Insider calls for NASCAR 'reset' on Cup Series, playoffs after Watkins Glen: 'What is even the point'

A NASCAR insider wants the governing body to get back to basics when it comes to the Cup Series and the playoffs. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic sounded off on the playoff system after covering the Watkins Glen race.

“I’m almost there, where everything needs a rest,” Gluck said. “I don’t know how you do it, but I’m almost there on what is even the point of playoffs at all. What is even the point of a 10-race chase? I get all the drawbacks, and could you have runaways and all this stuff? I don’t think you can argue that a large part of the fanbase is airing frustration because they have feelings of how things were or how things used to be, and they want the simplicity back in whatever way it is.”

Gluck then talked about the Watkins Glen race and what happened with Kyle Larson. If there were no playoffs in the NASCAR Cup Series, Gluck said that Larson would be the story of the day because his last-place finish at Watkins Glen would have prevented him from winning the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. But with him already clinching a spot in the playoffs, the last-place finish for Larson is an afterthought.

Should NASCAR re-evaluate the playoffs?

“I just don’t think it’s going to be easy to soothe them,” Gluck said about NASCAR fans. “There’s not one thing right now that’s going to make everybody happy again. How do you rest things? How do you sort of get back to simplicity, back to basics a little bit, where people are going to be like, ‘Okay, this is something we feel good about?’

NASCAR’s playoff system has been in existence in the Cup Series since the 2004 season. There have been changes over the years, and the current format features 16 qualified drivers competing in the final 10 races of the season. After three races, four drivers are eliminated, and the final four compete in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway in November.