Sorry, Haters, The NASCAR Playoffs Aren’t Going Anywhere

By Gary Gastelu |

Nov 8, 2024

NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 — Credit: NASCAR

The NASCAR Championship Weekend is here and, as is tradition, plenty of people are marking the occasion by complaining about the playoffs.

The outcry came to a head after last week’s cut-off race at Martinsville, which led to three teams being penalized for attempting to manipulate the results in order to help William Byron and Christopher Bell qualify for the Championship 4.

Byron made it in after Bell was hit with an in-race violation for riding the wall, but the writing was on the wall, as well.

NASCAR officials were “pis–d” at what happened and made it clear that there will be no tolerance for such actions in the future and that the drivers will be included in the penalties next time around.

Critics also point to Kyle Larson missing a shot at the championship, despite dominating the season with six wins, which was twice as many as any other driver. Unfortunately for him, none of them came in the Round of 8 to see him through to the finale.

Nevertheless, at the State of the Sport press conference in Phoenix on Friday, NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell said “we’re not going to go away from the playoffs.” He added that “you can not argue with the quality of racing that the playoffs have delivered,” but conceded that the format could be modified in future seasons.

“We’re not the only sport where the best statistical team does not get into the Final Four or the Super Bowl or the World Series,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said. “The format itself I think creates incredible racing. So if we are all going to be honest and say hey, how’s the racing been during the playoffs in these nine weeks? I don’t think been ever better.”

“I think part of that is due to the system itself,” Phelps said. “They race their guts out.”

The playoffs format has changed several times, but the current system that allows drivers to advance to the next round with a win, regardless of where they stand in the points, has been in place for the past decade. Three of the Championship 4 drivers won races during the Round of 8, including Tyler Reddick’s impressive last lap victory at Homestead-Miami.

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Reddick, Byron and Joey Logano will be trying to stop Ryan Blaney from repeating as champion on Sunday, Nov. 11 at Phoenix Raceway at 3 p.m. ET.