Enough Is Enough Full Season Championship.

Yep. I remember when Ross Chastain got eliminated from the playoffs last year, no longer cared because he couldn't improve his position, and just went to Phoenix and rode around for 17th all day and... wait, that didn't happen. My bad.
I don't understand this? Nowhere in the article had nothing like this mentioned. The article was mainly focused on how the sport has changed because of the playoffs, the gimmicks with the point system, the driving styles with wreck em to win and you are in etc.
 
Perhaps Kyle Busch should get up on the wheel and go win between now and the cutoff at Darlington.
This shows some of the nonsense of the current points system. There isn't any way that Kyle Busch should be elevated to a top 16th place or better because of a win with the record the 8 has in the series this year. Nascar integrity?
 
I don't know where you are coming up with this. Nowhere in the article was anything bad was said about winning a race.
I came up with it after scrolling posts … some of which suggest that drivers with a win are no longer incentivized to the extent they were prior to said win.

I know that to be false.
 
I came up with it after scrolling posts … some of which suggest that drivers with a win are no longer incentivized to the extent they were prior to said win.

I know that to be false.
The nonsense is when a team with one win all season is falsely inflated into the playoffs over the backs of other teams with a better record and higher earned points. I'm pretty sure the teams who they leapfrogged over wants to win a race also.
 
This shows some of the nonsense of the current points system. There isn't any way that Kyle Busch should be elevated to a top 16th place or better because of a win with the record the 8 has in the series this year. Nascar integrity?

Then I'll use an example of someone who is on the bubble: Bubba Wallace.

He needs to go win a race, because that's the only way he can be sure he makes it in.
 
The nonsense is when a team with one win all season is falsely inflated into the playoffs over the backs of other teams with a better record and higher earned points. I'm pretty sure the teams who they leapfrogged over wants to win a race also.
Is there a team currently in that situation?
 
Is there a team currently in that situation?
Is the fastest car winning qualifying now?
Right now you have Suarez in 16th with 497 points. Briscoe in 17th with 485, Busch with 465. If the cutoff was tomorrow, Briscoe and Busch on down the scale are screwed, they can't go any higher than 17th. Win a race, finish higher in points with better finishes etc. They pile so many points on 16 and above it is impossible.
 
I understand how the system works.

The nonsense is when a team with one win all season is falsely inflated into the playoffs over the backs of other teams with a better record and higher earned points. I'm pretty sure the teams who they leapfrogged over wants to win a race also.
Is there a team with one win that has so far been falsely inserted into the playoff race at the expense of other teams?

NASCAR agrees with you … that’s why they whacked Austin Douchecanoe with a giant cucumber.
 
I understand how the system works.


Is there a team with one win that has so far been falsely inserted into the playoff race at the expense of other teams?

NASCAR agrees with you … that’s why they whacked Austin Douchecanoe with a giant cucumber.
Nobody was saying falsely inserted. Post 38 explains the nonsense of the playoff points system. Without it, teams don't have a ceiling, they can go on a run in the later stages of the season. They are taking a lot of racing and competition and ignoring it.
 
You said falsely inflated. I assumed you meant falsely inserted. My mistake.

In my opinion, the “race for 17th place” at season’s end is not compelling for anyone but the teams involved, no matter what points or playoff system in use.
 
We don't need no stinking playoff. Right now in Cup we have 4 drivers who are 21 points from each other. 3 drivers are only 6 points from each other. If the goofs of the networks couldn't hype this up I would hang it up.
4 Trucks are within 23 points of each other
Xfinity 4 within 100 points.
My point is that with today's Nascar, the competition is close enough that we don't need some fudged up gimmicky playoff nonsense.
I agree this would be shaping up to be a pretty spectacular points battle if that were the format, but there’s no guarantee it would always be that way. Even with the parity of the Next Gen, Elliott would’ve run away with the 2022 title with a couple of races to go. The network wants a guarantee that it comes down to the final event no matter what - for better or for worse.
 
I agree this would be shaping up to be a pretty spectacular points battle if that were the format, but there’s no guarantee it would always be that way. Even with the parity of the Next Gen, Elliott would’ve run away with the 2022 title with a couple of races to go. The network wants a guarantee that it comes down to the final event no matter what - for better or for worse.
Elliott didn't win in 2022. So let's fake it up and say it's integrity lol. No, I think it's rare with the next gen to run away with the points and if they did, it would be news worthy for the effort.
Ya can't even go by anybodies lifetime record anymore, It's who is the luckiest in the last race.
 
All this guys says from the first time he sits down for his allotted races of the season, is hyping the win and you are in playoff system. Now he is double talking. How do you make a rule? You don't it is win and you are in But?
This oh, it's ok if so in so driver does this here but not if this other one does this to win is nonsense. The Win and you are in playoff format put them in that position in the first place.

