re getting closer to the middle of August to talk to NBC and have a full-blown meeting and the aftermath of what that will be –may be a little bit tricky — but I wouldn’t completely rule out 2026 changes, either. … There are really lots of opinions, so I think it’s just boiling it down to the top four, getting with NBC, then getting back to the committee and then getting with NASCAR leadership to say here’s what it is.

“Now, can we do that in time and feel good about it for 2026? What it comes down to is we don’t want to feel like we are pushing through a change that we’re going to have to change again. We want to feel really, really good about. If that can happen for 2026, great. If not, I think we’re comfortable waiting for 2027.”