It is hard to believe that NASCAR’s postseason championship format has gone through five different versions in 15 seasons. The latest revision involved last year’s introduction of playoff points that drivers can earn throughout the season and carry with them through the different rounds of the postseason. Playoff points were a positive change, but the overall elimination-style framework has been highly problematic for NASCAR ever since its introduction in 2014.
NASCAR will, in all likelihood, spend the next year or two extolling the virtues of the current championship system, painting it as the best if its kind in motorsports, only to turn around and revise it once more. Remember, no single version of the playoffs has lasted more than four years.
So, when the sanctioning body does decide that it is time to make a change, it is imperative that it cuts down the number of drivers that qualify for the playoffs. Letting 16 teams compete in the postseason was always too generous, but if NASCAR is going to move forward with the charter system and a “full” field of 36 cars, the playoffs will inevitably include too many drivers who have not proven their worth as championship contenders within one season.
The lenient requirements for making the postseason were bad enough when NASCAR had 43-car fields. The rules allowed, as they still do, for any driver inside the top 30 in points with a win to get precedence for playoff seeding. Since NASCAR’s Cup Series settled on a 36 race schedule in 2001, there has never been a case where 16 different drivers won during the first 26 races. Some of those years in the early 2000s did eventually produce more than 16 winners, but it took all season to get there.
These days in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, one win is almost a guarantee that a driver will be in the playoffs. As a result, the 2014 postseason included drivers like Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger. Both had won a race during the regular season, but after 26 races, they were outside the top 20 in overall points. Almirola’s Daytona victory was one of only two top fives he earned all season. And while Allmendinger prevailed in a hard-fought battle at Watkins Glen, that win broke a string of 11 races in which he finished no better than 18th. Both drivers had well-deserved wins in 2014, but the Nos. 43 and 47 teams were clearly not prepared to race with NASCAR’s best in a championship battle, and both got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
The 2015 Chase presented its own series of problems. Kyle Busch won the title and performed quite well in the races he ran. The trouble was that he missed 11 races at the beginning of the season due to an injury sustained in an XFINITY Series race at Daytona. NASCAR was quick to give Busch a medical waiver and affirm his playoff eligibility, as long as he could win and reach the top 30 in points, which he did rather easily.
If NASCAR had not been so quick to take responsibility for Busch’s injuries or set the bar so low for everyone’s playoff eligibility, he would not have won the title. To be fair, Busch stepped up and performed at a very high level during the postseason when it mattered most and earned his championship once he was physically able to race. However, NASCAR’s apathetic attitude toward Busch missing almost half of the regular season still does not sit well with some fans, nor should it.
At the other end of the playoff grid that year were drivers like Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer. They both failed to win and had only two top fives apiece. Bowyer at least had 12 top 10s to Menard’s five, but it was pretty clear that neither of them was championship caliber. The only reason they were in the playoffs was to fill NASCAR’s quota of 16 drivers.
Following the reduction of MENCS field sizes, the problem of too many drivers in the postseason has been worse in the last few years. The playoffs still get drivers who either enter because of a single victory without doing much of anything else all year (Chris Buescher in 2016, Kasey Kahne and Austin Dillon in 2017) or drivers who missed a significant chunk of the regular season (Tony Stewart in 2016). Yet thanks to the charter system, MENCS fields have gotten smaller, meaning that there are less full-time teams and that making the postseason is even easier.
When NASCAR redefined a full field as the 36 chartered teams, the sanctioning body probably assumed that all chartered teams would have a full-time driver in order to be playoff-eligible. That has not been the case. In 2016, there were a total of 30 drivers who competed in all 36 races. That number does not include drivers like Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt DiBenedetto and Michael Annett who each competed for chartered teams but missed at least one race due to injury.
Regan Smith also missed a single race that year while on baby watch. Go FAS Racing’s No. 32 and Leavine Family Racing’s No. 95, on the other hand, went into the season with charters but planning to use multiple drivers.