 
I can't believe what I am reading. @StandOnIt is 100% correct.

It would be a more difficult topic to grapple with if so much competitive integrity had been lost (it has) but dividing the NASCAR calendar into regular and post-season were a runaway commercial success. It is not. Roughly two decades of some version of it and one decade of multiple rounds and winner-take-all finales have provided a meaningful boost to exactly one annual event: the finale itself. Even that has surely not grown as envisioned, as the cheap theatrics of it wear off quickly.

Otherwise, viewership still mostly surges and wanes based on two factors: 1) the venue the race is at, and 2) what time of year the race is held. Interest slowly falls throughout the season and plummet during football season. Nothing Brian France grafted onto NASCAR because he liked football and basketball better has or will ever reverse those trends.

Yes, there are now a generation of fans that know of nothing else. There are a cadre of journalists who prefer to count points and chart cutoff lines more than any other form of coverage. There is a TV partner that would be difficult to convince now that the genie is long out of the bottle. These are excuses. They don't change that it was all a mistake, and that playoffs and racing are oil and water.
 
You said falsely inflated. I assumed you meant falsely inserted. My mistake.

In my opinion, the “race for 17th place” at season’s end is not compelling for anyone but the teams involved, no matter what points or playoff system in use.
What I meant is that they shut out all of the teams from finishing higher than 17th.
An example this year would be Kyle Busch fans. If he did go on a run with some decent finishes, he is stuck with 17th at best after the season points are reset..
I don't know about you but I used to be able to study the standings and count the points on drivers I was paying attention to. There used to be many battles for positions at the end of the season. Now well, now you know the nonsense with cut off drivers, implications, blah blah. In the mean time it is almost impossible to follow points, BUT we dam sure know who the winner is.
 
Ratings were falling, Kenseth didn't win enough to deserve the title the louder fans thought, fans were livid, so here we go with the play off system that has morphed into what we have now. The ratings haven't skyrocketed, so much of the racing is over hyped nonsense, wrecking for a win has gained wide acceptance and Nascar turns a blind eye and even encourages it until loud fans say not this time. Maybe next time though, we'll let you know. That is where they are.
 
Ratings were falling, Kenseth didn't win enough to deserve the title the louder fans thought, fans were livid, so here we go with the play off system that has morphed into what we have now. The ratings haven't skyrocketed, so much of the racing is over hyped nonsense, wrecking for a win has gained wide acceptance and Nascar turns a blind eye and even encourages it until loud fans say not this time. Maybe next time though, we'll let you know. That is where they are.
Ratings weren’t falling until AFTER the first chase was implemented. 2006 Daytona was the peak. The playoff system is only partially to blame though for the ratings declines from 2007-2019. It’s multiple factors.

-The COT
-The economy crash
-More and more races moving to cable instead of network
-Stage racing
-Star driver retirements

And many more.
 
I can't believe what I am reading. @StandOnIt is 100% correct.

It would be a more difficult topic to grapple with if so much competitive integrity had been lost (it has) but dividing the NASCAR calendar into regular and post-season were a runaway commercial success. It is not. Roughly two decades of some version of it and one decade of multiple rounds and winner-take-all finales have provided a meaningful boost to exactly one annual event: the finale itself. Even that has surely not grown as envisioned, as the cheap theatrics of it wear off quickly.

Otherwise, viewership still mostly surges and wanes based on two factors: 1) the venue the race is at, and 2) what time of year the race is held. Interest slowly falls throughout the season and plummet during football season. Nothing Brian France grafted onto NASCAR because he liked football and basketball better has or will ever reverse those trends.

Yes, there are now a generation of fans that know of nothing else. There are a cadre of journalists who prefer to count points and chart cutoff lines more than any other form of coverage. There is a TV partner that would be difficult to convince now that the genie is long out of the bottle. These are excuses. They don't change that it was all a mistake, and that playoffs and racing are oil and water.
I’m with ya. I’m shook SOI is on team “abolish the playoffs” , maybe I wasn’t paying attention all this time. Listen, I hated The Chase since its inception, I’ve hated the playoffs. They’re both gimmicks intended to drum up drama and keep the field bunched. IMO, many drivers legacies were screwed with and it’s just a shame that it’s hard to compare records over era’s. I hope I one day see the full season points format reinstated, championship battles were organic, and other drivers I felt were more highlighted through the field as their stories were covered instead of just “the playoff drivers”.

I just hate that the “well what if driver X wins the championship early” and “Muh entertainment crew” were catered to in installing these formats. My retort to both is well, your favorite driver and team should have tried harder through the season to prevent that from happening. Indy Car has had tremendous full season battles with championship participants identified early and it’s been very exciting watching that evolve as the season clicks off races . F1 uses the Full season format and well Max has been Max but it’s been awesome watching Greatness perform at the highest level each week. We get a 32nd driver in points bulldoze two competitors or a driver rim ride the wall in a non racing move taking a deserving driver out a championship spot because well a system that is driven by Game 7 moments. I also can’t forget Ryan Newman kamakazing Larson in 2014 knocking out Gordon…Newman had zero wins that year but a shot at a championship. Quintessential NASCAR I was told.

