NASCAR has continually searched for ways to capitalize on the intensity that the playoffs have in other sports. There’s nothing better than the excitement of a Game 7 in the NBA, NHL, or MLB. March Madness in college basketball has the true win-or-go-home feel, and of course, there is no sporting event that matches the Super Bowl.
The online casino is busy every weekend with NASCAR bets because each race is important, and field events like auto racing and golf can have long-shot odds for surprise winners. NASCAR has also had a playoff since 2004, but they’ve undergone many tweaks to try and fine-tune and emulate at least a portion of the thrill of the other major sports.
Changes In the 2022 Playoffs
There were a lot of tweaks to the NASCAR playoffs for the first 10 years of its existence, but the format has stayed pretty consistent since 2014. The postseason was expanded to 16 drivers that compete in four rounds. After Each three-race segment, four drivers are eliminated until the final four drivers compete in one Championship Race for the season championship.
Every driver that is still active in the postseason, starting with the round of 16, can punch their ticket to the next round with a win. After each stage, the points reset until the winner-take-all Championship Race.
While the format has stayed the same, the schedule has switched up a bit for the 2022 postseason. Homestead-Miami has replaced Richmond, and the races at Texas and Kansas have found different spots in the rotation. We could see Texas moved even further back in the schedule moving forward as the temperatures in late September were still so hot that tires were sticking to the track.
Have the Playoffs Been a Success In the Past?
Fans are somewhat mixed on whether NASCAR even needed a playoff in the first place. It’s a long 40+ race season with many different track types. Some purists think that whichever driver accumulated the most points over that grind should be named the best driver of the year and not whoever gets hot at the end of the season.
There are two problems with not having a NASCAR postseason. The first is that many times a driver would wrap up the points championship with two or three races left in the season, which made those final events essentially meaningless. That, and no other major sport, just rewards the best regular season team just ask the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who finished 116-46 but did not make the World Series.
Having a playoff has definitely changed how some drivers are perceived, looking back on history. Jimmie Johnson is undoubtedly a legend, but of his five straight playoff wins from 2006-2010, only two of those would have stood under the old points format.
Carl Edwards was robbed of being a 2X champion (2008, 2011) when Johnson and Tony Stewart won the playoffs those years. Chase Elliott would also still be chasing his first championship, as it was Kevin Harvick who was the points leader in 2020 when Elliott won the playoffs.
2022 NASCAR Season Was a Unique One
While the Championship Race in Phoenix has yet to be raced, it’s been an interesting 2022 NASCAR playoffs. The first three winners of the postseason were Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, and Chris Buescher, none of whom even qualified for the round of 16.
The good thing about the NASCAR playoffs is the same thing that made the regular season that much more interesting in 2022, which is parity. 16 different drivers won during the regular season, and Buescher’s victory made it a record-tying 19th racer to win in 2022.
Ultimately fans are going to be tuned into Phoenix for the Championship Race, and that’s what NASCAR wants. Having three or four races down the stretch that don’t mean anything because somebody has already wrapped up the title is boring – and they don’t make money.
Some regular season points leaders might not like the postseason format, but the answer to them is just to go out and win the playoffs.
