• Ryan McGee

Jan 12, 2026, 07:09 PM ET

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However, even as the conversation continued through spring and summer via email and more meetings, as it moved through discussions of subtler changes, such as expanding the championship fight from just the season finale to instead be spread out over the final three of four races, Martin’s voice from that day in February kept echoing. Now, granted, some of that wasn’t an echo. He also was pretty vocal about it all on social media and various NASCAR media outlets.

The momentum Martin continued to create — slowly but surely winning over even those who’d rolled their eyes at his face on the giant projection screens in that first meeting — was the tug toward the other side of line that the new-format conversation needed. A needed tug backward. Not all the way into NASCAR’s past, but certainly in that direction. If nothing else, Martin’s push resulted in a much-needed, feel-good, group-hug moment for a sport anxious to emerge from perhaps its ugliest offseason, punctuated by a contentious antitrust lawsuit and the resignation of commissioner Steve Phelps, the fallout of text messages revealed around that suit.

“I appeal to all race fans, but especially the classic fans, who say to me, ‘I don’t watch anymore,'” Martin said to his people from the stage on Monday. “I say, we need you. Come on back. We’re headed in the right direction … come back and join with us, and we’ll keep making progress.”

As Elliott added, “[I want to] challenge the race fans and say, ‘Let’s enjoy what we’ve got.’ We’re so quick to complain about everything. Everything that we have and everything that we do. Let’s enjoy what we have because we’re making history, whether you like it or not. Celebrate the champion … I think this format promotes that.”

This will not be NASCAR’s final championship format. For 77 years, the sanctioning body has tinkered with its points system more than a crew chief fiddles with his race car. Richard Petty’s seven championships came via six different points systems, including a five-year stretch when he won four titles with four different points scales. In the end, as The King likes to say, “I just tried to win every week, and if the math worked out at the end, they gave me a big trophy.”

But for now, and for the first time in a long time, the next NASCAR champion will earn the crown by sticking to that very plan. By indeed going “Back to the Future.”