Visit the New Merch Store Here:
The NASCAR championship is always a hot button issue for NASCAR fans. The fanbase gets split right down the middle by those who love it for its entertainment value and those who loathe it for the obvious gimmicks they see it as. And with many seeing the benefits more of a full season points format and the ratings in the tank for the Playoffs fans are getting restless again. The big question I have is, “Would a full season championship still work in NASCAR?”
Video Credits:
ABC Sports
Black Flags Matter
EA Sports
ESPN
FOX Sports
Joe Satriani
KingCuervo88
Motorsports on NBC
NASCAR
NASCAR Productions
NASCAR 06: Total Team Control
NascarAllOut
NBC Sports
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
Thumbnail Credits:
USA TODAY Sports
Outro Song:
Strange Animal (Crowder Remix) by Gowan
Songs:
Screaming Fusion by Joe Satriani on NASCAR 06: Total Team Control
Speed Natives by Joe Satriani on NASCAR 06: Total Team Control
Smokin' Joe by Joe Satriani on NASCAR 06: Total Team Control
#NASCAR #Motorsports #racing
56 comments
Do you think NASCAR could ever successfully go back to a full season championship format?
Yes it would. The new fans need to be reminded of the golden era of Winston Cup racing.
It’s definitely a high possibility that they could, but right now we need to accept that the playoffs aren’t going anywhere
@Twister Accepting stuff never moves the bar.
Doubt it
Yes it would… Every year I watch people keep track of the season using the old format and it’s always close towards the end
This has been my argument for bringing it back. The cars and drivers are so close in talent and performance now that I don’t think anyone would run away with it. Even if they did, then they obviously deserve to be champion. Back when it went away you only had a handful of drivers able to win and consistently run well. Now ANYONE can win on any given week.
Well, considering that 10 points divided Buescher, Hamlin and Byron heading into Las Vegas, it could, it’s just if NASCAR wants it and it doesn’t seem like it, unfortunately.
I think it could work still. The only changes I would make if it comes back is add double points in the crown jewel races, and the season finale. The only con of the full season format coming back is that if a Championship is decided one race early, ratings will tank. I’m sure ratings tanked in the 2003 Homestead race compared to the 2002 Homestead race
I don’t think that’s how things work. Look at F1 for example. The championship this year was decided pretty much by June, but officially it was decided like 6 races before the end of the season. But people will still watch. I bet that even if the championship is already wrapped up by the second to last race or even before, people will still watch. First of all they’ll watch because it’s the last race of the year, there’s no NASCAR for months after Phoenix, they’ll probably like to see the last race of certain drivers (If they have announced a retirement at the end of the year). There are also the crazy people who watch racing for the racing itself, they don’t need a championship deciding race to tune in. Damn some of the best races I’ve watched in F1 have happened after the championship was decided.
That’s one big flaw. 20 years ago, Matt Kenseth won the championship winning only ONE race. He was already the winner by the time the 2nd Atlanta race happened. Not a good way to spread TV ratings or track attendance. Also, the playoff format today is obviously screwed. What needs to happen is mix em, have regular season points, but eliminate drivers from racing the latter half of the season if they haven’t accured enough points to not screw things up. By the time the championship race is on, only a few number of drivers are on the track, and the 1st to cross the finish line is the champion
I like the idea of double points in Daytona races and Coca-Cola 600
Absolutely a full season championship would work. I’ve been keeping track of the Winston standings and there are still a good 6-8 drivers who mathematically can still win the title. It also brings more excitement which could encourage viewers to tune in all season long. I think another thing to maximize the ratings would be to shorten the schedule so it won’t be competing with the NFL as much. 30-32 races in my opinion would be a based schedule to have.
If they were to shorten the schedule, the best thing to do would be to take out poorly attended races from tracks that have two. Bristol, Martinsville, Texas and Richmond shouldn’t have two races since no one goes to them anymore.
Heck, remove TexARSE altogether, and just not race on short tracks (aside from the Clash and North Wilkesboro due to positive reception), the short track package just SUCKS, and it’s HIGHLY UNLIKELY they’ll better it
get rid of the playoff points and there you go
@Gabingstonso take out the short tracks?
A shortened schedule obviously makes sense, but it will almost certainly never happen. Less races = less revenue.
With the current point points system, yes, absolutely. If someone is able to run away with the points lead, they deserve it! Let’s embrace tradition, not run from it!
I agree, and that seems to be the one thing that doesn’t click with Playoffs lovers. They don’t seem to realize that unlike in baseball or football, you’re facing every major player every single week, and it’s easy to tell who’s the best of the best when you’re beating the same guys every week. It’s not like baseball where you only face one of the other 29 teams on a given day, and you either win or lose. I already posted a video on my channel tackling 10 terrible arguments to defend the Playoffs and why they’re terrible arguments, and S1apshoes also posted a video about why the Playoffs themselves are so bad. I think it’s safe to say that the arguments against the Playoffs are really strong, and the Playoffs need to pack their bags.
