NASCAR’s playoff system has been a subject of controversy since it was first introduced as “The Chase for the Cup” in 2004. As it’s evolved into its current form, it’s only grown all the more polarizing among fans and even drivers and it naturally becomes a hot topic every year when fall rolls around.
Many view the playoffs as the metaphorical pipe leak that is polluting how NASCAR’s championship is won. However, in reality they are the Flex Seal tape covering the leak as depicted in the popular meme template — while the actual leak is rooted in a much bigger problem.
Between 1975-2003, NASCAR used a fairly simplistic points system designed by Bob Latford that weighed each race equally. The problem with this system, though, was that it did not value winning enough, and ultimately only rewarded risk aversion and the absence of bad luck.
Championship outcomes such as those in 1985, 1996 and especially 2003 were decided simply by whoever had the fewest poor finishes, rather than the most wins or dominant performances.
It was an archaic system that had outlived its original purpose, which was largely to incentivize drivers to run every race in an era when many of them did not. So the Chase was implemented in 2004 as a solution, in which drivers could no longer win a championship by hiding from adversity to compile invisible eighth-place finishes.
Ten years later, the modern playoff system was born, with three elimination rounds leading to a winner-take-all finale, all while any win throughout the season locks you in.
On principle, it’s a positive development for the sport. In fact, the champions throughout the 20 years of the Playoff Era have scored more wins on average than the champions of the 20 previous years did, which makes sense given the importance the playoffs place on wins.
With the 2017 introduction of stage points offering additional bonuses for performance throughout races, it is much harder for a driver to contend for a title by using the “slow and steady” approach.
However, it also can’t be denied that the playoffs are a more artificial format, and one that in certain cases only punishes dominance.
Take 2018, when Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. distanced themselves as the “Big 3” over the season and yet Joey Logano won the title by beating them when the playing field was evened for the final showdown. Some seasons just don’t have four drivers whose performance is worthy of a championship, and that’s perfectly okay.
Then there’s been championships that have devolved into outright circus shows, such as the 2023 Truck Series title race or the 2016 Cup Series finale. Carl Edwards and Logano infamously wrecked on a late restart in the latter event, allowing Jimmie Johnson to squeak through for his historic seventh title despite being the slowest of the four title-eligible drivers in that race.
Having a championship decided by one single race is prone to far too much randomness, and defeats the playoffs’ purpose of offering mulligans for bad luck.
There was a much simpler fix here: just change the weekly points system. And, wouldn’t you just know it, NASCAR did that too — and made it even worse!
In 2011, the Latford system was scrapped in favor of an even more simplistic one where each position is worth one more point than the one below it, with the exception being wins as they are worth three bonus points. The difference between second and third place is treated as the same difference as that between 32nd and 33rd, and therefore a bad finish hurts a driver exponentially more than a good finish helps.
NASCAR must not only reverse course, but go much further back in its previous direction than the Latford system was. Make wins worth more — a lot more. Design a format in which a bad finish can be overcome and then some by a great one the following week, while still valuing each race equally and allowing championship battles to play out naturally over the course of the full season. It’s not that hard.
This is what IndyCar does. This is what Formula One does. This is what virtually every racing series in the world does, except for NASCAR, where average finish is viewed as the ultimate measurement of driver performance rather than winning and dominating. It was a flawed concept in 2003, and it’s an even more flawed one now when races are more than ever decided by dumb luck on late restarts.
So, unfortunately, as long as that remains the case, the playoffs are equivalent to a Band-Aid hanging on for dear life as it holds back the avalanche of issues created by a structurally broken points system.
They’re not the biggest problem with NASCAR, but they are a failed solution.
