Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Before I say anything, I want to congratulate Ben Rhodes, Cole Custer and Ryan Blaney. Each of them took advantage of the format and found ways to win their championships. Nothing I say here is intended to go against any of these three personally.
I want to start with a question- did anyone that watched any of the three NASCAR national touring series think that either of these three were the best driver in their series during the 2023 season?
According to Racing Reference, none of them were the best, nor the second best, nor the third-best.
Custer, over a full-season in the 33-race Xfinity series, would have finished fourth, 107 points behind John Hunter Nemechek. Rhodes, in the 23-race Truck series season, was fifth, 162 points behind Corey Heim who, mind you, missed WWT Raceway due to an illness. As for Blaney, the new NASCAR Cup Series champion, over a 36-race season, he was the sixth-best driver, 131 points behind William Byron.
Think about that- the three champions were each two full races of points behind first-place. That seems to contradict what NASCAR President, Steve Phelps, said Friday.
"It rewards the best drivers in our sport," Phelps said, according to Jordan Bianchi of the Athletic.
I'm sorry, what about this format rewards the best drivers in our sport?
It's now been 10 years that NASCAR has had this four-round elimination format in the Cup series, eight in the other two series. Across 26 possible champions, do you want to guess how many would have won a full season championship as well?
The answer is eight... that means under 31% of the deserving champions in this format have actually gotten the crown.
Now listen, I understand that everyone knows the rules and some have executed better than others. That's why Jimmie Johnson has seven titles and not Jeff Gordon.
But does a ten-race or seven-race playoffs determine who the best was over the whole season?
What is different about the playoff races than the regular season? The drivers are the same, the tracks are the same, the cars are the same and the teams are the same. If you need a points reset to determine who the best is after racing the same guys all year, then what is the point of trying during the regular season after locking yourself in? It honestly doesn't seem like there is one.
This year's champions are a perfect example. After winning Charlotte, Rhodes led 30 total laps up until Homestead, where he only advanced to Phoenix due to a savvy pit call and mistakes made by Nick Sanchez and Christian Eckes.
Custer, after his second win at Chicago, led just seven laps in the final 10 regular season races and had three finishes of 30th or worse. To be fair, once in the Playoffs he turned it on for a great playoff run.
Blaney followed his Coca-Cola 600 win with a strong showing at WWT Raceway. After that, he didn't score a single top-five until a win at Talladega. That means he went through June, July, August and September and didn't run better than sixth and won a championship thanks to a strong final six races. He was the best driver for 16.67% of the season and won it all.
Now none of these hold a candle to Kyle Busch in 2015, winning a championship after missing 11 races but that's been documented enough. He's not even the only one, as Johnson, Matt Crafton and Tyler Reddick have all scored championships with relatively unimpressive seasons.
The only saving grace for this format are if the racing lives up to the hype and fans tune in.
The first one has not happened.
I don't mince words when I say this- the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race was the single worst NASCAR race I have ever watched. That race showed everything wrong with this format. The racing was lackluster and the respect amongst the drivers, and especially the championship contenders, was totally nonexistent. It was a display that made you embarrassed to be a fan.
While by far the most egregious moment, most people's minds about the Playoffs were made up long before Friday night's disaster. NASCAR has used the term "Game seven moment" at nauseam over the years. It's no secret that this is what they are trying to create, moments that will be discussed years from now. But NASCAR has refused to acknowledge the biggest issue with this format.
Game seven moments are special because they are unpredictable and don't happen every year.
No other sport does this for good reason, the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and World Series all went just five games this year and that's because the clear cut best teams won.
That is what the Winston Cup format so successful. Sure, some years the finale was boring because the championship was already decided, but you never had to question whether the deserving driver won. It was a non-issue that never needed a fix. Now the sport might be too far gone.
The other necessity for this format is the ratings, which there isn't a whole lot to discuss. Ratings have been down exponentially over the years with 2023 being absolutely brutal. In 2014, the average NASCAR race saw around five million viewers. According to Jayski, the 4EVER 400 at Homestead-Miami two weeks ago saw less than half that total. Fans are simply not as interested anymore, even when the race is at one of the best tracks on the schedule.
The biggest moment for the Playoffs was, of course, Ross Chastain's Hail Melon last year at Martinsville, a move that went viral, got Chastain on every talk show in America and created a legitimate buzz around NASCAR ahead of the Championship race. Come raceday, ratings were still down compared to the year prior.
To put things simply, this is a quote from YouTuber S1apSh0es, who released "The NASCAR Playoffs are Worse than You Thought" in Dec. 2020.
"If the Playoffs were supposed to maintain interest and keep old fans, it failed. If it was supposed to draw in new fans with added drama, it failed. If it was still supposed to crown a deserving champion, it failed. If it was supposed to make races more interesting, it failed. What do you call something that has not achieved a single one of its stated objectives and, in fact, has done the opposite? You call it a failure. There is simply no other word to describe the Playoffs."
In 26 tries, the Playoffs has gotten the champion wrong 18 times. It has changed several drivers' legacies, for better and worse. It has led to a lack of respect. It created arguably the worst race in the history of NASCAR. It has divided an already decreasing audience in half.
Ever since former chairman Bill France Jr. stepped down from his post in 2003, NASCAR has done everything it can to try and make NASCAR more entertaining. In turn, this has made the actual racing worse. Even worse yet, it has made a large portion of the fans think that the first 26 races don't even matter.
Enough is enough already. It's time to cut our losses and go back to what made NASCAR so great- a 36-race format where every race counts the same and there is no reset. The best way to try and get some fans back is by offering the best, most authentic product possible. In my humble opinion, this is the way to go.
Listen, I know there is next to zero chance of this coming to fruition. Frankly, I don't care. I and many others have seen enough.
To conclude, I ask again- if everyone competes against everyone each week, why should only 1 race decide who is the best?