Tell that to Winston, who pulled out of NASCAR 20 years ago
@nascarfanatic2425that’s because the playoff lovers value entertainment far more than actual pure racing.
Those are the types of guys that will c20 Rex and erase and talk about how great the racing was although all we had were cautions. Then there will be a race that has grape passing and great racing and because there wasn’t a last-lap pass for the win, they will say it was okay. Lol
When it hasn’t existed for 2 decades it’s no longer tradition, it’s a fond memory. I’m not an advocate for the current playoff system or going back to a full season format, both have pro’s and con’s. I will say this, if they decided to go back to the full season championship I would want it as pure as possible. No bonus points, no wave arounds, no lucky dogs. If your max number of cars per race is 43, then first place gets 43 points and every position gets one point less. Basically the championship is won by the driver with the highest average finish position over the season, ie. the most consistent.
@Eteocles I don’t think I should come down to who is automatically the most consistent driver.
Would you rather finish sixth of every race or have a season where you finish first and half the races and 13th and the other? The six play sky technically would have the better average finish. They’re still needs to be a little benefit to somebody for winning.
Nascar needs to fight for way more time for interviews. Some fans maybe don’t care because they don’t know who the drivers are.
They are just a number and a scheme.
F1 has an awesome amount of time for interviews after the race.
We need something similar.
Blame CRINGE network for not caring once they monopolized the sport on TV from 2007-2016
How sick would be if NASCAR did what f1 did with the Netflix doc you open up the drivers and the teams makes it way more interesting and the younger gen would be more invested
I haven’t seen an F1 race, but NASCAR used to have a bunch of post-race interviews. At a minimum there were four or five guys that were interviewed immediately after the race. Now, if we get one person other than the winner, it’s a miracle.
Hell, Riley Herbst won the race and they were scrambling to get him interviewed. But, this is due to the networks.
I stop watching once Kyle Larson wins in regular season bc it’s win your in and I do same thing in the playoffs till the next row
I personally don’t like how they interview the driver immediately after they won the race I’d rather interview them in victory lane and during the post race…
Without a doubt a full season championship would work.
As long as there isn’t another Matt Kenseth win like what happened 20 years ago
@S.KullRandom I see nothing wrong with a 2003-like season. If others have more wins but keep screwing up and getting involved in accidents then that’s on them. We shouldn’t discredit someone being consistent because they didn’t win a race even though they had the better average finish/most points through the entire year.
It might improve ratings very slightly, but I feel like the ratings would still tank in the latter third of the season. I think some people just get burnt out and lose interest over the season sometimes. I feel like a full season format would only work long-term if there are less races on the schedule, say 30-32 max. I feel like the playoffs don’t have as big of an impact on ratings as people think. I think this late in the year other sports start taking over.
Also I feel like going back to a full format would completely illegitimize every Championship of the last 20 years. I’d like a format that rewards more consistency but still makes wins very important. Some significant structural changes to the current system could be a good enough compromise.
Exactly, a hybrid of Piston and Nextel is the best solution. No Matt Kenseths to ruin the schedule, nor any win-and-you’re-in scenarios. Playoffs can consist of ONLY THE TOP 20 drivers at first (the rest are barred from competing), then narrow the field down as the races go by via crashes, equipment failure, DQs, etc. Basically a last man standing scenario. No playoff points, no Matt Kenseths to ruin it 3 races early, just get in and go, and hope everything is top notch
Honestly the season needs to be shorter by about 10 races regardless.
How would it tank with close championship battles? It won’t beat the nfl no matter what
@The Snapperhead Right. It never beat the NFL even in it’s hay day.
One of the biggest problems I have with the playoffs (other than the obvious delegitimizing of the championship) is how when the playoffs start, the individual races don’t feel as special. Darlington is treated as the opener of the Playoffs instead of the 3rd crown Jewel like it should be. Same with Bristol or Talladega. I get the championship is important, but sometimes I want to be able to enjoy a singular race as just a race without any outside storylines. And I want the important races to be treated as such and not as just another race in the playoffs
Every race should matter from first to last. The pressure to perform week in and week out, legitimises the winner of a championship over a season. What made the 1996 championship battle between the Hendrick team mates Jeff Gordon and Terry Labonte so fascinating? It was the close points battle between one driver who won by far the most races (10) but wasn’t consistent and a driver who lacked wins but more than made up for it in being so consistent. Just 37 points separated Terry Labonte from his team mate, but it going right to the wire made it interesting to see unfold
My biggest concern with going back to a full-season format is this: is NASCAR and the fanbase going to have enough *patience* to let the format do its thing? To your point, it wouldn’t be a complete turnaround in viewership if a full-season format is introduced (it would likely take 3-5 years to catch on) and I’m worried that NASCAR isn’t going to have the patience to wait it out and let the viewership roll in or the fanbase is nit going to be patient and wait out the storm before writing off the format as “outdated.” With the way culture is going nowadays, it wouldn’t surprise me to see, but my worries could also be unfounded and NASCAR and fans do indeed have the patience to let the format do its thing. Who knows?