Saying all this…they’re not going back. It’s not happening, I’d expect them to double down and do a NCAA style 63 driver tournament to crown a champion before they’d even consider going back to a full season points system. Hence this is why I think this is an exercise in futility and ultimately a waste of time pining over a long gone system.
 
Saying all this…they’re not going back. It’s not happening, I’d expect them to double down and do a NCAA style 63 driver tournament to crown a champion before they’d even consider going back to a full season points system. Hence this is why I think this is an exercise in futility and ultimately a waste of time pining over a long gone system.
I don’t think anyone here expects anything to change.
 
Two other minor points, and then I'll bow back out.

What playoffs have done to America's premier motorsports series is bad. The mockery it's made of the championships for the Xfinity and Trucks series is even worse.

Additionally, the feast or famine nature of the system for mid-pack teams is not a net positive. That an entire season is viewed as a success or failure based on whether a middling team can find a way to win a single race is the defining reason that embarrassing episodes like the Dillon incident happen.
 
Two other minor points, and then I'll bow back out.

What playoffs have done to America's premier motorsports series is bad. The mockery it's made of the championships for the Xfinity and Trucks series is even worse.

Additionally, the feast or famine nature of the system for mid-pack teams is not a net positive. That an entire season is viewed as a success or failure based on whether a middling team can find a way to win a single race is the defining reason that embarrassing episodes like the Dillon incident happen.
Two years in a row there has been a winner in the Trucks that didn't deserve the win no way no how.
 

Marty: I thought it was desperate by Dillon, but he was in a desperate position. And given the context of the rules under which he was playing in the moment, I don't blame him one bit for doing what he did.
 
It is the damn numbers pushed all the way up to front fender wells that has ruined Nascar. It has also damaged Chase Elliott's career the most.
9 is a top heavy number and placing it off center throws off his entire set up the most. That's why they broke his leg, it was a diversion just like all this points talking that's designed to make people forget the single lug nut stuff, and their sissy Miata looking race cars that's slowly castrating the fan base.
 
How do you know? We got the playoff system because of fans outcry in the first place. You know I believe if Dillon would have only wrecked Logano we wouldn't be talking about this? That is how numb we have become to this nonsense.
I suppose anything is possible, but it would probably be the first and only instance of playoff contraction in major American sports. Granted, playoffs in other sports are actually commercially additive since more games means more tickets and TV inventory to sell (even if they make the regular season a meaningless slog in the process). That isn’t the case in NASCAR, and as gnome said, there’s nothing in the viewership figures that indicate it’s made much of a difference for the ten races that now make up the playoffs. But you would still have to do a lot in convincing NBC and NASCAR that their baby isn’t all it was cracked up to be.
 
It is the damn numbers pushed all the way up to front fender wells that has ruined Nascar. It has also damaged Chase Elliott's career the most.
9 is a top heavy number and placing it off center throws off his entire set up the most. That's why they broke his leg, it was a diversion just like all this points talking that's designed to make people forget the single lug nut stuff, and their sissy Miata looking race cars that's slowly castrating the fan base.
once we bring down the playoffs you knowing I'm coming for that number placement next by leading that charge
 
Newman had zero wins that year but a shot at a championship. Quintessential NASCAR I was told.

Wasn’t this also possible under a full season format? Matt Kenseth’s margin of victory in 2003 seems to indicate so. Swap out his only win with even like a 15th-20th place finish and he still wins the championship.
 
Wasn’t this also possible under a full season format? Matt Kenseth’s margin of victory in 2003 seems to indicate so. Swap out his only win with even like a 15th-20th place finish and he still wins the championship.
0 wins, and the 6th best driver. If Matt won without any wins, he at least was the best driver ALL SEASON. Little bit of a difference tbh.
 
Wasn’t this also possible under a full season format? Matt Kenseth’s margin of victory in 2003 seems to indicate so. Swap out his only win with even like a 15th-20th place finish and he still wins the championship.
Very true. Matt never broke that year, it was an insane feat of team and driver consistency that played perfectly into the system that was used at the time with 16 top 5's and 25(!!) top 10's with 2 DNF's. You say swap out his only win with a mid teen's finish and he still wins, so be it. Other drivers that year should have found a way to be more consistent. Newman's 2014 had 5 top 5's the entire year and 16 top 10's but only had one DNF. He also played the playoff system perfectly as everyone above him was taking each other out at playoff time and he was finishing races. Matt and his team beat everyone every single week and imo deserved their Cup. Newman took a 16th place season, avoided the playoff carnage with some luck and guile and almost won a championship. They're not the same. Now would I like my champion to have a few more wins, sure... institute a premium on winning races with more points geared to that. Its a simple fix.
 
