It’s time for NASCAR to embrace a radical idea and drastically overhaul its points system. The vulnerabilities of the current playoff system were on full display once again on Sunday in Martinsville, as Chevrolet drivers refused to pass William Byron in the final laps and Christopher Bell bounced off the wall multiple times as he passed a suddenly slowing Bubba Wallace on the final lap. Bell’s pass of Wallace got him into the final four for about 20 minutes, before NASCAR deemed that the move was a “safety violation.
” Bell was moved down in the running order and Byron joined race winner Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick in the group of four drivers that will race for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series title at Phoenix on Nov. 10. NASCAR ditched its full-season points format in 2004 in favor of a 10-race postseason that featured the best drivers from the first 26 races.
At the time, NASCAR was the fastest-growing sports series in the country and had designs on challenging the NFL for top billing among American sports fans. The final race of the 2003 season — a race that didn’t matter for the title because Matt Kenseth had clinched the championship a week before — had over 7.3 million viewers.
That playoff format has evolved multiple times in the two decades since it was implemented. First it was expanded to 12 drivers from 10 and then expanded again to 16 in 2014 when NASCAR decided that the 10 races needed to be broken up into four different rounds with a winne.