Absolutely hands down We need to go back to a full season championship. What other professional racing series in the world uses a playoff system to determine the champion?
Only NASCAR. And I get that they don’t want another Matt Kenseth win (he won the championship by winning only ONE race, and that was Vegas early in the season), it was practically his by the time the 2nd Atlanta race happened. They only needed to modify the points system so that didn’t happen again, not completely overhaul it for playoffs, and maybe not scare Winston off
I mean NHRA and Monster Jam do it but those are excusable because they only have like a small amount of cars competing at the same time
@Who Asked Yeah cuz monster jam is such a reputable motorsport
Sarcasm
@Diecast Emporium at one point it was
now they’ve ruined it by taking out all the fun
I think World of Outlaws went to a similar format. They at least talked about it a couple years ago. I didn’t like the idea.
The Latford points system was the best out of all points systems used. It needed more points given to the winner.
The playoffs and previously the chase create a champion that can manipulate the last 10 races the best, not a full season. As you say Indy Car and F1 have full seasons with ratings increases.
Nascar made a huge mistake by signing the network deal for 2001. I get it was a ton of $$ for them, not necessarily the team, tracks etc. I enjoyed the different networks carrying the races, different flavors of broadcasters and generally rarely being preempted for other sports.
There isn’t a quick fix, though I feel more gimmicks makes is very WWEesque.
Whenever the point of younger potential fans is brought up in favor of the playoffs, I just immediately think, “If young racing fans are flocking to F1 where either Hamilton or Verstappen lock up the title months in advance nearly every year, then surely a sport with true parity in both its drivers and equipment (all due respect to F1 drivers, of course) will be a-OK with a season-long points format.”
Like I’m a younger fan myself, and if the playoffs ever went away, then I may have somewhat a soft spot for them and some of the moments they spawned (Hemric’s 2021 title and the Hail Melon being two of my favorite moments in all of sports, if I’m being totally honest), but I would still be overwhelmingly glad to see them go and have a solid year-end points system back. Because sure, the title could be out of doubt a month and a half in advance like Kenseth in ’03, but that just makes it all the more special when a thrilling championship fight does happen, and we’ve missed out on far too many great title fights these past 20 years already. Heck, with all the parity these days (just look at this year), if they returned to the season-long format in the near future, we’d likely get multiple great championship fights immediately. Dare I say, out of every period in NASCAR history, this current era may well be the one least in need of a gimmicked playoff system.
Also this year has made the lack of a season-long points battle sting all the more not just because of how close it would have been, but also how hilarious it would look to those in 2016 seeing the 2023 championship battle being between Denny Hamlin and the Pocono fog win guy.
as a fan of both, but as someone that met F1 first, I think there is one thing helping Nascar: the car sponsors. In F1 it’s the same for both, so they put many resources in one driver (like… car updates, improvments on parts…) and leave the other with nothing.
If F1 had the same system there would be more pressure on the teams to make the competition equal.
Regardless, Hamilton and Verstappen deserve to be where they are concerning this. Since their young age they proved that they only had winning in mind weekend in weekend out. Verstappen got moved to RBR midseason because of great runs with AlphaTauri, and won in his debut for the bigger team. Hamilton took Alonso to the limit at McLaren when he was a two time reigning and defending champion. Fought for the title in his rookie season.
Playoffs are never going away since TV networks love it but i think going back to the original Chase format with 10 drivers and 10 races can work. You can even reserve 2 spots if needed for drivers with injuries but have a win in the top 20
I totally agree. I really don’t care whether the stages stay or go away, but we need a full-season championship
I’m fine with keeping stages if they get rid of stage cautions.
@A T I agree. Everyone points out the Watkins Glen race as a reason we need stage cautions, but I thought that race was great!
I think that a full-season championship would be a better format, considering how close all of the cars are in performance. That being said, it would be cool to have a double points “playoffs” in place of the chase, and maybe even triple points at the very end. Nice balance of fair and entertainment.
It’s because of the NFL for sure. And as the series loses huge stars, ratings are bound to go down. Some people stoped watching when we lost Dale Sr. I was a huge Jimmie fan, and when he retired I switched to Kyle Larson, Jimmie’s old team. I really like the playoff formats and going back to a full season points standings I would stop watching. F1 and Max Verstappen just clinched with 6 races to go however, the whole world knew he was going to win 6 weeks ago. No excitement