Very true. Matt never broke that year, it was an insane feat of team and driver consistency that played perfectly into the system that was used at the time with 16 top 5's and 25(!!) top 10's with 2 DNF's. You say swap out his only win with a mid teen's finish and he still wins, so be it. Other drivers that year should have found a way to be more consistent. Newman's 2014 had 5 top 5's the entire year and 16 top 10's but only had one DNF. He also played the playoff system perfectly as everyone above him was taking each other out at playoff time and he was finishing races. Matt and his team beat everyone every single week and imo deserved their Cup. Newman took a 16th place season, avoided the playoff carnage with some luck and guile and almost won a championship. They're not the same. Now would I like my champion to have a few more wins, sure... institute a premium on winning races with more points geared to that. Its a simple fix.

The Newman thing was particularly bad though I think NASCAR introduced playoff points to keep it from happening again.

I prefer a full season format but I am not opposed to the current system with some tweaks. I like seeing drivers adapt to their conditions and the rules before them. At least this format rewards regular season performance. But the winner take all final needs to go.
 
The Newman thing was particularly bad though I think NASCAR introduced playoff points to keep it from happening again.

I prefer a full season format but I am not opposed to the current system with some tweaks. I like seeing drivers adapt to their conditions and the rules before them. At least this format rewards regular season performance. But the winner take all final needs to go.
Sure, agreed. Prefer full season championship too, but I actually have come around on the playoffs. Dislike “win and you’re in” along with also the championship finale. The Chase top 10 in points along with 11th and 12th as the “WildCards” was a fine compromise as eliminations happened organically on their own, I’d even settle going back to that.
 

Very true. Matt never broke that year, it was an insane feat of team and driver consistency that played perfectly into the system that was used at the time with 16 top 5's and 25(!!) top 10's with 2 DNF's. You say swap out his only win with a mid teen's finish and he still wins, so be it. Other drivers that year should have found a way to be more consistent. Newman's 2014 had 5 top 5's the entire year and 16 top 10's but only had one DNF. He also played the playoff system perfectly as everyone above him was taking each other out at playoff time and he was finishing races. Matt and his team beat everyone every single week and imo deserved their Cup. Newman took a 16th place season, avoided the playoff carnage with some luck and guile and almost won a championship. They're not the same. Now would I like my champion to have a few more wins, sure... institute a premium on winning races with more points geared to that. Its a simple fix.

I'm not sold on the top heavy point system like they have now. up to 60 points for winning and a playoff berth and only one point for last place. Kenseth and team who had amazing efficiency wouldn't have had a chance for their efforts.
 
Sure, agreed. Prefer full season championship too, but I actually have come around on the playoffs. Dislike “win and you’re in” along with also the championship finale. The Chase top 10 in points along with 11th and 12th as the “WildCards” was a fine compromise as eliminations happened organically on their own, I’d even settle going back to that.
Blaney was the first driver to win from beyond the top six seeds since playoff points were implemented, and even that required wins in two of the first three rounds, so they’ve made the format much more palatable. Quite frankly, it rewards regular season performance better than a good number of the other major American sports do at the moment. Still not ideal, but they eliminated the total lottery aspect that existed from 2014-2016. Newman shouldn’t have even sniffed the ‘14 championship.
 
I'm not sold on the top heavy point system like they have now. up to 60 points for winning and a playoff berth and only one point for last place. Kenseth and team who had amazing efficiency wouldn't have had a chance for their efforts.
I think Matt would’ve been fine since bringing the car home inside the top 5-10 range and not DNFing still matters a lot towards the regular season. Reddick and Elliott are sitting 2nd and 3rd with one win each, but Reddick has more Top 10s than anyone and they each have fewer DNFs than anyone else. If Kenseth would’ve struggled with anything that year in this format it would’ve been in the round of 8 or the championship race, where you’re really pushed to win.
 
How do you know? We got the playoff system because of fans outcry in the first place. You know I believe if Dillon would have only wrecked Logano we wouldn't be talking about this? That is how numb we have become to this nonsense.
Do you expect this discussion to result in changes to the playoff format?
 
Blaney was the first driver to win from beyond the top six seeds since playoff points were implemented, and even that required wins in two of the first three rounds, so they’ve made the format much more palatable. Quite frankly, it rewards regular season performance better than a good number of the other major American sports do at the moment. Still not ideal, but they eliminated the total lottery aspect that existed from 2014-2016. Newman shouldn’t have even sniffed the ‘14 championship.
So you are trying to say that 4 cars with varying records racing in the last race for the championship isn't as much of a lottery than the lottery it is?
 
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