NASCAR President addresses future championship format, discussions

The NASCAR Championship 4 weekend is here, but the sport could be crowning its champions much differently next season. NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell addressed the future of the championship format today during the State of the Sport address.

Commissioner Steve Phelps joined President Steve O’Donnell in the Phoenix Raceway media center. They took the time over the course of roughly 45 minutes to address ongoing matters in the sport. From horsepower to the lawsuit, and of course, championship formats.

So, there is a bit of bad news. We didn’t really get much of an answer out of either Steve about the future of the NASCAR championship. But we got a little sliver of an answer…sort of.

“The second thing for the fans and Steve [Phelps] talked about this a bit, playoff format,” O’Donnell explained to the NASCAR media. “So, I’ll be very clear that whoever wins, wins under the rules that have been established. Everybody knew them going into this year, and we’re going to crown four champions. We’re all going to be extremely happy to do that. But there’s been a lot of work done, and Tim Clark’s led a committee that’s included almost every stakeholder in the industry – OEMs, tracks, teams, former drivers, current drivers – and we’ve kicked around a ton of ideas.

“While there’s nothing to announce today, I think all of us agreed that it would not be fair to come in here before we crown champions and say, ‘Hey, we’re thinking of this.’ But I can say that Steve and I have certainly heard the industry, understand the challenges that are out there. So, the goal is to balance some of those moments that we’ve had with the great racing, but also deliver a little bit more of what I think the fans and the industry is asking for. More to come, we did rotate the race, Steve mentioned this, to Miami. That was probably the biggest ask, was rotate the championship. We can check that box off. But there are going to be some other things that we’re going to have as well.”

NASCAR President wants to see stars win championships

So, what does NASCAR want to see from the championship? There are drivers who should have been champions, or at least made the Championship 4 but didn’t because of this format. What is the goal for O’Donnell and Phelps?

O’Donnell was asked about the one-race finale. Why have fans rejected it so thoroughly? While he tiptoed around criticising the current format too much, it’s clear that even leadership sees the issues now.

“I certainly can’t speak for all the fans right? I can speak for myself because I’ve said this,” O’Donnell replied. “One of the concerns is future drivers coming up through the system having multiple wins and not necessarily winning a championship. I think that’s a challenge for our sport and I think where the light really goes on is having that driver be deemed a potential superstar. So, we looked at this, I think we all did. Looking at more moments, more drivers, more drivers having the ability to go out there and win. And that maybe takes away from the one driver story and you know, it’s probably harder to right, just the one driver story over and over again, but it does create a real star.

“I think that’s something, as you look at the future of the sport, making sure that a driver who has delivered all season long has the ability to be named a champion and not have something maybe come down to one race. So, that’s really been the focal point is we want to reward winning, we’re going to continue to do that. Whatever model we come up with, winning is very important. But the one race thing has been a factor of, there’s a lot of circumstances that can happen. Our fans, right or wrong, are different than other stick and ball sports, and that’s okay.”

No official news about a change to the playoff system. But change is coming, and even NASCAR leadership has to accept it at this point.