After successful debut, playoff system will get time to take root
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Last year’s NASCAR State of the Sport portion of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour carried the gravity of wholesale changes to the way it determines a champion in its top-tier series. This time around, the driving thought process was to let those changes take root.
NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said that while the sport’s senior management considered subtle tweaks to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format, no changes are forthcoming for the 2015 season. France emphasized that the goal was to avoid muddling a system still fresh from its dramatic overhaul last offseason, allowing fans to become more familiar with the format and to let teams get a better handle on developing strategies for the final 10-race stretch.
“It’s not because there aren’t a tweak or two here that we didn’t get good suggestions on,” France said in the kickoff event to the annual Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour, “but one of the magical parts of this Chase, and we want to make sure we keep it this way, is the simplicity of it: Win and you get in; be in the top eight, top four, whatever it may be, and move on; coming down the stretch, beat the other three drivers and you win the championship.
“So whatever we would do into the future, we want to make sure that simplicity is right there.”
NASCAR’s season-opening address highlighted plenty of areas where things will take on a different look and feel: a new rules package, technological leaps in pit-road officiating and a new policy banning the altering of side skirts ahead of the rear wheels. While certain changes were regarded as necessary and evolutionary, the Chase format — still in its infancy — was considered sacrosanct.
Last year’s introduction of the new Chase system marked a step into uncertainty. The playoff eligibility requirements — including automatic berths for race winners in the regular season and top points performers — and the new 10-race system itself, featuring a series of gradual eliminations and a winner-take-all final race for four drivers, were rightly considered radical steps, met with a mixed reaction from fans and drivers alike.
While it might be hard to convince purists, the format played out with some of the most intense racing the sport has seen in several seasons. The pressure ratcheted up at each stage of eliminations, and Kevin Harvick responded with clutch performances by winning the season’s final two races on the way to his first Sprint Cup Series championship.
For France and his team, the final series of events that led to Harvick popping the corks on champagne bottles at Homestead-Miami Speedway last November could have been seen as clear-cut validation. But even if the Chase had unfolded differently, France said last year’s decisions didn’t come without careful consideration before moving forward.
“It was an important step, had some risks, like anything that is controversial would have, and anything that fools around with tradition will have a big thing,” France said. “But we wouldn’t do something, and I certainly wouldn’t, if we didn’t have a high degree of certainty it was the right step for us. I think it was important, but we’ll never know because it did work out, and thankfully it did.”
NASCAR officials said they considered implementing a separate points system for Chase competitors, but that the complex nature deterred them from making such a change. Furthermore, changes to race formats — including qualifying races or other deviations from the current structure — were shelved for the time being.
“We just thought that with everything going on in the sport, with the Chase just being its second year, with the rules package, we wanted to let that play out this year,” said Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, “but there was certainly dialogue going on in NASCAR and the industry looking at race formats and what may continue to grow the sport, so that is something that we’re exploring.”
For now, the status quo will be same as it relates to the 2015 Chase. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Vice President for Competition, said that fans would have a better sense of how the playoff format works for Year 2, but so will teams, which can learn from their first run-through last season.
“I think it was all of the above,” Pemberton said. “The teams will adjust a little bit on the second year, they’ll analyze the strategies they used and how they played out, and how other teams did and how they played out. Then for the fans is the big thing. I mean, it was a pretty big change for us, and the fans adapted to it. Brian felt it was really important that we stay pat, and we’re going to do that and let the teams work on it from here on out.”