Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals massive aspect of NASCAR missing under current playoff format

The current NASCAR playoff format has been much maligned by many drivers, past and present alike. Dale Earnhardt Jr. recognizes there’s a key aspect missing from the current chase for the title.

Evidently, Earnhardt Jr. is a bit nostalgic for the season-long playoff format. He explained why it could still work in this day and age on the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download.

“I think what’s missing—and what has more value than people realize—is how the season used to feel,” the two-time Daytona 500 winner stated. “We’d be racing along, right? Say it’s October, we’re at Charlotte, and there’s 8 or 10 races left in the season. Dad’s right in the thick of the battle, maybe 40 points behind Rusty Wallace or Mark Martin. Then 13 laps into the race, we break a cam and finish last. That was a gut punch equal to missing the Final Four.

“Back then, in what was essentially a 36-race playoff, a blown cam at Charlotte meant you just lost 150 points. That’s a massive blow. Or flip it around — say Dad’s 40 points behind Mark Martin, and Martin blows an engine while Dad goes out and wins. That kind of swing in the middle of the season—or even early in the season—that’s missing now.

“Now, your driver can crash out at Daytona in the last race of the regular season and it doesn’t matter. He’s still in the playoffs. We reset next week. No big deal. Run 36th? No big deal.”

Earnhardt Jr. makes some good points, and he’ll have a ton of supporters in his quest to return the playoffs to a season-long format. He even compared it to college football, and how one moment can change an entire season.

“Think about the emotional roller coaster that you go on at that point in the year. That’s what’s gone. That’s what kept fans plugged in by race 16, 18, 20. You always knew that soul-crushing moment was right around the corner,” the NASCAR Hall of Famer added.

“Or the opposite of soul crushing, ‘Holy s***, we just picked up 100 points because someone else had bad luck.’ That moment was always possible in the regular season, and you knew you needed to watch.”

In the end, Earnhardt Jr. believes it’s about weighing what’s more important to fans — the eliminations and Game 7 moments, or the season-long rollercoaster that the old format would provide.

“I’m not talking about how the drivers, industry or mechanics feel — I’m talking about the fans tuning in to watch this race,” he explained. “I miss wondering how that race ten blown motor or moment would twist up the points and create a hill to climbed to get back into it. Chase Elliott at race 10, he crashes early and loses his points lead. He’s 100 points back. Fans would tune in the next week to see if he could claw any of it back. That kind of stuff there is gone now.

“That’s what I think we need help with to determine. Trying to have eliminations and Game 7 moments are beneficial, but at a detriment to other things that we don’t have anymore. Those are things that would keep us hanging around, wondering what we might experience next week.”

Time will tell if NASCAR ever goes back to their season-long championship format. It doesn’t seem too likely at the moment, but we know what side of the fence Earnhardt Jr. is on.