Amid the ongoing debate over Joey Logano’s 2024 NASCAR Cup win, Kevin Harvick has voiced his support for Logano and the current NASCAR format. He argued that the 20-year-old format won’t captivate today’s audience and the predictability in the playoffs would spell boredom for the fans.
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On his “Happy Hour” podcast segment, Harvick shared his thoughts: “I agree with Joey, on not going back to Winston Cup points standings. Those days are gone. There’s an entertainment value that has to come with the last 10 weeks and the things that we do… I think the big question is what is the weight of the regular season and where does that regular season champion fall?”
The former Cup Series driver further revisited his previous suggestion about enhancing the impact of winning the regular season championship, proposing a slight tweak. Originally advocating for advancing the regular season champion directly to the Championship 4, Harvick now suggested a compromise:
“We talked about putting them into championship 4, and I think… maybe that champion goes into the final 8, maybe not the final 4, and having to earn your way to the end… If we could make the regular season more meaningful that’s really the accomplishment I’d like to see over the first 26 weeks to have that weighted to what it is.”
After Phoenix, Joey Logano was left defending his Cup Series championship in the elimination-style playoff format. @KevinHarvick shares his thoughts.@KaitlynVincie | @MambaSmith34 | #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/4PvJVlqXnV
— HarvickHappyHour (@HarvickHappyPod) November 12, 2024
Harvick advocated increasing the value of the regular season, believing that a greater emphasis could enhance the overall competition. He appreciates the current playoff format for its element of surprise, noting, that the excitement comes from its unpredictability, like seeing Kyle Larson, despite six wins, miss the final 4.
The 2014 Cup Series Champion also pointed out the Phoenix race as a prime example, where none of the top four in points made it to the championship, which presented the thrilling side of NASCAR’s current playoff format.
Harvick is looking forward to better officiating next year
As NASCAR’s off-season begins, spanning nearly 100 days, Harvick, despite supporting the current playoff format, expressed his hopes for more effective officiating in the coming year.
Instances such as Logano’s second chance into contention following Alex Bowman’s disqualification in the final race of the Round of 12 and a contentious late penalty at Martinsville that sidelined Christopher Bell from the Championship 4, probably pushed him to comment on the decision-making of the officials. Harvick remarked,
“I think the officiating has to be better. I think it was awful in certain situations.”
He opined that there were moments this season that were subpar and the officials need to be more anticipatory and strategic, rather than merely reactive when errors occur… For instance, some of the late-race cautions were mishandled and that area specifically needs improvement.
While he commended Elton Sawyer for his willingness to own up to mistakes, Harvick pointed out the excess of errors that had to be acknowledged as the season unfolded. Contrastingly, NASCAR’s COO downplayed the urgency of the issue, commenting, “Is there any sport where officiating isn’t questioned?”
But it would be interesting to listen to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin’s take on the matter.
