I’m going to write down the stat lines of four drivers through the first 35 races of the year and I want you to guess how many of these drivers will be competing for the championship next week in Phoenix.
Driver 1: 6 Wins, 14 Top 5s, 17 Top 10s, 13.2 Average Finish
Driver 2: 3 Wins, 14 Top 5s, 22 Top 10s, 13.0 Average Finish
Driver 3: 3 Wins, 6 Top 5s, 12 Top 10s, 17.6 Average Finish
Driver 4: 1 Win, 11 Top 5s, 18 Top 10s, 11.8 Average Finish.
Only one of these drivers made the Championship Four, and the one driver that will race for the championship in Phoenix? Driver 3, Joey Logano. Arguably the worst driver in the Round of 8 will be able to win a championship over the driver with the most wins and best average finish.
It’s fair to say that some drivers are more deserving of the final four than others, but it is inarguable that multiple drivers absolutely do not deserve to be there.
The final laps of the cutoff race in Martinsville saw dramatic changes to the final four lineup. On the last lap, Christopher Bell tried to hit a hail mary in the turn 3-4 wall to beat William Byron for the final spot. NASCAR handed down the ruling that Bell was in violation of NASCAR safety rules and relegated him to the tail end of the lead lap, putting Byron back in for Phoenix.
The ruling itself has some room for question, given that it was not based upon the rules made in the aftermath of the Hail Melon, but rather NASCAR safety. However, NASCAR itself told Joe Gibbs Racing, the owners of Bell’s #20 car, that they cannot appeal the decision, which was explained post-race by a heartbroken Joe Gibbs.
This level of decision making by NASCAR is to be expected, as the sanctioning body has never made a ruling that has been even remotely free of controversy, but sending the order down to Gibbs that they cannot appeal the penalty is digging themselves further into a hole. Remember that NASCAR is actively being sued by two of its teams for essentially ruling the sport like a dictator, and this decision is only adding more fuel to the fire. They could’ve easily allowed JGR to appeal the decision which likely would’ve been overturned anyway to at least maintain the illusion of being a fair sport, but the mask is no longer worth putting on for the higher-ups.
This is not even the most controversial decision of the race, arguably the worst missed call that NASCAR has ever made and the one that should be under significant amounts of fire from fans, drivers, team owners, and the media.
It’s the final laps of the race and William Byron’s Hendrick #24 is dropping like a rock. He’s only one point above Christopher Bell with a pack of cars behind him. Heading this pack are Chevrolet teammates Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon. Suddenly, the rapidly dropping #24 is able to maintain position coming to the checkered flag, with Chastain and Dillon sitting two-wide behind him playing blocker.
Radio communications released after the race by the NBC broadcast state that the spotter for the #3 car of Dillon asking if the #1 team “knew the deal”, while Dillon was also receiving constant updates on the #24’s position in points. Additionally, the #3 team was communicated before the race even began to be “cognizant of these HMS cars, playoff cars today”.
It was clear to anyone with a functioning pair of eyes that neither the #1 nor #3 would make anything close to an attempt to pass the #24 and were dead set on keeping spoilers, like the #6 of Keselowski behind and out of the way.
You may be sitting there thinking, like a certain NASCAR on NBC pundit, “So what? Manufacturers work together at drafting tracks all the time”. That is completely different to what this is. This is a clear attempt by Chevrolet to manipulate the results of a race in order to put Byron in the final four over Bell, which is in direct violation of NASCAR’s 100% rule, stating that all drivers need to give “100% effort” at all times during a race.
This rule, instituted after the largest scandal in NASCAR history in Spingate, essentially bans all drivers from submitting to team orders to allow other drivers to finish ahead of them and making no effort to pass them. NASCAR has already made an enforcement with this rule before in the playoffs. Back in 2022 at the Roval, Stewart Haas Racing driver Cole Custer slowed down on the final lap to allow teammate Chase Briscoe to pass him and eliminate Kyle Larson from the Round of 8. As a result of this, Custer was fined $100k and docked 50 points, while his crew chief Mike Shiplett receiving the same fine and an indefinite suspension. This punishment was already in violation of precedent set by NASCAR during Spingate, as they altered the playoff grid to remove the benefactors of the scandal.
It is clear that NASCAR needs to step up and do what is right about this situation. William Byron should not be racing in the Championship 4 next weekend, send a message to all manufacturers who think they can manipulate the playoff grid as they choose. But they won’t, because, so far, they haven’t.
After the race on Sunday NASCAR’s trotted out their favorite scapegoat, Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer, to the media to try and explain away why Bell was booted from Phoenix but Byron is allowed to stay. He said that they only chose to review the wall-riding by Bell, and did not look at any of the shenanigans between the Chevrolet cars, but they “may” look at it later.
This is absolutely and completely unacceptable from NASCAR. Choosing to penalize one thing they deem to be a rule violation while not even acknowledging something that flies completely in the face of their own rules which also directly impacts which drivers will be able to race for a championship next week.
This is why they’re losing fans, this is why we aren’t taken seriously by any other major sport. Diehard NASCAR fans are completely livid with the state of the sport currently and Hall of Fame drivers like Mark Martin are publicly coming out and calling the sport a “sh*t show”.
It’s not the team’s fault, it’s not the driver’s fault that this happens, it’s NASCAR’s fault. Idiotic moments like this can be solely blamed on the contrived playoff format that holds no value to any of the regular season or consistency and only values the “moments”. The oh-so-special “moments” that can be retweeted every single year to generate attention and “wows” from non-fans online, with absolutely no regard for the integrity of the sport and the actual legitimacy of a championship.
NASCAR has always tried to tow the line between entertainment and sport which is part of it’s appeal to fans in general, but they’ve completely sacrificed any shred of legitimacy to chase the dragon of “viral” moments that get immediately forgotten about weeks later due to the fact that they are completely falsely made.
The most iconic and replayable moments in sports history are the way they are because they happen naturally. These one-in-a-million moments are special because they don’t happen every day. There’s a million possibilities of what could happen and Lady Luck just happened to decide that the time is now.
NASCAR has no concept of this, they’ve stuck to the format that has reduced racing quality severely and focused on manufacturing these moments. There is no good reason to stick to the format the way it currently is. Fans hate it and honestly, the drivers do too. Owner and former champion Brad Keselowski tweeted that he hopes that the saga on Sunday would be the “last straw in the camel’s back for the playoffs”.
But of course, NASCAR doesn’t see this. The sanctioning body is happy that their broken format produces “excitement” for fans, with Sawyer even saying that this is what the fans want. This shows exactly how out of touch NASCAR’s management is to what the fans want. Nobody wants this, nearly every fan unilaterally despises the playoff system and what it has done to racing in the Cup Series.
This is why nobody respects us. This is why no one takes us seriously. Our championship format is an illegitimate slugfest designed to produce racing no level higher than a demolition derby with a champion crowned who most likely doesn’t even deserve a shot at it, which is unfortunately what our sport has come down to.
Featured Image Credits: TeamHendrick on X
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