NASCAR president sends a stern “full stop” message to playoff critics as he delivers his ‘deserving drivers' take
NASCAR President Steve Phelps shunned the playoff format haters and has put a "full stop" to the debate critiquing the knockout system. Phelps sat for a media interview amid the imminent Cup Series finale at Phoenix Raceway and addressed backlash about the format before opening the floor for the questions.
The current playoff format was introduced in 2014 and was said to be driving more emphasis on the drivers winning in the final 10-race slate. The elimination system features four rounds of three races, except for the final race. Four championship hopefuls are sidelined after every third race, with the race winner of each race in a particular round receiving a guaranteed advancement into the next round.
While the format safeguards those drivers who notch a win early on and safeguard their spot in the next round, critics argued that it sometimes dethrones those from the title fight who reigned supreme in the regular season. The most recent example is Kyle Larson, who boasts six wins this season but got eradicated from the battle amid his failure to meet the points threshold in the recent Martinsville race.
Moreover, due to the controversial turnaround at the XFINITY 500, the Round of 8 elimination race, Denny Hamlin heavily jibed at the broken playoff format, blaming it for creating scandalous races.
Despite the backlash, NASCAR president Phelps stood firm about the current playoff format and talked about the 'deserving' Championship 4 drivers. He said (via Cup Scene).
"A lot of chatter around the four that are going to compete on Sunday. I’ve heard some words like, 'They’re not deserving. You’ve got the wrong driver, or two, three, four drivers.' What I would say is that all of or drivers knew the format, and these drivers in all three national series competed and went to the highest level, and they deserve to be here. So just take the Cup race, right? Phelps said (1:45).
"You have a former champion who won to get in, as he did last year. You have a regular season champion who won to get in here. You have a two-time Cup champion who won to get here. Then the young man who pointed his way through, William Byron, is an incredible talent. So all four of these drivers deserve to be here, full stop," the NASCAR President added.
Had the previous format been in practice, the Cup Series champion would've been the top-scoring driver from the 10-race playoff battle, not the winner or the highest finisher at the Phoenix race.
Denny Hamlin comments on Kevin Harvick's proposal to cure NASCAR's playoff system
The playoff drama has put many in the community on their toes. Many have slammed the format saying underserving drivers are in the title fight, stemming majorly from Joey Logano's rise from the ashes. The Team Penske driver was out of the playoffs but Alex Bowman's DQ reinstated him. Logano won the following event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and punched his Championship 4 ticket.
Kevin Harvick opined on the current system highlighting that the current format doesn't have the best four cars in the title fight. The former NASCAR driver and 2014 Cup Series champion proposed a unique solution to the problem.
According to Harvick, the regular season points champion should be granted an automatic entry in the Championship 4 race. The runner-up would be advanced directly to the Round of 8, the third-placed driver would be put in the Round of 12, and the P4 driver would get an entry in the first round of the playoffs.
Denny Hamlin gave a two-word response to Harvick's solution. He Tweeted.
"Not terrible."
Should NASCAR reinstate the Chase format that prevailed until the 2014 season?