In 2017, the number of drivers with 36 starts bumped up to 32, not including Almirola who missed races with a chartered team due to injury. Yet the number of chartered teams who used split driver lineups increased as well. Jeffrey Earnhardt drove the vast majority of races for Joe Falk’s No. 33 team, while Boris Said took over for the road course races. Premium Motorsports fielded one chartered car primarily for Reed Sorenson, but eight other drivers raced the car at least once. Finally, five different drivers split BK Racing’s No. 23 car.
So far in 2018, there are 32 drivers who have competed in the first six races, but there is even more uncertainty among the back-marker charter teams. Tri-Star Motorsports went into the season intending for Corey LaJoie and Cole Whitt to split driving duties for the No. 72 car. Rick Ware’s No. 51 team has a charter but has used four different drivers thus far. Danica Patrick raced with Premium Motorsports in the Daytona 500 and has since turned the car over to XFINITY regular Ross Chastain. Chastain, however, is not eligible for MENCS points, so it remains to be seen if he will continue with Premium for the rest of the season.
More recently, Jeffrey Earnhardt and StarCom Racing parted ways after running the full season together. Landon Cassill drove the car at Martinsville Speedway and will return at least for Texas Motor Speedway next week, but the team’s driver lineup beyond that is in doubt. Gray Gaulding and BK Racing have made it to the track every week so far, but the team’s bankruptcy proceedings resulted in owner Ron Devine losing financial control of the organization this past week. What happens next with BK Racing is anyone’s guess.
If BK Racing goes under, there would only be 31 full-time driver and team combinations. That means that at least half of the full-time MENCS field would qualify for the playoffs, and that is ridiculous. Even before 2014, NASCAR would be hard-pressed to prove that the Cup Series included 16 championship caliber teams at any time during the postseason era. Now, with shrinking fields and even chartered teams putting together patchwork driver and sponsorship lineups, the postseason field is sure to include cars that are only there to take up space and have no legitimate claim to being able to race for a championship.
If NASCAR is insistent on keeping a postseason format, then it must go back to the proportions of the very first iteration of the Chase. From 2004 to 2006, the Cup Series had about 30-35 full-time teams, but only 10 made the postseason, which was plenty. Expanding the Chase in subsequent years was a knee-jerk reaction to drivers like Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt and Stewart getting left out of the postseason. If the playoffs were really as great as NASCAR makes them out to be, then they should be able to attract fans on their own merit, not because of who is competing in them.
Having such a bloated playoff field is just part of how the elimination-style postseason undermines the very purpose that drove NASCAR’s founding in the first place – the establishment of a system to determine a yearly, indisputable, stock car racing champion in the United States. Given the ever-present discussions among fans about each year’s would-be champion under a year-long format, and the new yearly recognition of a regular season champion, have NASCAR’s playoffs taken the sport too far away from its original mission? You be the judge.
Bryan began writing for Frontstretch in 2016. He has penned Up to Speed for the past eight years. A lifelong student of auto racing, Bryan is a published author and automotive historian. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio and currently resides in Southern Kentucky.
The driver is the champ of Homestead. It is a stupid way to determine a champ, and I have despised it since its first inception.
I agree about Homestead.
I always liked a point system I saw once in motorcycles. One point for winning, 2 points for second, etc., etc., 30 points for finishing 30th. The Champion at the end of the year was the one with the least amount of points.
I agree. If they must have a playoff and won’t use a season long points format, I think that only the top 5 in points should be eligible t0o compete for the championship. Water it down anymore and it becomes a joke.
IMHO the thing that makes the entire “playoff” format invalid is allowing those that did not qualify to compete. Its virtually unheard of for a non playoff team to win a race. To include them seems to make it a mechanical version of PACMAN.
Of course the reason they are out there is for the money. Sponsor money for the teams, advertising money for the networks, and nascar gets its own cut. But no other sports league allows non qualifiers into the playoffs, nascar shouldnt either.
You say: “At the other end of the playoff grid that year were drivers like Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer. They both failed to win and had only two top fives apiece. Bowyer at least had 12 top 10s to Menard’s five, but it was pretty clear that neither of them was championship caliber. The only reason they were in the playoffs was to fill NASCAR’s quota of 16 drivers. ”
Comparing Menard with Bowyer is, at best, lazy reporting.
