Criticisms of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff format are at an all-time high. Ryan Blaney won Sunday’s race in Martinsville to join Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron in the Championship 4.
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The trouble is that these drivers haven’t been the best on the field this season. The questions about their legitimacy to compete for the title heighten when looking at their subpar playoff stats.
Byron is the only one of the four to have an average finish rate below 15.00 in the nine races of the postseason. He has the second-highest average in the entire field at 9.33.
Only Christopher Bell has performed better than him (7.33) and he isn’t a part of the Championship 4. Blaney has the eighth-best average finish on the field at 15.00. He would not have made the cut if it weren’t for the Martinsville race.
His teammate Logano falls below him with an average of 15.33. The No. 22 driver is not the favorite of many currently. He made the Round of 8 by virtue of Alex Bowman’s disqualification in the Charlotte Roval and is now set to compete for his third title. It is sheer luck that he is in the spot where he is. 23XI Racing’s Reddick is the worst of the lot with an average of 19.89.
He won at Homestead-Miami and NASCAR granted him a spot in the finale. When ranked, his performance falls at a lowly 18th. These numbers make it more than clear that there are plenty of other drivers who deserve these four spots ahead of them. Kyle Larson, for instance, won six races this season and leads the field in nearly every other performance category.
He failed to win a race in the Round of 8 and he was thrown out. Bell’s case is of the same nature. The No. 20 driver was spectacular throughout the playoffs. He even finished runner-up in Las Vegas and Charlotte.
Unfortunately, the promotion’s format decided that such great performances aren’t proof enough that a driver is capable of being given the chance to fight for the crown.
It would rather see Reddick, who did not finish two of the three Round of 8 races, in the finale. The format’s philosophy is that a driver’s entire season, in which he has been spectacular, can/should be ruined by his performance on a single day.
Hamlin, with an average finish of 11.00 in the playoffs, and Elliott, with an average of 12.44, aren’t treated much differently than Bell and Larson.
This is precisely why many fans and drivers have been calling for NASCAR to implement changes to its format. The purpose of the finale is to be able to decide who is the best driver in a particular season. The best contenders not being in the Championship 4, proves the inefficiency of the current system beyond doubt.
