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Harrison Burton entered Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway ranked 34th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings.He is guaranteed to finish at least 16th, having secured a playoff spot with a win. Is Belichick still thinking about coaching in 2025?
Burton’s win comes two weeks after Austin Dillon, who was ranked 32nd at the time, won at Richmond and would have punched his playoff ticket , unless NASCAR canceled it due to its highly controversial nature. . Until 2022, none of those wins would guarantee a playoff spot because NASCAR required drivers to be in the top 30 in the regular-season point standings — a rule that was already too lenient
Now it’s completely gone, and here are the consequences. Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain, two competitive drivers throughout the season, are 21 and 27 points behind Chris Buescher, respectively, for the final playoff spot. Only next Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway will allow him to battle on the right side of the bubble. In any case, in the race will be Burton, who, even after his victory, continues to occupy the 34th place in the general classification. Make no mistake: the playoffs aren’t that bad. In fact, it can even be argued that they represent an improvement over the pre-2004 format when it comes to defining a champion. There is no more hiding, robotically compiling “good, not great” scores throughout the season to win a title by avoiding risk and bad luck.
The cream must rise to the top, and it’s no coincidence that no playoff champion has ever recorded fewer than three wins or 500 laps – two benchmarks not reached by 2003 playoff champion Matt Kenseth > The winning look, though , it went too far. Burton’s playoff appearance this season is the NASCAR equivalent of a four-win NFL team qualifying for the playoffs because they scored the most points of any team in the league in one week. Although he is unlikely to go very far, it is terrifying to look at the standings and see one of the lowest full-time drivers all season guaranteed to finish no lower than 16th in the standings
Honestly, 16 Drivers qualify for the playoffs is already too much. Initially, the number of participants was 10, then expanded to 12 in 2007, then the format was changed once again in 2011 to include the first 10 drivers in the regular season standings, as well as the two drivers between countries The 11th and 20th that had won more victories. This format was probably the fairest, but it disappeared after the “Spingate” scandal of Michael Waltrip Racing at Richmond Raceway in 2013 exploited the system.
The current format was installed the following season, with the top 30 rule lasting until 2021. Now, it doesn’t matter how badly a driver performs throughout the year – as long as they race full-time and so far. there are no more than 16 wins in the regular season, one win is enough. The win-and-go aspect was clearly exposed in 2022, when Martin Truex Jr. he missed the playoffs despite finishing fourth in points all season, and Burton exposed him again. It is time to make changes. NASCAR should not only reinstate the top 30 rule, but reduce it to 25, or even 20. Limiting the number of drivers in the playoffs to 12 would not be a bad decision.