With Joey Logano’s third championship has raised alarms with many fans over the playoffs. Should NASCAR change the format to award a higher performing champion? What championship format should NASCAR adopt?
Joey Logano’s securing his third NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix proved to be incredibly controversial. Some applauded him and Penske for their performance during the final run of the Playoffs. Others, in fact most, criticized NASCAR heavily for allowing a driver with a season average finish of 17.11 across the year to win a championship—the worst average finish ever for a NASCAR champion.
This has, of course, led to many questioning the Playoff format and asking for a change. While criticizing Logano and Penske is harsh, it is ridiculous that Kyle Larson, the driver with the most wins in 2024, didn’t make it to the final four. NASCAR does need to rethink the Playoffs. The question is, what could replace it?
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
A Regular Points System
No matter what your favorite motorsport is, you have to applaud Formula 1 for keeping things simple. The most points decide its champion scored across all 24 rounds of a season, including the six sprint races. Even then, point handouts are simple. The top ten all score, from 25 for the winner to one for P10. In the sprint, it’s the top eight that score, and from 2025 onwards, the fastest lap point will cease to exist.
DRIVER STANDINGS (after 21/24 rounds)
Max Verstappen surges ahead with just three races to go#F1 #BrazilGP pic.twitter.com/7PezUcF3om
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 3, 2024
This can lead to championships being wrapped up early, but that rewards the driver and team that has done the best job across a season. It’s the fairest and simplest way to decide a season’s outcome, and it is also the easiest thing NASCAR could do to sort out the problem. Plus, as 2021 showed, an F1 decider can go to the wire between two drivers on equal points. However, NASCAR seems intent on creating drama and entertainment as artificially as possible, so it might not choose the ‘fairest’ route.
A Revamp Of The Playoffs
Something that it could do is slightly tweak the playoff system—not in a radical way, but enough to make things a little better. For example, why not get to the final four but then have 3 to 4 rounds based on point scoring? Whoever is the best in that run of races is the champion. And it can add up to someone being more consistent than his three rivals during that final brace of races.
But are there other ways of making the Playoffs fairer? Whatever you do, there is always going to be a degree of randomness to the result, and even with this tweak, the best driver across the whole season may still miss out. On that basis, perhaps a regular points system is still the best solution.
Don’t Follow IndyCar’s Route:
One thing NASCAR could do is adopt IndyCar’s points system…the problem with that is that IndyCar’s points system is needlessly complicated. Everyone gets at least a point if they complete a lap, hence why drivers can pick up damage, go five laps down, get back out on track, and just drive around. There are points for most laps led, fastest lap, pole position, etc. It’s fair, as the champion is still the driver with the most points come the season finale. But it’s not relatively as easy to work out the outcome as it is in Formula 1 or even in MotoGP and Formula E.
Don’t Be Too Harsh On Logano And Penske:
One thing we shouldn’t be is harsh on Logano and Penske. They played to the same rules as everyone else, as did their rivals against them. They executed brilliantly during the Playoffs to be in a position to win, and Logano drove a fantastic race in Phoenix to beat teammate and outgoing champion Ryan Blaney to the title. Logano is right when he says the criticism leveled at him and his team is unfair. It’s a case of “hate the game, but don’t hate the player.” In the context of this insane format, Logano is a worthy champion.
But something has to change. Imagine if Larson, who utterly dominated in 2021, hadn’t won that year’s title. Kevin Harvick arguably was the best driver in 2020, winning nine races, and he didn’t deserve a fifth-place finish come the season’s end. If NASCAR wants to remain a serious racing series, it needs to ensure its championship doesn’t come down to who has a great final few rounds after looking somewhat ‘mid’ earlier in the season.
