Skip to main content
Join
NASCAR Logo

NASCAR insiders weigh factors that should determine champion amid playoff format criticism

Brian Jones Profile Picby:Brian Jones•12/31/24•

brianjones_93

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

As NASCAR gets ready for the 2025 season, two insiders gave their opinions on factors that should determine a champion. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic answered a question from a fan who asked how do you define a champion?

“It’s really hard because there’s some years where the champion is the best driver and the worthiest driver, and honestly, there’s years where that’s not the case,” Bianchi said. “There’s been a guy who’s won 10 races and didn’t win the championship. …It’s almost on a case-by-case basis. I don’t know how else you could do it. You can’t make an overall sweeping generalization of well, this is what I believe. I don’t think that’s the case. It really is on a year-by-year basis and I know it when I see it.”

Gluck said that Kyle Larson was NASCAR’s driver of the year for 2024 despite not winning the championship. Larson had the most points and led all drivers with wins during the Cup Season.

More on the NASCAR Champion debate

“That to me is what you would think of as your champion, driver of the year,” Gluck said. “There’s some years where the driver of the year is a little murkier because it’s like okay, well this guy had so many wins but he wasn’t so consistent, this guy was more consistent. That’s fine because that’s what your playoff system is for to determine that under the rules.

“To me, the champion has got to be someone that you would think of as driver of the year. I guess to answer the question, I’m going more toward the eye test of okay, this guy had the best overall season. I can’t necessarily tell you what exact stats go into that. But when you step back, look you said it was easy. This year it was Larson. That should be your Series champion because when you step back and look at it, and again, he scored the most points, he had the most wins. Whichever way you want to come up with that, that should be the guy that you’re saying this guy won. This guy is the best of the series for the season.”

Larson led all drivers with six wins in 2024, but Tyler Reddick won the Cup Series regular season title and Joey Logano won the Cup Series Championship. Logano won four races, including the Cup Championship race, and Reddick won three races.