NASCAR: The modern-day playoff format is here to stay

The modern-day playoff format has come under a lot of criticism since it was introduced in the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series season. But it is here to stay.

The NASCAR playoffs were introduced in the 2004 season, and they have been used ever since. While many fans approve of the playoffs, other fans, mostly old school fans, would like to revert to the old days, which they claim ended when Matt Kenseth won the 2003 Winston Cup Series championship.

However, the modern-day playoff format was only introduced four seasons ago. Beginning in the 2014 season, 16 drivers qualify for the playoffs. Regular season wins automatically lock drivers into the playoffs, which consist of four rounds and 10 races. The first three rounds consist of three races and the final round consists of the championship race.

From round to round, four of the original 16 playoff drivers are eliminated, leaving four drivers to compete to win the championship in the championship race. Point totals are reset after each round for the drivers who are not eliminated.

From the 2014 season through the 2016 season, drivers were awarded additional points to start each round based on how many wins they had earned up to that point in the season. However, the four drivers who advanced to the championship race with a chance to win the title had their point totals reset to the same amount so that the highest finishing driver in this race would be crowned champion.

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In the 2017 and 2018 seasons, this was still the case, but in addition to points being awarded to playoff drivers to start each round based on their win totals, points were awarded to them to start each round based on stage wins, as stage racing was introduced ahead of the 2017 season, and where they finished in the regular season standings (if they finished in the top 10).

The four drivers who advanced to the championship race with a chance to win the title still had their point totals reset to the same amount so that the highest finishing driver in this race would be crowned champion.

Similar playoff formats were introduced to the Xfinity Series and Truck Series ahead of the 2016 season.

As a result of the fact that there are several crazy scenarios by which the driver who the fans deem as “the best driver” or “the most deserving driver”, including one that involves a driver winning zero races but winning the championship, a driver winning 35 races but failed to win the championship and a driver winning 10 races and recording an average finish of 1.72 and failing to make the playoffs, many people have been critical of the current playoff format.

These complaints are particularly prominent once a new champion is crowned, and a new champion was just crowned, as Team Penske’s Joey Logano clinched his first career Cup Series championship by winning Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

However, this format is here to stay, and rightfully so. While many fans see it as “gimmicky”, it is a way to place value on performing at a high level late in the season while keeping the battle to make it to the latter rounds of the playoffs, including the regular season and the early rounds of the playoffs, meaningful and intense.

Every position counts, not just at the end of the race but at the end of each stage, and every playoff point counts considering the fact that drivers carry them through the playoffs with them. Above all, wins count, and wins in the playoffs naturally mean more than wins in the regular season because of the fact that they automatically qualify drivers for the next round.

Is the season’s best driver from start to finish guaranteed to win the championship? No, but that’s how it should be. That’s how it is in any sport, whether you’re talking about the NFL, MLB, NBA or NHL, and in these sports, playoff wins also matter more than regular season wins.

In this current playoff format, the season’s top drivers still have an advantage in the playoffs as a result of their respective playoff point totals, but they can still be beaten. They still have the best chance to win the title, as they should, but the battle to see whether or not they will come through in the clutch to do so is made to come down to the wire under this format so that the championship race is actually worth watching.

If you’re expecting NASCAR to revert to the old playoff format or the pre-playoff points-only format in the near future, you’d be better off watching race replays from before the 2014 season or before the 2003 season. This playoff format, or, at the very least, something along the lines of this playoff format, is here to stay.

What are your thoughts on NASCAR‘s current playoff format? Do you prefer this format, the pre-2014 format or no playoffs at all? Do you have any new format suggestions in mind that would make the current format better without completely overhauling it?