As NASCAR’s playoff committee has given its input and NASCAR considers how to change the format for the playoffs, there has been debate about whether there needs to be playoffs at all.
With former Cup driver Mark Martin leading the campaign based on his opinion and galvanized by the results of polls he took on X, there has been a push to just get rid of the playoffs.
That seems a little extreme.
Get rid of the one-race championship? Sure.
Joey Logano has three Cup championships in the past seven years.
Reward those who’ve had more consistent strong runs throughout the year rather than rewarding drivers for winning one race? Sure.
But to just scrap the whole concept of playoffs? That seems like a step backward instead of just a step back into the way NASCAR crowned a champion.
NASCAR has had some form of playoffs for 22 years now.
The original Chase was put in place the year after Matt Kenseth clinched the championship in the next-to-last race of the season despite just having one win.
That initial format of the top 10 in regular-season points having their points reset based on their points standing and then racing it out over the final 10 events was quite simple. And no driver clinched the title before the final race.
There have been many variations since then. Some of that is thanks to Jimmie Johnson for winning five consecutive titles from 2006-10. And then, beginning in 2014, NASCAR went to a one-race championship with four drivers eligible.
Kevin Harvick won that 2014 title in an elimination format that seemed to increase the intensity. But if Ryan Newman, who did not have a win all season and was running second to Harvick, somehow won that title, the format probably wouldn’t have lasted 12 years.
NASCAR fans point to other racing series and say a full season should be done.
“Look at INDYCAR,” they’ll say. And a part of their argument will be that ratings didn’t decline after Alex Palou won the title two races before the finish. That’s evidence that fans will still watch.
Jimmie Johnson captured five straight championships from 2006-10.
But as someone who was there at Portland when Palou clinched, it felt so anticlimactic since his winning the title was a foregone conclusion. Granted, it was the result of a historic season that we’ll likely not see again. Also, with as short a season as INDYCAR has, the playoffs don’t make sense.
Those in favor of the 36-race points system will argue that a season-long championship system will return the focus to the race itself. The points will still get talked about, as will the impact of the race on the points.
True.
But with playoffs, more drivers get talked about when it comes to the second half of the season and the possibility of them winning the championship. More teams are in the conversation and their sponsors get a little more TV air time.
They have something to race for beyond the purse and the trophy on that given day.
Shane van Gisbergen said he loved watching the NASCAR playoffs as a fan while racing Supercars in Australia. He got his first experience as a Cup competitor this year and saw his championship hopes vanish in three races (he did compete in the Xfinity playoffs last year).
It didn’t seem to change his mind as far as the excitement level for the fans.
The best thing about the current system is that it encourages drivers to win and not settle for a good points day. Some will say that drivers roughing each other up for a win or to advance in the playoffs isn’t racing. That might be the way it seems from the competition lens, but from the entertainment lens, having desperate drivers trying to decide whether they do desperate things puts fans on the edge of their seats.
Eliminations and relatively short playoff rounds create that atmosphere.
Whether that’s a final round of three, four or five races with five, six or eight drivers (it sounds as if NASCAR is trying to determine how many races there could be in a final round and the number of drivers), there would be a balance of having to perform when the pressure is on as well as not allowing one broken brake rotor to totally determine a driver’s championship run.
The 36-race points season screams old school. It screams grassroots. But it could also silence the screams of fans cheering for their favorite driver way earlier in the season than it does now with a playoff system.
The more screams, the better. Keep the playoffs.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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