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The NASCAR Playoffs format guarantees championship manipulation

The NASCAR Playoffs format guarantees championship manipulation

Ryan Blaney won the penultimate race of the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday, securing his spot in the Championship Four ahead of next weekend’s finale — but if you’re watching social media, you might not have noticed.

Instead, fans were engrossed in discussions of race manipulation – and therefore the championship – and what should be grounds for disqualification. Should a last-minute effort by a driver be penalized if apparently blatant manufacturer interference is allowed? The debate continues, but one thing is certain: The NASCAR Playoffs format effectively guarantees bad behavior.

The NASCAR playoffs guarantee bad behavior

While many sports – and even some forms of motorsports – benefit from an elimination-style playoff format, NASCAR has tried hard to make this system work for years, despite widespread pushback.

An elimination-style championship system was first implemented by NASCAR in 2014. In effect, a season of NASCAR Cup Series racing is divided into two parts: the regular season and the postseason. During the regular season, drivers fight for wins and hope to collect enough points to reach the postseason, where they can fight for a championship.

The post-season – now known as the Playoffs – begins with 16 championship-eligible drivers, all working to stay in championship contention until the final race. Every three weeks, four drivers are eliminated from the total pool of eligible championship contenders until we reach the end of the season. In that final race, the last four drivers left in the Playoffs all battle to finish highest on the track; the highest placed driver is the NASCAR champion.

NASCAR introduced this format to generate more interest in its races and add a bit of unpredictability to the title fight. However, many critics don’t like the fact that the most consistent driver in any given season won’t necessarily win the title race. If that driver has a three-week period of illness and/or bad luck in the post-season, his title fight is over.

But last weekend in Martinsville, the last fatal flaw of the Playoff system was revealed: It incentivizes and rewards manipulation and bad behavior in the name of the championship.

More on the NASCAR playoffs:

NASCAR Playoffs Explained: Format, Rules, Tracks and Schedule

2024 NASCAR Playoffs: Who Was Cut in the Cup and What to Expect from the Postseason

Now, we’ve seen bad behavior in the name of the playoffs before in NASCAR, so it’s nothing new. In 2022, for example, driver Ross Chastain drove into the wall and accelerated, using the wall as leverage to help him finish higher in the order and secure a spot in the next round of the playoffs. And earlier this year, driver Austin Dillon tried to make the Playoffs, destroying the competition for a win.

Chastain’s move — nicknamed the Cantaloupe — was considered legal at the time, but was later banned. Furthermore, NASCAR allowed Dillon to keep his win, but ultimately ruled that such a win should not earn him Playoff eligibility.

None of these high-risk moves would have been necessary if the Playoffs hadn’t encouraged this behavior.

This weekend at Martinsville, however, there were a few separate instances of risky moves and bad behavior, all in the name of the championship.

We’ll start with Christopher Bell. The Playoff-eligible driver knew his chances of making the Final were fading before his eyes in the closing moments of the race, prompting him to attempt a Hail Melon-like wall ride to try and knock William Byron out of the Final Four. The move earned him a track position, yes, but NASCAR felt it didn’t earn Byron a Playoff spot.

But there was another, even bigger, example of alleged race-fixing that should serve as the final nail in the Playoff coffin.

In NASCAR, three different manufacturers field cars: Ford, Toyota, and Chevrolet. While a manufacturer may supply components to various teams, and while those teams are technically competing against each other for the overall title, that manufacturer may also expect the teams to work together for the good of the manufacturer.

But where does “working together” become outright racial manipulation?

That is the question after Martinsville.

See, Bell was disqualified from the season finale for his move into the wall, meaning William Byron instead earned fourth place to compete for a championship next weekend in Phoenix. But allegations have surfaced claiming Byron’s Chevy mates deliberately tried to block other racers to help Byron progress.

Further allegations have been made about Bubba Wallace, a Toyota driver attempting to block other drivers in favor of his stablemate Christopher Bell.

Radio communications between Austin Dillon and his spotter appeared discussing “the plan”, while Bubba Wallace claimed he had a flat tire causing him to drive slowly. A group of Chevy drivers gathered behind Byron and Bell jumped the wall to pass a suddenly slowing Wallace.

NASCAR’s vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said the series will take a deeper look into the race-fixing allegations.

While it’s not illegal for cars from a single manufacturer to work together—which can often be seen when, say, a pack of Chevys will practice together during superspeedway events—driving slowly on purpose to prevent a competitor from field, or having a “plan” in place to help a stablemate into the championship four, would constitute race manipulation.

Furthermore, NASCAR rules state that drivers and teams NECESSITY tries to get the best possible result in any case. If you have a faster car than your manufacturer stablemate fighting for the final four, then that rule means you will have to overtake him.

On Sunday, many people feel that there were drivers and teams that did not follow this rule.

None of this behavior would have been present without the Playoff format.

In motorsport disciplines where the championship is decided based on a driver’s cumulative performance over the entire season, it would be extremely rare to come to the penultimate race of the season and have eight drivers fighting for an equal chance at the championship. One driver would have won the title lead, and while others could challenge him for that title, his consistency would have paid off as the season drew to a close.

In NASCAR, however, the fate of the championship is changed every weekend. Coming into Martinsville, eight drivers battled for four opportunities to compete for the championship – and those dramatic odds can easily make a person (or a team or a manufacturer) desperate.

NASCAR introduced the Playoffs to produce drama. That drama is now spiraling out of control. If the series wants to reign, then now is not the time to consider doing away with the playoff format entirely.

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