NASCAR Cup Series: Nobody deserves to be in the playoffs

The driver who entered Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway sitting in a distant 34th and last place in the point standings (among full-time drivers) found victory lane and punched his ticket to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time in his career.

Harrison Burton has struggled in his two-plus seasons with Wood Brothers Racing behind the wheel of the No. 21 Ford to open his career. He finished in 27th place in the point standings in 2022 before dropping to 31st in 2023, and his first 97 starts featured just five top 10 finishes.

Burton recently dropped to last place in the point standings, primarily thanks to Zane Smith's runner-up finish at Nashville Superspeedway in late June. The Spire Motorsports driver had been in last before his recent summer surge, while Burton's only top 10 finish of the year was a 10th place effort at Talladega Superspeedway in April.

Now Burton is a NASCAR Cup Series race winner and is headed to the playoffs.

Though the win was among the more popular wins the series has seen in quite some time, when you factor in the location, Leigh Diffey's epic call of the finish, the fact that Harrison's father Jeff was in the NBC Sports broadcast booth, and the fact that it was the 100th win for the Wood Brothers after they had waited more than seven years following win number 99, that ugly sentiment about the modern playoff format managed to creep up.

A contingent of fans aren't convinced that Burton "deserves" his playoff spot, simply because of how poorly his season had gone before his Daytona win.

Please, just save yourself the time and the embarrassment.

The modern 16-driver playoff format values wins over points. It takes into account wins first, and then it takes into account points. It's pretty basic.

If there are 10 winners, they get in, along with the top six winless drivers in points. If there are 16 winners, nobody gets in on points.

If there are 17 winners, it's the lowest ranking single-race winner on points who misses the postseason. If there are 18, it's the lowest two. If 26 drivers win one regular season race each, the top 16 on points get in, and the bottom 10 don't. You get the picture.

As a result, Burton's, for lack of a word, miserable season from mid-February to mid-August no longer matters in regard to his playoff eligibility.

In fact, thanks to another solid run from Smith on Saturday night, Burton is actually still last in the point standings. He trails Smith by 10 points, and he has only averaged 12.24 points per race, so with just one race left on the regular season schedule, he may very well finish the regular season in last and still get into the playoffs.

I get the fact that, because the nature of the format, season-long success is more important in sports such as football or baseball than it is NASCAR.

But implying that a race winner, who did what he needed to do to qualify for the playoffs, didn't earn his playoff spot is the equivalent of saying that a Wild Card team shouldn't be able to win the Super Bowl or the World Series because they didn't win their division.

It's the same sentiment. In both cases, if you achieve it one way, you don't absolutely need the other way to advance.

The reality is that it doesn't matter how you earn it, as long as you earn it.

Does that mean the playoff format is perfect? Of course not. Like most fans, I personally think there could be changes.

Should it value points over wins instead?

Should the "win and in" format only be applicable for drivers in the top 20 or top 25 in the standings (like it was for the top 30 before last year's rule change)?

Should there be a fixed point total a driver needs to hit before the end of the regular season (let's say 500 or so) in order for a win to lock a driver in?

There are arguments for and against a playoff format restructure, just as there have been since the day the current format was introduced a decade ago. By no means should each and every NASCAR fan agree 100% than the format is perfect as it is.

But there is absolutely no argument against the idea that the current rules apply to all drivers, the rules are known by all the drivers, and the format treats all drivers equally.

As long as wins are the most important element of determining the 16-driver playoff field, any argument that a non-winner "deserves" to be in over a winner is irrelevant.

You simply cannot make the case that a driver who achieved what he needed to achieve did not earn his spot, and that a driver who didn't achieve what he needed to achieve and therefore did not earn his spot "deserves" it, just because of whatever preconceived notion you may have about who should be in and who should be out.

This isn't an NCAA football or basketball selection show. But even those sports have upsets and a way to achieve – to earn – automatic bids. NC State, for instance, wouldn't have even gotten into the NCAA tournament without their upset-filled ACC tournament championship run, and they ended up in the Final Four.

The reality is that nobody truly "deserves" to be in the playoffs. Playoff berths are earned, not given, and they are earned in one of two ways: wins or points.

Harrison Burton went out and earned his playoff berth by winning a race, something only 12 other full-time drivers had done since February.

Sure, some other drivers may get in on points, and it's no secret that Burton would not have been one of them. But no matter how many points they score, they file in behind the winners if they can't find victory lane, and that doesn't ensure them a spot in the postseason.

Based on how things stand with one race remaining in this year's regular season, there is a chance that a driver who finishes inside the top 10 in the point standings could miss the playoffs. Should Burton be in, down in 34th place, over that driver?

The answer is unequivocally yes. He earned his way in with a win, and that other driver didn't. The score is effectively 1-0, and that's what matters. That's the way the format is, and that's really all there is to it.

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season is scheduled to come to an end this Sunday, September 1 with the Cook Out Southern 500, which is set to be broadcast live on USA Network from Darlington Raceway starting at 6:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss any of the action from the "Lady in Black"!