NASCAR Returns to Chase Format, Makes Sense Now

NASCAR has at last abandoned its absurd win-and-you’re-in playoffs format that absolutely no one found exciting and was by definition unable to produce meaningful champions. It has gone back to a 10-race Chase but with some significant scoring and seeding differences from last time.

Winning a race is worth a major gap in points compared to that between any other positions, which I find to be an excellent replacement for win-and-you’re-in. Everyone who blames WaYi (yes, I did that) for the kamikaze style of racing of the previous era is absolutely right, but I believe it is also still good to incentivize winning and racing hard instead of cruising for points. It’s also good to award stage points, since it keeps people pushing throughout the race. These are mechanics that actually make NASCAR racing exciting, and now they will finally matter throughout the whole season.

Some people have also complained about the fact that the cutoff position for the Chase is P16 — they think there should be fewer cars — but that makes no sense to me. The more cars there are in the Chase, the closer to a normal motorsports championship it is, and it’s not like the P16 car is going to be able to leapfrog everyone and win the championship like they could before. They’re going to have to be absolutely magnificent for 10 weeks, and if they do that, hell, crown ’em.

There are also reasonable business reasons to start with many contestants, and I feel like modern fans are not understanding enough of such things. In order for motorsports to be good, you have to, you know, have motorsports at all.