For three decades until 2014, NASCAR had been crowning its Cup Series champion based on a points system that favored consistency over a race win. The playoff format is different today, with the drivers getting booted from the rumble over the first three rounds and the remaining four drivers battling it out in the Championship 4. For Stewart-Haas Racing driver Chase Briscoe, this playoff format doesn’t appeal too much.
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“I would change the finale,” he said. “I wouldn’t have it one race. Instead of three rounds of three races and one round of one race, I would do four rounds of all three races. That’s the fairest way to do it. It still adds a ton of drama.”
While the current playoff format adds a ton of action for the viewers, some might argue that it makes the playoffs unfair for the drivers who have been consistent year long but in just one decisive race from the playoff point of view, perhaps they had crashed out or something and failed to make it. This year, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won just one race and yet made it to the first round of the playoffs amid his otherwise lackluster season.
Indeed, the current format makes things exciting from a fan’s perspective, but from a competitor’s standpoint, not so much. “I just know the Xfinity year (2020) when we won those (nine) races, I would have loved to have more than just one race to decide if I was a champion because we finished literally fourth that year,” Briscoe explained.
What do others have to say about the current playoff format?
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. admitted that he liked the current playoff structure. “They’re fun. The rounds of knocking people out—I think it’s exciting,” he said. “You’ve got to be on your ‘A’ game every time you hit the track to get to the final four. We didn’t do our job in the first round this year and got kicked out. It’s good for the fans.”
Besides the #47 driver, Michael McDowell and HMS ace Kyle Larson feel like the current playoff format is the best as far as competition and entertainment are concerned. The Front Row Motorsports driver said, “From an entertainment and fan perspective, the current format is way better. In years past, you’d have four or five races to go and you already knew who was going to win the championship. That’s not great for fans and TV and partners and all that.”
Larson, too, fully endorses the current playoff structure. He felt like whatever NASCAR does, there would be a group of people who would always criticize. NASCAR can’t make everyone happy now, can they?
