Dale Earnhardt Jr. addresses growing momentum for return to NASCAR full-season points championship system

Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes that the momentum of NASCAR going to a full-season points championship season is real. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt talked about how the people in the playoff committee are beginning to think the old way of determining a NASCAR Cup Series champion might be the best option going forward.

Earnhardt said when the NASCAR Playoff meetings began meeting in February, the mention of a full-season points championship system “was really pretty taboo.” But in the final meeting they just had, the NASCAR Hall of Famer revealed that a few drivers and some media members said the full-season points system is the best way to go.

“I would say at the start of the year, a full-season points deal had about a two percent chance,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “By the end of that meeting, I thought, ‘Man, that’s got about a 30 percent chance, 40 percent chance.’ It’s still low, still unlikely. But man, I was like, I really am surprised that everybody was willing to be that honest and transparent about it. But we still left the meeting thinking that, and my feelings were when we left the meeting that NASCAR was still like, ‘We hear you, but man, it’s just too big of a move. It might be too far for us to shift.'”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asks is NASCAR really considering a full-season points championship system

Earnhardt then mentioned Adam Stern of the Sports Business Journal reposted Jeff Gluck‘s article about the full-season points championship push that was published on The Athletic. The article talked about NASCAR potentially changing the playoff system or eliminating it altogether.

“When Adam tweeted that, I thought, ‘Damn man. Maybe it’s more than 30 percent,” Earnhardt stated. “Has it got real legs? Is it really something that is actually being uttered in the building in NASCAR and down in Daytona? Are they really considering that?”

Earnhardt also said the spoke at the meetings, saying he supported the potential move of a full-season points championship season. However, he knew that it would be a big move and not everyone would be on board with it. NASCAR has had a playoff format since the 2004 season, and it has evolved over time. The current playoff format features the top 16 drivers competing in 10 races. The bottom four drivers are eliminated after every three races, and the top four compete in a championship race at Phoenix.