NASCAR introduced the playoffs in the Cup Series back in 2004 and in the Xfinity and Truck Series last season. Some fans like them, while some don’t. What are some of the pros and cons of the playoffs?
The NASCAR playoffs were introduced as “The Chase for the Championship” back in the 2004 season and have been used even since in the Cup Series. Last season, the Xfinity and Truck series adopted versions of these playoffs to use in their series as well. They are now known simply as the “Playoffs”.
The current playoff format is a four-round format that includes a total of 10 races. A total of 16 drivers qualify for the first round. All drivers who have won at least one race in the regular season, which is composed of the first 26 races of the season, qualify for the first round. The rest of the spots are filled by the winless drivers who have accumulated the most points over the course of the regular season.
The first three rounds are composed of three races each, with the final round being the championship race. Four of the 16 playoff drivers get eliminated after each of the first three rounds, making the championship race an all-out sprint between the final four drivers. A win in any of the three races in any of the first three rounds automatically sends the race winner to the next round.
The point totals get reset at the end of each round for all drivers who advance. However, drivers’ playoff points, which are earned throughout the season by winning both races and stages, are added to the reset total in each of the first three rounds. The final four drivers in the championship race all start with the same amount of points.
Here are a few of the pros and cons of the NASCAR playoffs. We’ll start off with a pro.
Pro – Unpredictability
A sport where things are predictable is not a sport that typically holds the interest of fans for long periods of time. For instance, the NBA Finals has been the same matchup for three years in a row now and there are maybe two or three teams with drivers that have any chance whatsoever at winning a Formula One race each week. All in all, those sports have generally been predictable.
In NASCAR, the playoffs make things unpredictable. In fact, predictability is exactly what the playoffs help prevent. With the points resetting each round, this allows any of the drivers who have at least solidified themselves as championship contenders to get hot and potentially win the championship because of it.
It certainly makes things more interesting. Take this season for instance. Martin Truex Jr. dominated in about every category in the books in the regular season, including overall standings, stage points and playoff points. Without the playoffs, it would take a miracle for someone other than Truex Jr. to end up as the 2017 Cup Series champion. With the playoffs, several other drivers have a legitimate chance to become just that.
In fact, in the 13 seasons that the playoffs have taken place, just five times has the champion been the driver who actually ended up accumulating the most points through every race, meaning there were eight times when the champion was not the dominant driver. This shows just how unpredictable things have been.
Could Truex Jr. still end up winning the championship this season? Absolutely, and he’s definitely still the favorite to do so. But are there plenty of other driver who have a chance to do so as well thanks to the playoffs? Without a doubt, and that is how the playoffs throw away the sport’s predictability and make things really interesting down the stretch.
Con – The best driver doesn’t always win the championship
The one plus to predictability is that you can be fairly certain that the best driver or team will end up as the winner in whatever sport you are talking about, and rightfully so; the champion of a sport should typically be the best team or driver in that sport. However, because the NASCAR playoffs make things unpredictable, the perceived best or rightful champion doesn’t always end up as the champion.
While unpredictability is listed as a pro in this article, this con is the one downside of that unpredictability. As referenced in the slide about unpredictability being a pro that the playoffs provide, the downside is that the champion doesn’t always end up being the best driver. After all, in eight of the 13 seasons during which the playoffs have been used in the Cup Series, someone other than the driver who accumulated the most points from the season’s beginning to its end won the championship.
Plus, if a driver is truly dominant throughout the whole season but has a bad race or two in the playoffs, should they really be eliminated because of it while drivers who haven’t had the greatest of seasons but get a decent result or two in the playoffs move on to the next round?
Is it really appropriate to give all of the playoff drivers a near-equal chance at winning the championship when the playoffs start after one driver has dominated the entire regular season, which takes up most of the sport’s schedule?
Sure, that’s how basketball, baseball, football and hockey work. But NASCAR racing is nothing like any of those sports, and it should never be compared to those sports whether you enjoy those sports or you don’t.
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.
Con – Removes a lot of the regular season’s meaning
Kyle Busch won the championship in 2015 solely because of the playoffs. He drove in just 15 of the 26 regular season races and would not have qualified for the playoffs on points alone. However, because he won a race (he actually won four races) in the regular season, he locked up his spot in the playoffs.
And he went on to win the championship after driving in just 25 of the 2015 season’s 36 races.
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Meanwhile, all of the 15 other playoff drivers drove in far more races throughout the season than Busch did. In fact, 13 of the other 15 playoff drivers drove in every single one of the season’s 36 races. The only two drivers who did not do so were Kurt Busch, who drove in 33 races, as he missed three races in the regular season, and Matt Kenseth, who drove in 34 races, as he missed two races in the playoffs.
With the playoffs, the meaning of the regular season is diminished and raises the question as to why the regular season is even needed or, at the very least, why it is so much longer than the playoffs when almost everything from the regular season goes out the window when the playoffs begin.
Again, that’s how basketball, baseball, football and hockey work. But NASCAR racing is nothing like any of those sports, and I’m pretty sure no one wants it to be compared to those sports, and that’s whether you enjoy those sports or not.
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The playoffs have been, are and will continue to be debated. There is no doubt that there are both pros and cons to playoffs.