Not everyone in the NASCAR community is satisfied with how the Cup Series playoffs is played out.
The Cup Series playoffs format right now includes 10 races divided into four rounds. With disqualification in each round, the 16 drivers to make it to the playoffs are cut to 4 for the final race and the title is decided by who wins the race or finishes highest wins the championship.
The current format of the playoffs started back in 2014 while the playoffs in general started in 2004. However, the current system has yet to win all the hearts of NASCAR professionals and fans.
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One person who is not yet convinced with the current system is Dale Earnhardt Jr. who doesn’t like the amount of drivers that gets into the playoffs. In the Brian France episode of “The Dale Jr. Download.”, Dale Jr. said:
“I like the playoffs, but the only thing that I’ve kind of struggled with is how we expanded the playoff field,” Earnhardt said. “And this happened at the Clash as well. Like the eligibility for getting into the Clash changed the identity of that race.
“When the Chase was 10 drivers, it was like, ‘D***, that’s hard. That’s hard to get into.’ It’s 16 now, which is almost half the field of the guys that run every single week.”
Having listened to the episode, Denny Hamlin came up with his own solution to the system. He replied to one Twitter user’s post, who wanted the Championship 4 race removed.
“The round of [four] is great,” Hamlin tweeted. “I agree with @DaleJr that it should be a larger sample size, however. [Three] races to crown a champ. 12 total races in playoffs. Every race is important, no one will clinch early. The last race is still the championship.”
The round of 4 is great. I agree with @DaleJr that it should be a larger sample size however. 3 races to crown a champ. 12 total races in playoffs. Every race is important, no one will clinch early. The last race is still the championship. https://t.co/kpnt023OOY
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) November 16, 2022
Having seen changes in the last two decades, the current system won’t likely be the last one either. While it is hard to say when the next change will come through, rising criticism could certainly speed up the process.
Let us know what do you think of the current playoffs system and share your ideas for a better one.
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