After 22 years, specifically 12 in the knockout era, of NASCAR fans complaining about the playoffs, NASCAR is reportedly seriously considering doing away with the modern format, not just by tweaking it, but by getting rid of it entirely and going back to a full-season points system.
In and of itself, it's not a bad idea. Several other racing series use full-season points format, and it works. NASCAR itself used to do the same thing, and after the 2023 and 2024 champions came from 13th and 15th, respectively, in the regular season point standings, fans have been louder than ever that NASCAR is rewarding the wrong things when it comes to crowning a champion.
Everyone plays by the same rules, so there is zero argument that the format isn't "fair". That doesn't make it perfect, and while there is no explicit rule that says "motorsports cannot utilize playoffs to crown a champion", there is still a contingent of fans who have a legitimate argument that NASCAR is manufacturing entertainment by utilizing a stick-and-ball sport playoff format and even going a step further by guaranteeing a Game 7/Super Bowl type moment just to cook up drama.
Consider the following scenarios. A driver can win 35 of 36 races and not win the championship, a driver can finish second in all 26 regular season races and win all 10 playoff races and only finish 17th in points, and a driver who finishes last in points can be crowned champion.
None of them, of course, will ever happen. But the fact that they are even remotely possible makes it clear that there are definitely some fundamental flaws when it comes to the current playoff system.
But getting ride of the playoffs entirely is a mistake that NASCAR will regret almost immediately.
First and foremost, NASCAR fans are going to find reasons to complain regardless. We see this time and time again with literally anything the sport does, even if it's not justified. The whole reason the playoffs were created in 2004 to begin with was because NASCAR supposedly wasn't rewarding the right things when it came to crowning a champion. Ryan Newman's 2003 season is the most obvious example.
Second is the obvious, yet completely overlooked, fact that NASCAR's current points format is flawed. Right now, simply staying out of trouble is valued more than actually winning a race, simply because the prize for winning is less valuable than the penalty is for a DNF. NASCAR awards 40 points to the winner, 35 to the runner-up, and one less point per position thereafter.
Two P15 finishes are worth more than a win and a DNF. Sure, the DNF should hurt, but not to the extent where riding around mid-pack is worth more over both the short term and long term than actually running up front and contending (even without winning).
Other series, such as IndyCar and Formula 1, don't have this problem, and while their championships don't always come down to the season finale, NASCAR fans seem to be okay with this in their consistent advocacy for the return of a full-season points format.
Of course, it a title does end up being locked up before race number 36, that tune could (and probably would) change. But I digress.
Then there's the element of stage points. I cannot stress this enough: a full-season points format in the stage racing era, which started in 2017, three years after the modern playoff format had already been introduced, runs the risk of producing what NASCAR fans would undoubtedly call an "illegitimate champion" more often than not.
Running in the top 10 at some random predetermined lap(s) in the middle of the race should not be able to make or break one's championship. NASCAR's points format is flawed as it is, but get this: a race winner can technically finish a race 11th in points scored, while the 16th place finisher leads all drivers.
It doesn't make any sense.
Take off the rose-colored glasses and admit that this is not the system NASCAR needs to be using to crown a champion. We've already spoken at length about how this year's top point-scorers during the regular season would have scored more points than they actually did had they simply hung out in the 10th to 12th range all race.
Consistency matters, but it should not trump everything. Fans are upset that the "win and in" nature of the current format renders consistency useless, and it's a fair point.
But winning still needs to matter too, and it needs to matter a heck of a lot more than it would under the format that NASCAR fans incorrectly seem to think is going to bring everything back to the "golden era" of stock car racing.
Give NASCAR credit for wanting to please the fans and actually being open to making changes. But axing the playoff format entirely would be the laziest possible way to do it.
Make regular season points finish matter more in playoff seeding than wins. Eliminate "win and in" or add a points clause to it. Eliminate the "win and advance" nature of the playoffs. Make the championship round more than one race. Heck, go back to the pre-2014 playoff era with a single 10-race postseason schedule featuring no knockouts/cutoff races.
But eliminating the playoffs entirely is an atrocious option when you consider the current points system and the fact that stage racing exists, and whether fans want to admit it or not, it would not take long for everyone to realize that this is not a long-term solution.