Playoffs? Sure, Playoffs. NASCAR Please Hold Them

Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

As NASCAR’s playoff committee has given its enter and NASCAR considers the right way to change the format for the playoffs, there was debate about whether or not there must be playoffs in any respect.

With former Cup driver Mark Martin main the marketing campaign primarily based on his opinion and galvanized by the outcomes of polls he took on X, there was a push to only do away with the playoffs.

That appears a little bit excessive.

Do away with the one-race championship? Positive.

Joey Logano has three Cup championships up to now seven years.

Reward those that’ve had extra constant robust runs all year long somewhat than rewarding drivers for successful one race? Positive.

However to only scrap the entire idea of playoffs? That looks like a step backward as an alternative of only a step again into the best way NASCAR topped a champion.

NASCAR has had some type of playoffs for 22 years now.

The unique Chase was put in place the yr after Matt Kenseth clinched the championship within the next-to-last race of the season regardless of simply having one win.

That preliminary format of the highest 10 in regular-season factors having their factors reset primarily based on their factors standing after which racing it out over the ultimate 10 occasions was fairly easy. And no driver clinched the title earlier than the ultimate race.

There have been many variations since then. A few of that’s due to Jimmie Johnson for successful 5 consecutive titles from 2006-10. After which, starting in 2014, NASCAR went to a one-race championship with 4 drivers eligible.

Kevin Harvick gained that 2014 title in an elimination format that appeared to extend the depth. But when Ryan Newman, who didn’t have a win all season and was working second to Harvick, in some way gained that title, the format in all probability wouldn’t have lasted 12 years.

NASCAR followers level to different racing sequence and say a full season must be performed.

“Have a look at INDYCAR,” they’ll say. And part of their argument will probably be that scores didn’t decline after Alex Palou gained the title two races earlier than the end. That is proof that followers will nonetheless watch.

Jimmie Johnson captured 5 straight championships from 2006-10.

However as somebody who was there at Portland when Palou clinched, it felt so anticlimactic since his successful the title was a foregone conclusion. Granted, it was the results of a historic season that we’ll seemingly not see once more. Additionally, with as brief a season as INDYCAR has, the playoffs don’t make sense.

These in favor of the 36-race factors system will argue {that a} season-long championship system will return the main target to the race itself. The factors will nonetheless get talked about, as will the impression of the race on the factors.

True.

However with playoffs, extra drivers get talked about in relation to the second half of the season and the potential of them successful the championship. Extra groups are within the dialog and their sponsors get a little bit extra TV air time.

They’ve one thing to race for past the purse and the trophy on that given day.

Shane van Gisbergen stated he cherished watching the NASCAR playoffs as a fan whereas racing Supercars in Australia. He obtained his first expertise as a Cup competitor this yr and noticed his championship hopes vanish in three races (he did compete within the Xfinity playoffs final yr).

It didn’t appear to alter his thoughts so far as the thrill stage for the followers.

The very best factor in regards to the present system is that it encourages drivers to win and never accept a superb factors day. Some will say that drivers roughing one another up for a win or to advance within the playoffs isn’t racing. That may be the best way it appears from the competitors lens, however from the leisure lens, having determined drivers making an attempt to determine whether or not they do determined issues places followers on the sting of their seats.

Eliminations and comparatively brief playoff rounds create that ambiance.

Whether or not that’s a ultimate spherical of three, 4 or 5 races with 5, six or eight drivers (apparently NASCAR is making an attempt to find out what number of races there might be in a ultimate spherical and the variety of drivers), there could be a stability of getting to carry out when the stress is on in addition to not permitting one damaged brake rotor to completely decide a driver’s championship run.

The 36-race factors season screams old-fashioned. It screams grassroots. But it surely might additionally silence the screams of followers cheering for his or her favourite driver method earlier within the season than it does now with a playoff system.

The extra screams, the higher. Hold the playoffs.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent a long time overlaying motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seashore) Information-Journal. Comply with him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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