While the NASCAR playoff format has become a proverbial punching bag for people these days, and sometimes unfairly so, what happened last weekend at Martinsville is 100% a byproduct of it. The NASCAR playoffs are structured in a way so that title favorites like Kyle Larson can easily be knocked out of championship contention and drivers with so-so seasons like Joey Logano get to fight for the crown. And that’s not a knock against Logano, who has once again nailed this all or nothing format. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
And the game deserved plenty of hate after Martinsville. This wasn’t a teammate pushing another to the win at Talladega, but a blatant attempt to bend the outcome to one manufacturer or another’s will. The drivers involved weren’t even on the same team as the drivers who benefitted from shenanigans, but manufacturers have so much sway over the sport now, Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon can’t even think about taking that position from William Byron, even though they’re racers — they want to finish as high as possible. Then there’s Bubba Wallace who claimed something was wrong with his car, but obviously, NASCAR saw that claim as race manipulation as well.
These are two problems colliding at once — the ever-tightening alignment between teams of the same manufacturer, and NASCAR’s current championship format showing the uglier side of that.
None of what happened on that final lap was racing, and it was only happening because of this format. NASCAR’s latest format forces Game 7 moments leading to these situations where drivers are put in uncomfortable positions where they have to be more worried about the playoff drivers and what’s happening in their race than what’s happening in their own. And due to how tightly aligned teams are now through manufacturer loyalty, it’s like three super teams out there — Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota — on the track at this point of the season.
Hey, if it was the No. 48 HMS Chevy of Alex Bowman behind Byron, I feel like I’d be less frustrated with all of this. Of course a teammate is going to help, just like Ryan Blaney played blocker for Logano in the 2022 title-decider instead of going for the win himself. But why should Dillon and Chastain have to worry about Byron? Because they all drive for the same car make and that supersedes everything else in 2024. People are mad at these drivers, but what choice did they have?
#24: William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro, #3: Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing, Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro
Photo by: John K Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images
Remember how Parker Retzlaff faced criticism because he tried to win at Daytona earlier this year? He had to publicly explain why a young driver in a car that rarely contends for race wins attempted to win a race. And why? Because his late-race push to Harrison Burton cost fellow Chevy driver Kyle Busch a win — and an automatic playoff berth. Even fans were mad!
This madness has now bled into the fanbase, who fully expect manufacturer allegiances to trump everything else in these critical races. And what what happened at Martinsville won’t stop unless NASCAR puts a stop to it. These points penalties and fines and one-race suspensions for the bad actors are not going to stop this. Like in 2022, when NASCAR issued a penalty to Stewart-Haas Racing for the same thing. If they wanted to make a real statement, they would have thrown the No. 24 and the No. 20 out of the Championship 4 on Sunday night. SpinGate in 2013 did not end with Clint Bowyer’s penalty. NASCAR took Martin Truex Jr. — who benefitted from the interference but had nothing to do with it — and removed him from the playoffs.
This is more about the format itself but people were shocked when Chastain chose to race for the win last year at Phoenix instead of bowing to the Championship 4 drivers. If drivers can’t race for the win, why are the non-contenders even out there “competing?” Might as well just race with the title contenders and no one else like the 2006 Cars movie.
