Stage racing, which is now in its 10th NASCAR season, has come under fire in recent weeks after comments made by two-time and reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson about how stage points are effectively "participation awards" that no other series uses.
He particularly noted the fact that stage points can quite literally determine who wins the championship, when it's all said and done, due to their oversized impact on the standings.
A driver can technically not lead a race in total points despite winning, even after NASCAR boosted the value of wins when they did away with the "win and in" postseason format and brought back to the Chase. On the flip side, a driver can finish as low as 22nd and still finish the race second in points among all drivers.
"Oversized" is an understatement, and quite frankly, it's a shame that it took Larson speaking up about it for anybody else to take serious notice.
But what if stage racing didn't exist in the playoffs?
Keep in mind, during the Championship 4 era, stage points did not count for the four championship contenders in the Championship 4. It was all about race result.
Imagine that; it's almost like NASCAR knows deep down than stage racing is nothing more than a gimmick that simply managed to avoid the same level of scrutiny faced by the playoffs during the 12 years of the knockout era. They didn't truly want stage points to determine the champion either.
Since the modern "Championship 4" is basically the entire 10-race Chase, with no knockout rounds (other than the inevitable and natural mathematical eliminations) before the season finale, we calculated what the point standings would look like if stage points were abolished for the postseason, even if kept in place for the regular season.
NASCAR Cup Series standings without playoff stages
Rank | Driver | Points | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2291 | 0 |
2 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2264 | -27 |
3 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2244 | -47 |
4 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2237 | -54 |
5 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford | 2225 | -66 |
6 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota | 2219 | -72 |
7 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford | 2212 | -79 |
8 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2189 | -102 |
9 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford | 2170 | -121 |
10 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2167 | -124 |
11 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet | 2161 | -130 |
12 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota | 2150 | -141 |
13 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford | 2146 | -145 |
14 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet | 2142 | -149 |
15 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2139 | -152 |
16 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford | 2132 | -159 |
Notably, there would be just 56 points on offer in each race, rather than 76, so there would actually be more drivers facing mathematical elimination this coming weekend at Phoenix Raceway than there already are.
But Larson has earned a series-best four stage wins in the playoffs thus far, and his 76 stage points rank second in the series, trailing only Christopher Bell's 79, during that stretch.
Seeing as how stage racing might very well end up being one of the reasons he wins the championship, should he manage to hang on to become the first back-to-back champion since Jimmie Johnson won five in a row from 2006 to 2010, it's hard to ignore the fact that he's calling it out.
With stage racing, his lead over Denny Hamlin is 49 with four races remaining on the schedule. It'd be barely half of that if stage racing weren't in existence.
While it's hard to imagine stage racing disappearing completely after 10 years, perhaps NASCAR should consider making modifications when it comes to future postseasons, just like they did by rendering stage results meaningless for the Championship 4 drivers under the previous format.
The seventh of 10 races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoff schedule is the Freeway Insurance 500, which is set to be shown live on USA Network from Phoenix Raceway starting at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, October 18.
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