NASCAR Playoffs: Pros and Cons

Pro – Rewards the drivers who perform best when it counts most

This pro goes back to the concept discussed in the previous two slides about how the unpredictability that the playoffs causes allows drivers other than the actual best drivers to win the championship.

As referenced in the previous two slides, only five of the 13 championships in the playoffs era have been won by the driver who accumulated the most points from the start to the end of a season. The eight times when this was not the case truly changed the history of the sport in many ways.

Here are some of the ways the history of the sport was changed as a result of the playoffs rewarding the drivers who performed best when it counted most and how they

Without the playoffs…

• Jeff Gordon would be a 7-time champion as opposed to the 4-time champion he is today
• Jimmie Johnson would be a 3-time champion as opposed to the a 7-time champion he is today
• Kevin Harvick would be a 3-time champion as opposed to the 1-time champion he is today
• Tony Stewart would be a 2-time champion as opposed to the 3-time champion he is today
• Carl Edwards would be a 2-time champion as opposed to not a champion at all
• Kurt Busch would not be a champion at all as opposed to the 1-time champion he is today
• Kyle Busch would not be a champion at all as opposed to the 1-time champion he is today

Looking at that list, it shows just how important the playoffs are, as they reward the drivers who perform best when it counts most and when the highest amount of pressure is on.

While some people may argue against this concept being a pro by using the cons of this article, the fact that the playoffs force drivers to go about things differently and more strategically to focus on winning the title and winning the title only is certainly a pro that the playoffs provide.