Joey Logano captured his third NASCAR Cup Sequence championship final Sunday at Phoenix Raceway in a duel towards Group Penske teammate Ryan Blaney – however the end result of the race left many followers fuming over the playoff format, which for the second successive yr topped a champion who was altogether unimpressive by a lot of the common season.
In 2021, Kyle Larson dominated the NASCAR Cup Sequence, racking up 10 race victories en path to his first profession championship. It was the kind of yr that evoked reminiscences of Jeff Gordon’s 13-win season in 1998, the place one staff regularly proved it was one of the best within the subject and was rewarded on the finish of the yr.
Such a dominant yr in NASCAR’s high sequence just isn’t the norm within the playoff period, nevertheless. In 2023, Ryan Blaney overcame a horrendous common season, buoyed by a single race win at Charlotte that cemented his place within the playoffs. Over that 26-race span, Blaney had simply 12 top-10 finishes, and practically as many finishes of twenty first of worse (10). But the No. 12 staff was capable of survive the primary elimination spherical, received at Talladega to get into the ultimate eight, received at Martinsville to race for a championship, and beat Kyle Larson and William Byron at Phoenix to win his first title. Blaney set a modern-era report for fewest High-5 finishes by a champion with eight.
To a sure fan, or to a pro-playoffs NASCAR govt, Blaney’s Cinderella story run by the playoffs was precisely the kind of storyline and dramatic triumph the format was designed to ship. Plus, Blaney is a fan favourite and had by no means received earlier than, so many followers have been comfortable to see him have a good time, even when Larson and Byron have been significantly better over the course of the season.
Tensions have lastly boiled over in 2024, although, after the identical actual factor simply occurred once more. Logano one-upped his teammate, compiling simply seven High-5 finishes over the course of a championship season however successful two of the final 4 races, and ending 2024 with a median ending place of 17.1. To make issues worse, a NASCAR staffer instructed Denny Hamlin after a controversial Martinsville race that social media customers criticizing the format have been merely “bots.”
Following the season finale, it seems the message is getting by to NASCAR that many followers (to not point out drivers, groups and even broadcasters) are unhappy. NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer confirmed this week that the group could be taking a “deeper dive” into the playoff system, saying that “we are going to take enter from our followers, our rivals, and our business stakeholders this low season, and if there’s a option to tweak it, make it higher, we are going to do this.”
So how can NASCAR tweak it is playoff system to create a greater product for its followers and rivals? Let’s check out how the system presently works:
How the present NASCAR playoff system works
NASCAR has regularly tweaked its format because the 2004 introduction of the “Chase,” however as of 2024, this is the way it works in a nutshell:
A 26-race common season. Race winners within the common season mechanically qualify for the 16-driver playoffs, until there are greater than 16 distinctive winners. Drivers accrue playoff factors all year long by successful races and levels, and the playoff factors persist by every playoff reset, excluding the ultimate spherical.
The 16 playoff drivers start a 3-race Spherical of 16. Factors are reset from the common season, and solely playoff factors carry over. In every spherical of the playoffs, successful a race ensures you a spot within the subsequent spherical, no matter your factors standing.
After three races, 4 drivers are eradicated and a three-race Spherical of 12 begins. The method repeats with the Spherical of 8, till we’re left with a closing Championship 4 heading into the ultimate race of the yr.
The Championship 4 drivers start the ultimate race even on factors, and are unable to attain any stage factors all through the race. The remaining playoff driver who finishes forward of the opposite three is the champion.
Listed here are six choices for NASCAR contemplate as we head into the 2025 season:
Possibility 1: Hold the playoffs, however unfold the championship spherical over three races
The Championship 4 would battle over the past three races to earn essentially the most factors, just like the 10-race Chase format used up to now. Playoff factors wouldn’t carry over, however stage factors would rely within the closing three races. – Austin Konenski, Motorsports Wire
Possibility 2: Denny Hamlin’s format
Hamlin has been a vocal critic of the present playoff format, and has proposed his personal variation that retains one spherical of eliminations. Below the there’d be:
Double factors for the 26-race common season
16 drivers qualifying for the playoffs
A spherical of seven races together with all 16 playoff drivers nonetheless eligible. Following the seventh race, the Championship 4 would advance based on the factors standings
Factors would reset to zero for the Championship 4, and the brand new factors chief after the ultimate three races could be the champion
Possibility 3: Transfer the championship race yearly
Of all the problems NASCAR faces, I actually do not consider that the playoff format because it exists as we speak is close to the highest of the record. The departure of main family title stars over the many years, the final cultural shifts amongst sports activities followers within the nation – it is value noting that MLB World Sequence and NBA Finals viewership has additionally plummeted within the final 15 years – and the restrictions of the Subsequent Gen automotive (and former automotive iterations) all contribute extra to figuring out NASCAR’s TV rankings than the playoff format does.