Clint has finished 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th in the season ending standings. Paul’s BEST was 14th.
Head to head over 403 starts Bowyer finished higher than Menard 264 times. That’s two-thirds of the time. In those same 403 races Bowyer had 9 wins, 62 top fives and 171 top tens. Menard? A single win, only 19 top fives and just 60 top tens.
If you want to make a point at least try to use a valid argument to support it. To say Bowyer was in the playoffs only to fill a NASCAR quota is ridiculous.
But he still had 190 races he did not win, spin it anyway you want. It is like saying who is lower in this and that Mississippi or Hawaii, etc. LOL
I’m wondering where you got the 190 number. Bowyer, to date, has run a total of 439 races.. That would suggest to me there were 430 he did not win.
But, although you aren’t able to comprehend, wins are not the only criteria to make the chase. In fact, if wins were the sole qualifying factor the full 16 car playoff field would never be met.
Consider too that this is the first time he is driving for a top tier team.
And your “analogy” makes no sense whatsoever. Don’t you mean cauliflower and pogo sticks? “LOL”?!?
IT is called a drought, sorry I must spell it out for you..OK..here it goes…
IT WAS 190 RACES BETWEEN HIS LAST WIN AND THIS WIN. Got it TOMMY SPARROW.
He is a waste of space in the “playoffs”, just like any one win wonder that barely cracks the top 5. If he wins more, then he deserves to be there. OHHHHHH, I am under someone’s wing..and in their little pea brain. LOL. Seems you want me to explain my answers to you, sorry little bird…LOL. DON”T READ IT, if I GET TO YOU!!!!!!!! ASSHOLE.
I will never understand the reasoning behind those who objected to Kyle Busch in the playoffs in 2015. IF he had competed in all 26 races prior to the Chase, he would have won even more. He did everything necessary to qualify in less time than the other competitors. Maybe NASCAR should drop the rule that a driver has to compete in every race to be eligible. Win a race and get enough points and you’re in. Very few drivers would elect to skip races due to sponsor considerations. As long as you have a Playoff system, there will be bitching about who gets in and who doesn’t. But the championship system is not the root cause of NASCAR’s demise, it is boring races all year long.
There will never be a “perfect” championship system. It’s the nature of auto racing. At this point, just leave it alone for the foreseeable future. The stage and playoff points have given the 1st 26 races an importance not seen since the pre-Chase days. I still don’t get the hate on Kyle winning the 2015 championship. He had to climb out of a massive hole and did it in spectacular fashion.
Started to type “the rules apply to everyone equally” but then had to stop ‘n laugh.
RIGHT ON…lol.
All you do is point out why the idea of a ‘playoff’ with every team on the field, and so many not really ‘worthy’. Thanks you for so eloquently making the point that many fans have tried to point out since this ridiculous chase, playoff, whatever, began
Clint Bowyer just stunk up the “playoffs”! God I hate the whole PLAYOFF CRAPPOLA. I suspect this is a one and done. till the next 190 races. If I am wrong and he gets another win or two..then he belongs there. The problem with the “playoffs”, rules change, waivers made, missed races, etc. It dilutes the meaning of “CHAMPION”, oh yeah so does the one race playoff, the Homestead Cup. Just so flucking stupid.
And, KB, your responses “dilute the meaning of” rational reasoning”
AWWW aren’t you sweet little Tommy Sparrow!!!! Now go fly into someone’s window and knock yourself out.
I totally agree with this article. It’s about time someone wrote about the playoff system and it’s obvious flaws. However no one writes about its mostl obvious failure. It was supposed to increase interest in the championship. It was designed to increase attendence and tv ratings. It has done neither. What it did was create a ten race champion. Hence the lack of respect for Jimmie Johnson’s championships. And that is a shame. It was great that Truex did win Homestead last year as he certainly was a 36 race champion in every category.
Wins at a restrictor plate race don’t count, for obvious reasons.
Only one win per year counts at a mile-and-a-half cookie cutter track.
Win at Martinsville, Bristol, and Richmond counts as two.