4 Burning Questions: Has IndyCar Proven NASCAR Doesn’t Need a Playoff System?

Is the NTT IndyCar Series’ big ratings bump proof that NASCAR doesn’t need a playoff system?

For those who aren’t tuned into the open-wheel racing world, especially here stateside, the IndyCar season finale was conducted last weekend with the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix, which was won by Josef Newgarden.

However, Newgarden was not crowned as the winner of the 2025 championship. That honor instead went to Alex Palou, who clinched this year’s title two races ago. With eight wins on the season, Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing claimed yet another title in the sport they’ve become so dominant in.

At this point, you might be wondering what the hell I’m going on about IndyCar for in a NASCAR column, and you’d be fair for questioning that. However, the biggest story from IndyCar’s penultimate race wasn’t the winner, or the fact that Palou put on a show of pure dominance in 2025.

No, the big story here is the moneymaker: the ratings.

This season, according to Nielsen Media Research, was the most watched in nearly 20 years. And the Music City GP, which, as a reminder, was for essentially nothing but the prize money considering Palou had already clinched the title, netted over 1.4 million viewers, which is a 136% increase over 2024.

In a year when the championship wasn’t even remotely close, FOX and IndyCar planted the sport in living rooms in a manner which hasn’t been seen in nearly two decades. (Disclaimer: Frontstretch’s editor-in-chief was an employee of FOX’s IndyCar broadcasts in 2025.) The growth that the series saw in this season is exponential, and it’s not because of late-season gimmicks or a winner-take-all race. It’s because of the groundwork done to grow the series in both advertisement and marketing.

It was a masterclass and will more than likely be studied soon at the university level. But what does this mean for NASCAR? That it’s fishing in the wrong barrel.

I’m not saying we should go back to the old way of pointing your way to a championship. I’ve been more than vocal on this very site that that isn’t the solution. However, NASCAR keeps trying to engage younger demographics with high-drama, high-stakes single races, which many would argue is to the detriment of the sport.

As IndyCar proved this year by showcasing an 81% gain in ages 18-34 and a 51% jump in 18-49, you don’t need a winner-take-all showdown to draw people to a product, you just have to know how to market it.

You won’t hear me say this much, but the open-wheel market in the U.S. got a win over NASCAR this year in a big way, and depending on how certain court battles shake out, another one could be coming.

Take notes, NASCAR. It can be done.

Is Joey Logano right that other drivers haven’t performed under the bright lights?

Look, when you’re a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, you get to talk your talk quite a bit. And when Joey Logano was asked this week about the legitimacy of his championships in the current playoff format, he gave a soundbite that a three-time champion should give.

“If you scored a bunch of points during a regular season and you didn’t make the Championship 4, shame on you,” Logano said. “You had a head start, and you still couldn’t do it. … Don’t say it’s not legit. You could have gone out there and won to get in. You didn’t.”

Mic drop, then. But cue the “he’s right, you know” Morgan Freeman meme, because Logano hit the nail on the head.

For a few years now, Team Penske in particular has shown itself to be master of this playoff format, whether you agree with it or not. Ryan Blaney turned it on when he needed to most in his championship season, too.

I don’t understand the argument against Logano’s championships, either. That’s like saying any Super Bowl that’s ever been won that wasn’t against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots is somehow worth less, just because you were playing different teams. You still had to get there, and you still had to win when you did. Logano did just that on more than one occasion now, so he has every right to call it like he sees it here.

Who gives Joe Gibbs Racing the best title shot: Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell or Chase Briscoe?

For a large portion of 2025, Denny Hamlin has been considered by far and away JGR’s best shot at a Cup championship this season, and who could blame anyone for thinking that to be true? In a year when there’s been more extracurricular activity for Hamlin than ever before, he’s been on the top of his game, and that deserves some praise.

However, his teammates haven’t exactly been slow. Chase Briscoe obviously picked up an impressive win at Darlington Raceway last weekend, and Christopher Bell is always bad fast at most of the playoff tracks. After all, he’s had plenty of Championship 4 experience over the past few seasons.

So if you’re Joe Gibbs, who is your money on? That might be the question of the year. While Penske has shown a mastery of this playoff format, the cars haven’t been as good this year as in previous ones. In that same breath, Hendrick Motorsports is still undergoing one of the wackiest years I can recall for the team, and I don’t think anyone who’s watched its luck play out this year feels like it’s a real contender. So who is?

That leaves the three JGR cars of Hamlin, Bell and Briscoe, one of which has already picked up their first win of the playoffs. If you wanted to play the math game right now, Briscoe is the team’s best chance at taking home the big one, but somehow, deep in my gut and my psyche that loves a storybook ending, I want to pick Hamlin.

Despite all of the outside noise and potential headlines coming his way, Hamlin finally gets it done in 2025. The veteran has a few tricks up his sleeve, whether fans (or NASCAR, for that matter) want him to or not.

Who’s had the more impressive season, Connor Zilisch or Corey Heim?

Webster’s Dictionary defines domination as an “exercise of mastery or ruling power.” If that’s the case, then Connor Zilisch and Corey Heim have both written the book on the term in their respective series in 2025.

Since returning from an injury he suffered at Talladega Superspeedway, Zilisch has been an unstoppable force, flying through the field and being credited with a win in six of the last seven races of the NASCAR Xfinity Seriesseason. He’s also not finished outside of the top five a single time since making that return, which might be an even more impressive feat than the win totals.

In comparison, Heim has been the immovable object. He qualifies first, runs first, stays first and wins. He also has four wins in the last five races,and could very well set the series record for wins in a season.

So who’s done it better? People are going to dislike my answer here, but it’s Heim.

And that’s not to say that it’s not close, because we’re talking about microscopic differences here. But in a shorter schedule and with arguably closer competition from an equipment standpoint, Heim has been the best in the series from start to finish. In Zilisch’s case, it’s been like his old self was lost after Talladega. That or he either evolved into whatever motorsport robot this version is without telling anyone.

Heim has been the frontrunner for the championship essentially since the green flag dropped on the first race of the season, and since then, has wrote his own chapter in the history books of the series.

I’m not saying Zilisch hasn’t done the same, but in this specific argument, I’ve got to go with Heim as being the most dominant driver over the entire course of a season.