And, actually, the format in 2024 delivered unimaginable moments within the second half of the playoffs. Las Vegas, Homestead, Martinsville and Phoenix produced unimaginable races and storylines. As a viewer, the on-track product and lap-to-lap rigidity imposed by the format was nice.
My largest problem with the present format of a one-race championship decider is that NASCAR is staging it on the identical monitor yearly. Sure groups and drivers naturally carry out higher at brief tracks, intermediate tracks, superspeedways and highway programs than others, however in the event you’re all the time going to the identical place, you are giving some drivers a built-in benefit.
Take Ryan Blaney, for instance. Should you’re Blaney, you’d hope that Phoenix hosts the finale for the remainder of your profession, as he is considerably higher than some other driver within the subject at Phoenix in recent times. In his final eight races there, Blaney’s common end is 3.9 – practically six spots higher than the following lively drivers on the record (William Byron: 9.4 and Kyle Larson: 9.5).
Tyler Reddick, in the meantime, started final Sunday’s race basically realizing the deck was stacked towards him, as his 14.4 common end ranks 14th amongst all drivers in that span. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t an element your complete race.
It is also value critically asking whether or not Phoenix is able to producing an awesome finale for the tv viewers with the Subsequent Gen automotive. The Athletic’s conducts a ballot after each Cup Sequence race asking his followers “was this a great race?” Over the past six races at Phoenix races, on common of the 1000’s of voters mentioned {that a} race at Phoenix was good. Over that very same interval, tracks like Kansas and Homestead have by no means failed the “was it good” take a look at, and even did not get 80% of the “sure” vote.
NASCAR has loads of nice tracks that may host a finale in November, from Las Vegas to Homestead to Charlotte to Darlington. Sure, NASCAR spent hundreds of thousands renovating Phoenix Raceway to be the “residence of the championship race,” however that should not get in the best way of offering new challenges to groups year-to-year and extra attention-grabbing races to followers. – Nick Schwartz
Possibility 4: Steve Letarte’s format
Letarte shared his personal potential format on Denny Hamlin’s podcast. Below the Letarte format, solely race winners would qualify for the playoffs, and the championship spherical could be contested throughout three races.
Race winners from the primary 26 races of the yr would advance to the playoffs, irrespective of how few or what number of race winners there are. No driver might level their means into the playoffs with out successful a race.
The playoff drivers could be seeded primarily based upon the bonus factors they earned over the course of the common season by race wins and stage wins. The highest-seeded driver would begin the playoffs with extra factors than the No. 2 driver, and so forth.
A closing group of 4 would run a three-race championship spherical to find out a champion. (Letarte was open as to what number of eliminations would happen earlier than that, with both a seven-race spherical main into the ultimate three, or one thing nearer to the elimination system we now have now.)
The venues within the closing spherical would rotate so as each few years.
Possibility 5: Revert to the traditional full-season factors construction
To be clear: There isn’t any means NASCAR will ever return to the traditional 36-race cumulative factors system, and there is not likely any proof that it will assist in the primary place or that it will present season-long drama.
There are diehard followers who maintain monitor of what the 2024 NASCAR Cup Sequence factors , they usually’ll be comfortable to let you know that Christopher Bell would have edged Chase Elliott by 5 factors at Phoenix, having overcome an enormous 400+ level deficit within the closing 12 weeks. What an extremely thrilling run that may have been!
Sadly it does not work that means and it is not the ’90s anymore. Drivers and groups would strategize and execute races in a very completely different means if there weren’t stage factors or playoff-clinching wins to chase after. Should you desperately need full-season factors, there’s all the time Components 1 (which has produced a whopping two shut championship battles that weren’t clinched a number of races forward of time within the final 9 years). – Nick Schwartz
Possibility 6: Hold issues precisely the best way they’re
There’s nothing mistaken with the NASCAR Cup Sequence playoff format, and in the event you disagree, hear me out. I began overlaying NASCAR in 2017, so long as this playoff format has been round, so I do not know something completely different. However NASCAR followers do, and therein lies an enormous a part of the issue.
Some followers do not like the present playoff format as a result of they can not let go of the idea that essentially the most dominant driver and staff all through the season ought to be the champion. That is the way it labored earlier than, and that is what many need again. However that is not attention-grabbing, it is not similar to different sports activities and it doubtlessly permits the championship to be determined a number of races earlier than the season finale.
“You possibly can have an awesome common season; it seeds you higher for the playoffs, proper?” Joey Logano . “Now, that does not imply you are assured to go all the best way to the Tremendous Bowl or the Stanley Cup Finals or the NBA Finals. It does not matter. It’d enable you. It is the identical means in NASCAR.”
The present playoff format works, chaos and controversies and all. It is partaking, makes each playoff race matter and additional emphasizes the significance of a robust common season.
The common season simply is not every part, like just about each different sport. And to say a NASCAR champion’s title is not actual if they are not the strongest driver by all 36 races is, as Logano put it, “bull-[expletive].” – Michelle Martinelli
