CRANDALL: Dear NASCAR, your playoff system is broken

StandOnIt

StandOnIt

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:D:D:D I sometimes think this forum is a hot bed of ideas for Nascar writers.;)


I get it, though. There are a lot of big name drivers and sponsors who need to be taken care of. But trying to hype all 16 drivers as having a legitimate shot at the championship is as difficult as convincing some folks that Toyota doesn’t have NASCAR in its pocket.

There is no drama around who is and isn’t going to advance. No uncertainty about which teams have the ability to go deep into the playoffs.

Again, the teams that are good now are going to be good in two months when the title fight starts. As much as I know you would love to see stories about how an Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Paul Menard or whoever gets into the playoffs on the bottom tier of the grid and looks to slay the giants with a title run, it’s ridiculously unrealistic if current performance trends continue.
https://racer.com/2018/07/17/crandall-dear-nascar-your-playoff-system-is-broken/
 
I just breezed through the article, not reading every word.
You guys know what I think of the sport. The stages suck, playoffs suck, whatever they’re calling elimination now sucks. I’m not following closely enough anymore to know exactly what any of the stage BS points mean because I don’t care who wins anymore.
Thanks Brian.
26 races per season is all I care about, minus the plate crashfests and a few of the snoozy cookie cutters.
Life goes on though.
I hear that broadcast revenue is all the hype.
 
BobbyFord said:
I just breezed through the article, not reading every word.
You guys know what I think of the sport. The stages suck, playoffs suck, whatever they’re calling elimination now sucks. I’m not following closely enough anymore to know exactly what any of the stage BS points mean because I don’t care who wins anymore.
Thanks Brian.
26 races per season is all I care about, minus the plate crashfests and a few of the snoozy cookie cutters.
Life goes on though.
I hear that broadcast revenue is all the hype.
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Maybe you should tune in and try the sport in today's world. Not all things are as bad as you surmise. The stages are good, they eliminated the drivers idea they could ride around for 75% of the race. At least now many drivers are racing for those points after seeing the advantage Martin got in the first year. Stages also reduced the need for a number of phony cautions.
The chase WAS good, except like in real life every participants gets a medal so in Nascar twice as many make the chase as should. If winning is important then winners only should make the chase. The racing continues with those drivers total being separate from all others.
 
Team Penske said:
Maybe you should tune in and try the sport in today's world. Not all things are as bad as you surmise. The stages are good, they eliminated the drivers idea they could ride around for 75% of the race. At least now many drivers are racing for those points after seeing the advantage Martin got in the first year. Stages also reduced the need for a number of phony cautions.
The chase WAS good, except like in real life every participants gets a medal so in Nascar twice as many make the chase as should. If winning is important then winners only should make the chase. The racing continues with those drivers total being separate from all others.
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I started watching some races this year after attending the Fontana race. I actually watched the Daytona crashfest.
For me, the stages suck. Stages ARE phony cautions. I don’t care about playoffs in auto racing. The Chase WASN’T good, These gimmicks are what is causing NASCAR to become less important to me. I won’t watch after race 26, except for LVMS where I’ll be in the stands.
 
BobbyFord said:
I started watching some races this year after attending the Fontana race. I actually watched the Daytona crashfest.
For me, the stages suck. Stages ARE phony cautions. I don’t care about playoffs in auto racing. The Chase WASN’T good, These gimmicks are what is causing NASCAR to become less important to me. I won’t watch after race 26, except for LVMS where I’ll be in the stands.
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Interrupting a perfectly good race at a predetermined time is ridiculous.
 
Shouldn't this thread be merged with the NASCAR deathbed one?
 
Bitching about the system by which a champion is determined is silly. The system has worked fine. Racing is still racing. This is trivial. If this was "fixed"--whatever in the hell that means, this thread word morph into bitching about the "quality of racing"--whatever in the hell that means.
 
Nothing's definite in sports. It's possible one of the Big 3 don't make it to the final round, or semifinal round even.

It was a surefire slam dunk deal back in January that the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers would meet in the AFC Championship. It was a surefire deal the New Orleans Saints would go to the Super Bowl. It was guaranteed that the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles were both "one and done".
 
kyle18fan said:
At least they tried to hide the nonsense back then, now they rub our noses in it
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To each his own. Either way, there's nothing going to be done with stages or the Chase in the foreseeable future. I don't like the Chase at all but I'm not going to let it ruin my enjoyment of individual races. My only significant gritch with the stages is that NASCAR throws a caution between stages instead of awarding the points and continuing under green. That's not going to change either, but vent away if it makes you feel better.
 
