Richard Petty Says NASCAR Stage Racing Is ‘Crap’ And Doesn’t Like The Playoffs
Richard Petty is definitely old school.
The 88-year-old NASCAR racing legend was recently interviewed by The Athletic and shared his thoughts on a number of topics surrounding the series these days, including the points system and postseason.
Petty is a strong advocate of the champion being chosen across the full season and not through a playoffs-style format with a winner-take-all finale.
“I’m with [Mark] Martin, that they start races in February and you run all year to November and it’s, ‘OK, who was the best that year?’ They should be champion,” the seven-time champion said.
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“When they give points for leading different [stages] in the race and they give points for all this other stuff, that’s a bunch of crap, OK?
He compared it to football, where a team could be behind the entire game then win it at the end and the loser gets nothing for the effort.
“That should be the same way in NASCAR racing. I don’t care if you lead 499 laps of a 500-lap race — if you get beat, then you’re not the winner, and you shouldn’t have any [extra] points.”
Mark Martin was on a committee this year that was considering changes to the playoff system and was vocal that he’d like to see the postseason go away entirely. NASCAR leadership said the playoffs could be updated as early as next year, but that it will remain in some form.
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NASCAR’s most popular driver, Chase Elliott, this year also said he’d prefer a full-season championship points race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. agreed, but said he didn’t think NASCAR would ever get rid of the postseason idea.
Petty thinks NASCAR’s efforts to modernize haven’t been working as it struggles to regain its peak popularity from the turn of the 21st century. Another thing he sees missing today is big dominant stars like himself, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
“Right now, there’s too big of a crowd. We’ve got no leaders,” he said. “We’ve had, what, 15 different winners this year? That does not create a following. No matter what happens, you need a fox out front. We don’t have any leader — whether he’s good, bad or indifferent.”