NASCAR insider: Homestead race is reason Playoff format won't change
A NASCAR insider is confident the Cup Series Playoffs will stay the same after what he saw during the Homestead race on Sunday. On The Teardown podcast, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic explained why the Homestead race is the reason the current playoff format won’t change.
“This format produces moments like this,” Bianchi said when talking about the end of the race. “You’re going to be hard-pressed in a different format, if you go to the old 10-race playoff format, you’re going to be real hard-pressed and damn near unlikely to have a race where you’re going to have seven guys in the mix fighting it out.
“…You’ve got drivers five on back all in a must-win mode, and everyone else is fighting for their lives. I would say this further, because of who this field constitutes, we’ve talked about how deep this round of eight-field is. This is arguably the deepest field for this round in playoff history. Even the [Christopher] Bells and the [Kyle] Larsons know they have to win. It’s in their minds. They’re not points racing. It’s these moments that this playoff format produces, and it’s why I don’t think you’ll see it changed anytime soon.”
Tyler Reddick talks about winning NASCAR Homestead race
The 2024 Straight Talk Wireless 400 featured three different leaders in the final three laps. But when it was all said and done, Tyler Reddick won his first NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead and clinched a spot in the Championship 4 race.
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“Today was a day where you could really run the wall in three and four, but in one and two you had to move around quite a bit,” Reddick told reporters after the race. “That took some adjusting. But our car was really, really tuned for it. Our Beast Camry could kind of run wherever we wanted to. That was nice. It really was a big part of why we were able to win this race today. On older tires, we got up in line. Versatility is important here.
“I don’t know. This place has just been really, really fun from the first time I ever ran it as a rookie in the Truck Series. I don’t know what it is. Just me as a racer, I love stepping over the edge. This place seems to reward that to some degree.”