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How 2024 NASCAR playoff standings would look using Winston Cup Points system

JHby:Jonathan Howard•11/11/24•

Jondean25

NASCAR Trophy (1)
Sep 4, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; NASCAR Championship Trophy during the NASCAR Playoffs Media Day at the Charlotte Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Since last night’s championship race, there has been a lot of talk about the NASCAR playoff system versus the old-school Winston Cup Points system. Well, there are fans out there who still track the seasons using the old points.

Now, teams do not strategize and race the same way for the playoffs as they did in the Winston system. Ask anyone, they just don’t. You can take more risks now. It isn’t about making every lap all of the time, having the best average finish.

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However! Had this season been abiding by the Winston Cup Series points, the results would have been different. But I’m not sure the champion would be who most fans assume.

The X/Twitter account NASCAR Winston Cup Series Standings (@NWCS_Standings) published their final numbers for the season.

Christopher Bell is the theoretical NASCAR Cup Series champion under the old points rules. He would have beaten Chase Elliott by 5 points, taking the lead and championship from Elliott in the final race.

William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin would have rounded out the top-10. Joey Logano would have finished 11th.

Bell finished the year with three wins, three poles, 15 top-5s, 23 top-10s, and an average finish of 12.8. He had a great season that ended just before the Championship 4 due to his penalty for wall-riding.

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Just to play Devil’s Advocate, the NASCAR Playoff system had two of the top-four drivers in the Winston Cup Standings in the Championship 4. Reddick and Byron. Bell barely missed out. Elliott wasn’t that far off, either. Ryan Blaney was sixth overall.

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Joey Logano was not the best in the regular season. But he won three of the final ten races of the season, and second most races all year. He had four wins, five if you count the All-Star Race.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic was not so excited after the race Sunday. In fact, he essentially spelled D-O-O-M for NASCAR if the playoff format isn’t fixed on The Teardown.

“I think if you don’t make a change I think it’s going to come back to bite everybody,” Gluck said. “I think the majority, okay, maybe you’re right maybe I’m just too caught up in the social media world. But the people I hear from, the people I talk to, they don’t like the champion being decided like this. So that’s all I can go on.

“I don’t have people saying, ‘This is great, what are you talking about, you’re an idiot, stop, shut up, stop being so negative.’ I don’t get a ton of that. I get, ‘Man, this is not what we’re looking for.’ So, maybe you hear differently, but I just don’t know where NASCAR goes from here. Because I think it weakens the credibility of what a champion should be, and we should be celebrating after moments like this, by saying ‘This was the best of the year, they went out and proved it, period.’”

So, do you think Jeff Gluck has a point?