Ryan Blaney takes issue with NASCAR playoff narrative amid raging debates on format

Ryan Blaney chimed in on the championship format debate Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Blaney pushed back on the narrative that drivers who have won a championship in the 16-driver playoff era were less deserving than those who won under the full season points format.

“What kind of bugs me a little bit is the people that are so diehard on, like, ‘If you won a championship in this format that we have now, oh, it’s a Mickey Mouse championship and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t count,'” Blaney said. ‘It’s like, man, everyone has the same opportunity as the guy who won it. This isn’t the full season points. Like everyone always talks about like, ‘Oh, this guy, he would have won the full season points.’ Like, well, that’s great. But we haven’t used that format in 20 years.

“… I look at our championship as like, we had a good year, and we even had a better playoffs than everybody else. And we rose to the occasion when we needed to, and we dug in, and we were the best car during the playoffs and had some big wins and I was able to get the championship.”

Ryan Blaney joins in on NASCAR championship format debate

The current playoff format has come under fire following Joey Logano’s victory in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix this past season, in which the Team Penske driver captured his third title. Logano had an average finish of 17.1, the worst for a driver in a championship-winning season.

But in the playoff format, adopted in 2004 and tweaked along the way, winning is everything. NASCAR switched to an elimination style format in 2014, where 16 drivers make up the field. Winning at least one regular season race grants entry into the postseason.

Blaney won the championship in 2023. While far from the dominant car during the regular season, Blaney locked in during the playoffs. He won two of the 10 races, and finished second twice, including in the season finale at Phoenix.

Ryan Blaney reveals what he would change about NASCAR championship format

“I mean, everyone can have their opinion,” Blaney said. “It gets under my skin a little bit when they’re like, ‘You guys didn’t deserve that championship.’ It’s like, what are you talking about, man? Like we went through the grinder, everyone digs in. And we were resilient when it mattered.”

While Blaney will defend his championship against anyone, he is open to change when it comes to the playoff format. He said he doesn’t love the winner-takes-all nature of the final playoff race. Instead, Blaney would like to see a little more consistency rewarded.

“Do I have my ideal like championship format? Yeah,” Blaney said. “Like my opinion on it, I was a huge fan of the initial Chase. Last 10 weeks of the year, you kind of have somewhat of a reset in points and then you go 10 races and whoever had the best 10 races was going to win the championship.”