One of the better analyses of the subject of the NASCAR Playoffs that I have read in over the last few weeks, is this piece by Elizabeth Blackstock (ex Jalopnik, Donut Media &c)
https://deadlypassionsterriblejoys.substack.com/p/nascar-doesnt-have-a-playoff-problem
NASCAR doesn't have a Playoff problem; it has a storytelling problem
It feels like everyone gave up on the NASCAR Playoffs this year — but why?
- Elizabeth Blackstock, 3rd Nov 2025
The argument in the article (go and read it) makes an excellent case as to why nobody cares who the NASCAR Cup Champion is, and why the Xfinity Series has the wrong champion, but I think that the diagnosis is wrong because of the simple underlying problem.
I do not think that the root cause is one of narrative; although that is a compelling argument. No, I think that the lack of a compelling narrative is itself a symptom of the root cause and the root cause is:
ALL playoffs in all sports are stupid.
Now I should preface this by saying that I live in Australia. We are probably at fault when it comes to the invention of finals series and playoffs and the reason is deeply pragmatic.
All the way back in 1897, the Victorian Football Association ran the inaugural senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. Eight clubs (Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda) played each other in a round robin series, and then the top four played each other in a second round robin series. What this meant is that there was a 14 round home-and-away season, followed by three weeks of finals. The thing that annoyed fans and journalists at the time, was that the Premiership Cup could have been awarded to either Essendon or Geelong on the last day, and they were playing several miles apart. As it was, the Premiership was awarded to Essendon, who beat Collingwood in match that The Argus described in less than glowing terms:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9770101
However you slice it, Essendon 1.8.14 def. Collingwood 0.8.8 is an abysmal performance. Yes it might have been the 1890s which implies a lower level of professionalism, and yes it might have been blowing an absolute gale across Port Phillip and Lake Oval, but it still doesn't change the fact that people saw a horrible game of football in which for three quarters no goals were scored.
In the minds of the powers that be something had to be done. The logic which followed said that this was something; therefore we must do this. So what we have ended up with since 1898 is a dirty method of awarding a cup.
The other side of this is that the Football Association Challenge Cup, otherwise known as the FA Cup, was first awarded in 1872 in England and would by the nature of being a pure knockout competition, means that there would always be one final and the cup can be awarded to the winners on the Cup Final day.
Herein lies the great temptation which promoters invariably give in to. Because there is the drama of a cup competition where going home is the prize for losing, they think that they then can then apply that to crowning the champion of a league.
The Victorian Football Association created a finals series as a solution to a problem which only existed because they'd already invented a stupid system for awarding a premiership. Had they already determined that point difference would have decided the league championship, then that would have used the already existing set of statistics; which would have meant that the premier actually did do better over the course of the season.
American Sports love this everywhere with the NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS all falling into this. More broadly the European Champions League, the Europa League, the FIFA World Cup, the NRL, and the AFL which is guilty of starting off this whole nonsense, all want to award a cup trophy on Cup Final Day and in doing so, completely render the actual value of winning the league/conference/division/group which preceded it, as practically worthless.
America further compounds the problem by deliberately choosing to render the group stages of its various leagues/conferences/divisions/groups worthless, by organising teams into those things in the first place. Again, if we look to Australia which is massive, then the West Coast Eagles who might travel to Brisbane, Sydney, or Melbourne, already travel further than American teams because they play their home games in Perth. Multi billion dollar sports organisations which already factor in the costs of travel, don't really need to organise competitions by geography.
Furthermore, as the Football Association itself proves, running promotion and relegation between league divisions, literally twenty leagues deep on the football pyramid, provides its own jeopardy in a way that a team who finishes 11th in the AFC West Division will never face.
Quite frankly, a league where everyone plays everyone else home and away is the best format to decide who is best in the league because the ontology of the thing in the first place says that you have to be consistently the best against all comers. A cup arrives at the same point by eliminating those who were not the best all the time. Having said all of that, a knockout cup in motor sports where you have 40 runners at once, is an idiotic concept.
NASCAR in two seasons has now demonstrated both sides of the horky borky brokenness of having a league with a finals series.
On one hand, Joey Logano came 17th in the league and then kind of lucked/backed into being the NASCAR Cup champion in 2024. In 2025 Connor Zillisch in the Xfinity Series, put on a masterclass in the league and then some other bozo became champion because he just happened to have won the lottery on the last day. On one hand we have a chancer who should not have been champion but is, and on the other we have a phenomenon which should have been champion but is not.
I will also go on to say that any system which allows you to discount bad performances (which is what the current NASCAR system does in spades) is also deliberately stupid. I am reminded of the 1988 Formula One Championship which was won by Ayrton Senna, where only the best 11 races of 16 were counted. As a pure championship based on the number of points accumulated, Alain Prost won that 105-94 but because the system allowed Senna to throw away five bad results including a disqualification and an accident which he cause, Senna won the championship 90-87. Again, why a championship is awarded to someone because they were worse, is insane to me. NASCAR not only decides that this is acceptable but resets and completely ignores the bad results, including if a driver were to actively cause an accident.
And before we get ahead of ourselves and try to suggest that this is because of ball and stick sports, I would like to remind you that I've jus.t said that all finals series including in ball and stick sports are stupid. When the North Queensland Cowboys won the NRL Premiership in 2017, they did so after finishing 8th in the minor premiership. That's ridiculous. If you honestly think that a team who finished 8th against all comers deserved to be the champion, then you might be a fool or easily fooled.
In short, unless you are running a knockout cup or a knockout match racing series, then all playoffs are bad; without exception. This is way deeper than just a narrative problem. It's the entire ontology of the thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment