Hampton, Ga. – While Nascar goes beyond Daytona, sport faces questions about her biggest race and how she crowns her champion.
Denny Hamlin’s diatribe on her Podcast this week About the way in which luck can play a dominant role in the result of Daytona 500 is not a new argument. Drivers have raised similar problems in the last quarter of a century, but the momentum among competitors is built for changes.
The change could also be made with the playoffs. Nascar has decided not to change the way the champion is determined this season. Instead, a group of industry competitors and initiates will examine which, if necessary, the changes to make the qualifiers in 2026.
While the emphasis on fans is on track race – the CUP series is in competition on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway – which Nascar decides in the coming months with Daytona and the playoffs could considerably change the sport.
The image of cars three wide for several lines at more than 185 mph in Daytona is impressive – unless you are in one of these cars stuck in traffic. An error can destroy several cars.
Hamlin fears that the prestige of Daytona 500 and his winner will be tarnished because of the role that luck plays by missing inevitable accidents.
“Are we going to start seeing Daytona 500 winners as we question our champions?” Hamlin said this week on his podcast “Nuyer actions”. “… It’s their big moment to shine and it’s a big achievement (winning the Daytona 500), but I hate the fact of the quantity of luck involved in Nascar now.”
A look at the good and bad news for the Nascar Cup teams heading to Atlanta
Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano were among the best pilots on the reconfigured Atlanta track.
Hamlin, triple champion of Daytona 500, said that the driver’s capacities played a more important role in the result of the 500.
“I feel like we’ve lost this,” he said. “It’s just a question of wrecks at superspeedways. I have the impression that Daytona 500 is a microcosm of our sport in general with regard to the way we crowd our champion as well.
“It started with the competition group a decade ago when we started cutting power because we wanted to appear on television. We want you to think they can pass, not that they can really pass.
“It’s just, for me, it happened to where … the entertainment of it has largely exceeded sport. I don’t know how we reversed things.
Atlanta Cup Start -up line: Ryan Blaney Menèy Ford Charge with pole
The Fords take 10 of the first 11 places to qualify for the Sunday race.
Daytona 500 a year has the highest NASCAR TV notes every year and has been exhausted in the last decade. The races in Daytona and Talladega generally have the highest television ratings for the cup races by the season.
When asked if there was a better way to run in Daytona and Talladega, Brad Keselowski said: “There is always a better way. It’s just finding it. I don’t necessarily know how to find it.
Then Keselowski noted Atlanta Motor Speedway and the hybrid writing style that this race has offered since its reconfiguration after the 2021 season.
“This piece almost proves that there is a better way,” said Keselowski. “This is a track that works for two or three wide, organizes a fairly exciting race but which simply presents Tradecraft, whether the teams or the performance of the car, or the pilots and the movements they Do with their Racafraft. I think it is a kind of poster child for the idea that the two can exist at the same time in the right conditions.
“The Cup series is in this interesting place at the moment. I think that some days, we have to decide whether we are the Harlem Globetrotters or not. I don’t know if I have a perfect answer for that and maybe there is a balance. What we need is that this series is completely legitimate at any time and for Racecraft, Tradecraft is important. »»
William Byron did not apologize for being a double winner of Daytona 500 – after having gone from ninth to the start of the last round at the front while the leaders crushed on the back of this race.
“When I started Superspeedway Racing, I treated it as lucky, and I did not think that the strategy worked very well,” said Byron. “So for me, I’m just going and trying to control the things I can control.
“Obviously, I was lucky in this situation, but I made movements that led me to that which put me in this position. I felt it was going to happen and just tried to position myself. So I don’t know. I don’t read things too much outside my circle of people. Obviously, I am proud of victory. I’m not going to apologize for it.
How to watch the Sunday Cup race in Atlanta: start time, television and weather information
The 1.54 mile track produced the closest three -wide finish in the history of Nascar a year ago.
Kyle Larson’s philosophy is simple for how to manage the question.
“Outside the races, you are trying to improve entertainment,” he said. “You have more things to do before or after the race. Entertainment value of this. But then making the race pure and making it play pure is what I like. »»
Depending on its point of view, the eliminatory system can provide this purity. For others, this is not the case.
After seeing championship races set up even before the last race of the season, Nascar changed to determine a champion in 2004. At the time, he was 10 pilots on 10 races. The pilot with the most points among these 10 was the champion.
The system has been transformed over the years. Now, 16 drivers do what are called the playoffs. The playoffs remain 10 races, but four pilots are eliminated after each third race of the Cup series, leaving four pilots running for the title in the final of the season, which took place in Phoenix Raceway since 2020.
Legacy Motor Club seeks to build the success of Daytona 500 in Atlanta and beyond
After a difficult 2024, the team belonging to Jimmie Johnson made several changes to help the drivers John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones.
Although there was a certain controversy with a winner for the championship, it was nothing like last season when Joey Logano won his third cup title.
Logano was 15th in points before the classification was reset at the start of the playoffs. If he had not won in the regular season – winning a five -hour finish in Nashville – Logano would not have progressed for the playoffs. In playoffs, Logano won three races, including the final in Phoenix to win the title.
“They capitalized on this, they did,” Kyle Busch said about the title of Logano. “It was not a qualified team that played perfectly throughout the year. I would say that Larson was probably a better team. I would have said that the 45 (Tyler Reddick) was probably the best team there late in the course. They were therefore more deserving champions when you look at the competition aspect of our sport, but when you look at how the rules are and everyone plays according to the same rules, Logano obtained it, so it is somehow what it is. »»
Chase Briscoe focused on victory as a penalty of Joe Gibbs Racing Appeals Daytona
NASCAR has delivered rigid penalties against JGR and Chase Briscoe for spoiler violation in Daytona 500.
So what to do with the playoffs, if anything, beyond this season?
The industry group examining the eliminatory system had its first meeting last week in Daytona.
“Good dialogue, great discussions,” said Keselowski, who is part of this group. “Enjoy the opening that Nascar must listen to. Just proud to be part of it.
As for the first meeting, Keselowski said: “It’s nice to hear other perspectives. I am limited to my own visor as owner and driver. I must hear media members, other team members, of course, distribution partners and tracks. … I think that in the end, we just look for the highest level of legitimacy that we can have. »»
