NASCAR: Does the regular season even matter?

The 2021 NASCAR regular season is coming to a close, with the finale set to take place at Daytona International Speedway this weekend.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season is just one race away from the start of the four-round, 10-race playoffs, and the 16-driver playoff field has not yet been completely determined.

Should a driver from outside the playoff picture win this Saturday night’s regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway, he would be in the playoffs, provided he ranks inside the top 30 in the point standings.

If that does not happen, the final playoff spot will come down to a points battle between Richard Childress Racing teammates Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon. A win by either one of those two drivers would cement that spot as well.

All but one of the 14 race winners through the first 25 races of the season are locked into the postseason, as the other winner is a full-time Xfinity Series driver, and two drivers are locked in on points. The final playoff driver is set to be determined by Saturday night’s 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked oval in Daytona Beach, Florida.

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The playoffs have been around in some form since the 2004 season, and since then, only seven championships have been won by the driver who actually scored the most points throughout the entire 36-race season.

While regular season success naturally played a role in those titles, it was the playoff success had by the champions that netted them their championships. Even when the champions did end up being the drivers who scored the most points throughout the entire season, playoff success played a key role in that — especially since the current format was introduced in 2014.

So how much does the regular season really matter?

In some ways, it matters because it doesn’t.

The whole purpose of the regular season is to prepare for the playoffs by racking up playoff points.

Each stage win a driver earns nets them one playoff point. Each race win nets them five playoff points.

Regular points, not playoff points, are paid not only for race finish but for stage finish, with points going to each of the top 10 finishers in each stage, from 10 points down to 1.

This matters because the top 10 finishers in the regular season point standings are awarded additional playoff points in the following manner:

1. 15
2. 10
3. 8
4. 7
5. 6
6. 5
7. 4
8. 3
9. 2
10. 1

Playoff points are significant because playoff drivers carry them with them through the round of 8. Round of 16 drivers all start the three-race round of 16 with 2,000 points, plus their playoff point total. Round of 12 drivers all start the three-race round of 12 with 3,000 points, plus their playoff point total (including however many playoff points they rack up in the round of 16)

Round of 8 drivers all start the three-race round of 8 with 4,000 points, plus their playoff point total (including however many playoff points they rack up in the round of 16 and the round of 12).

It’s really all about playoff points on the path to the Championship 4. Of course, once the Championship 4 rolls around, everything else goes out the window; the highest finisher of the remaining four drivers wins the title.

Bottom line, the significance of the regular season itself is small in that it doesn’t play a huge role in determining the champion, but it is still significant for the purpose of the playoffs and getting through the playoffs, as playoff points can certainly add up quickly — and they can matter when it comes to cut line at the end of each of the first three rounds of the postseason.

So in essence, the regular season is significant only because the drivers know that the playoffs are what really matter.

Tune in to NBC at 7:00 p.m. ET this evening for the live broadcast of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale, the Coke Zero Sugar 400, from Daytona International Speedway. Be sure to start your free trial of FuboTV today if you have not already done so!