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Charlie Spencer said:
To each his own. Either way, there's nothing going to be done with stages or the Chase in the foreseeable future. I don't like the Chase at all but I'm not going to let it ruin my enjoyment of individual races. My only significant gritch with the stages is that NASCAR throws a caution between stages instead of awarding the points and continuing under green. That's not going to change either, but vent away if it makes you feel better.
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I love stage racing. I don't even follow points because the way they're accumulated.

I agree with the main premise the playoff field is too large. I still say there should be a Wild Card Round, whether it's to qualify for postseason or it's a round the top four get a bye for.

The biggest problem is the schedule though. There needs to be some rotation in venues. I feel like the championship race should be rotated between Homestead, Las Vegas, Texas, and maybe Atlanta.

They did add Richmond to the playoffs and implement the Charlotte Roval, so that's a plus.
 
The racing nowadays mirrors pretty heavily what was seen in the late 70s lol why are people complaining. Cars that are hard to drive with a few dominant guys. I love it
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I love stage racing. I don't even follow points because the way they're accumulated.

I agree with the main premise the playoff field is too large. I still say there should be a Wild Card Round, whether it's to qualify for postseason or it's a round the top four get a bye for.

The biggest problem is the schedule though. There needs to be some rotation in venues. I feel like the championship race should be rotated between Homestead, Las Vegas, Texas, and maybe Atlanta.

They did add Richmond to the playoffs and implement the Charlotte Roval, so that's a plus.
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I agree, the championship field to start off with is too big, I think it needs to be strictly just for race winners and maybe one team gets in on points as the WC as you stated.
 
jws926 said:
I agree, the championship field to start off with is too big, I think it needs to be strictly just for race winners and maybe one team gets in on points as the WC as you stated.
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I say race winners & those in the the top 12 in points.
 
My idea, using the existing platform, is to make the regular season champion a HUGE deal, with a ceremony, big trophy, and automatic entry into the Homestead Playoffs Championship race. The next 9 races determine the other 3 drivers who compete with the NASCAR champion. Excellent way to make the points battle matter, and honor the best driver and team over a 26 race season.
 
Of all the Chase/Playoff formats I liked the 2011-2013 version the best, but the 2017+ format is a close second. It still has the one race "winner take all" at Homestead which I'm not crazy about, but at least they've tweaked the regular season points enough to make it much more likely that the drivers that deserve to make it to Homestead based on their ful season performance actually make it there.

The 2014-2016 version was by far the worst. That championship format was a complete lottery. I'm really glad NASCAR saw the flaws in that format and fixed them.
 
There's only 36 drivers that could beyond just in theory have a shot at the playoffs, because that's your charters. There's only 30 real cars in the field that can contend for the 16 spots however, there's a significant dropoff after 30th place and the Ty Dillon/Roush #6/Leavine/Front Row/JTG Daugherty/Bubba group and before DiBenedetto, Chastain, et al (after Gray Gaulding got removed from the 23, DiBenedetto is the only full-timer remaining from this group). You can remove the Roush #6 because they have partial season drivers and there's normally one of those a year - last year it was Almirola in the 43 - so 16 out of the 29 real guys are going to get in. That's way too many. The Hendrick cars this year are horrible, and right now 3 of them are going to get in.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
There's a standard? Who sets it? What metrics are used to determine that it's being met or missed?
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Maybe thats the standard - knowing what we want. Now days it seems like asking if a race was good is like asking your significant other what they are hungry for.

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” – Marcel Pagno
 
Playoffs are the best way to crown a champion. Old points system was broken, that's why the made the switch. 16 is a fine number for the playoffs and its not like all 16 make it to the final.
 
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Charlie Spencer said:
There's a standard? Who sets it? What metrics are used to determine that it's being met or missed?
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The top car racing series in America had no major points or race format changes for decades. The standard to which other forms of american auto racing looked to for rules and guidance.

There is no more standard, or control group. It changes dramatically every 2-3 years without logical reason.
 
F-1 changed their qualifying format in 06, car changes?, almost every year. Indycar changed their qualifying on ovals this year.same here with the car changes. Both of those will change the points system, and some can say so will the car changes effect the points. The only thing constant in auto racing is change.
 
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