For the second time in three NASCAR Cup Series Races, a driver below 30th in the points standings emerged as the winner.
A few weeks ago at Richmond Raceway, Austin Dillon scored his fifth career win after dumping Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final lap. Then, at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night (Aug. 24), it was Harrison Burton who shocked the NASCAR world. Burton captured his first victory by slipping past Kyle Busch on the last lap, then holding on in a frantic dash back to the finish line.
It was an enormous triumph for Burton, who got to celebrate with his family and earn the Wood Brothers’ 100th win before he departs the team at the end of the season.
Additionally, Burton is locked into the playoffs.
Yes, you read that correctly. NASCAR ditched the rule where a winner had to be in the top 30 in points to be playoff eligible. Burton entered Daytona 34th in overall points, dead last among all full-time Cup Series drivers this season. Even after the victory, he is still 34th in points. Burton’s only other top-10 result so far this season is a 10th-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway.
Until Saturday, he and the No. 21 team had not even shown flashes of competitiveness on any type of track. However, NASCAR’s rules for postseason qualification give priority to race winners, no matter where they are in the points standings. So, with one race left in the regular season and only 13 eligible winners, Burton is guaranteed a spot in the 16-driver playoffs.
Rules like the “win and you’re in” provision make it impossible to take NASCAR’s playoffs seriously. The championship format should always be, first and foremost, an agreed upon set of rules for fairly determining who the best driver is each year. How to define “best driver” is always going to be up for interpretation, but the stakeholders should agree that the champion is someone who exhibits excellence over the course of the whole season and demonstrates a high level of performance.
Even with the current postseason system, you should expect that the drivers and teams who qualify are the ones who have shown the most potential to compete for the championship. Given the lack of success he has had in 2024, Burton’s inclusion in the playoffs calls these principles into question.
To be clear, I am not under the impression that everyone who qualifies for the postseason is going to make a serious run at the championship. That ship sailed 10 years ago when NASCAR expanded the playoffs to 16 drivers, which was entirely too many in 2014 and is still too many now that the field has shrunk.
But why is it that Burton, who won a single race in an otherwise awful season, is more playoff worthy than winless drivers like Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace or Ross Chastain? Burton’s win means that two of those three will probably get left out of the postseason, even though Buescher, Wallace and Chastain are 11th, 13th and 14th in overall points respectively. In this case, points position is clearly a better indicator than wins regarding who has had the better season.
The fact that Burton will get in the playoffs at the expense of one of the other three is completely ridiculous.
Some fans might argue that it doesn’t matter who gets the last few playoff spots because those drivers were not going to challenge for a championship either way. Indeed, Burton, Buescher, Wallace and Chastain would all be longshots for the title at this point.
However, not everyone who is a longshot is equally competitive. Going into Daytona, Burton was 340 points below the playoff cut line. To put that number in perspective, he could have earned the maximum 60 points in five straight races and still would not have made up his deficit to the cut line, even if the bubble driver did not earn a single point. Drivers like Buescher, Wallace, and Chastain could at least challenge for a spot in the Round of 12, or even the Round of 8 if they catch a few breaks. Burton will almost certainly get knocked out in the first round.
Still, others might insist that Burton racing in the playoffs is good for the sport because it is an unexpected underdog story that gets people invested, or that fans should not complain because other sports have upsets all the time. Those arguments quickly fall apart when you remember that auto racing is not like other sports and should not try to emulate them.
Playoffs are more appropriate in football, for instance, because teams do not get a chance to play every other team each year. The same holds true for the annual March Madness tournament in college basketball. You cannot be sure who the best teams are each season with so many different schedules, so it makes sense to have a season-ending tournament to match the best teams against each other. In NASCAR, everybody races each other each week, so you have more assurance that the points standings are an accurate reflection of who the best drivers are each year.
Furthermore, upset victories like Burton’s are still great stories without a playoff format. Burton deserves a lot of credit for driving a masterful race and making the right moves when given a shot at the win. Yes, a lot of other drivers crashed out of the event, but races of attrition at Daytona are nothing new. Burton did what he was supposed to do, scored a milestone win for a legendary team and proved that he can win at NASCAR’s highest level. Hopefully, the victory will help him land a new ride for 2025.
It is not hypocritical to celebrate Burton’s achievement and still argue that he should not be in the playoffs.
Before the 2025 season begins, NASCAR needs to rethink the “win and you’re in” rule. It should be noted that Dillon was also set to be in the postseason until NASCAR revoked his eligibility from the win for his last lap antics at Richmond. It is completely ridiculous to think that two drivers outside the top 25 in points could have playoff priority over several in or near the top 10.
The sanctioning body must either reinstitute a rule that playoff drivers must be above a certain position in overall points, or restructure the eligibility rules so that drivers in the top 10 in points get priority for the playoffs again. Anything else would continue to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the championship system.
Alternatively, NASCAR could abandon the playoffs completely and simply award more points for wins. But without the sport’s leadership having a major change of heart, that ship has likely sailed too.
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.