Elton Sawyer: NASCAR "All Ears" on Possible Ideas to Tweak Playoff Format
In the weeks leading up to, and during Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway, the hot-button topic of discussion has surrounded the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs format, and whether it's an adequate way to crown a champion.
A large faction of the fanbase, select members of the media, and certain drivers competing in the NASCAR Cup Series don't believe it's the best way to determine a champion. But, Steve Phelps and Steve O'Donnell of NASCAR, doubled down in the State of The Sport address on Saturday.
Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway saw Joey Logano, a driver who would be ranked 12th in points under a full-season format, take home the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Needless to say, that result made the already passionate fans become even more passionate... and the outcry must have reached NASCAR HQ because Elton Sawyer joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90) on Tuesday to talk about it.
🤔 "Is that the best way to do it?" #NASCAR's Elton Sawyer says the sanctioning body is willing to look at the playoff format during the offseason.
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) November 12, 2024
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"We look at it this way -- you look at our format, it has delivered some great, exciting moments over time," Sawyer said. "Joey [Logano] won five races this year, if you count. the All-Star Race. He has shown year-in and year-out, time and time again, that once he gets into the Playoffs -- and they just barely got in this year [...]. Joey and Team Penske, they win races at the right time of year, and our format has delivered."
"We talked about it last week and the event we had at Martinsville. The moment was Ryan Blaney driving through the field, passing really good cars to win that race to get to the Championship race, you don't have those moments without our format."
There seems to be a certain level of understanding from NASCAR that this current iteration of the post-season format isn't popular. But, Sawyer says that NASCAR isn't willing to walk away from a playoff format altogether, as Steve O'Donnell and Steve Phelps said on Saturday.
"We get it, we understand it, and as we've said, and Steve O'Donnell and Steve Phelps mentioned it in the State of The Sport press conference on Saturday," Sawyer added. "We're going to have Playoffs, we're going to have a Playoff format, but what we will do, is we will take input from our fans, our competitors, and our industry stakeholders this off-season, and if there is a way to tweak it, make it better, we will do that."
"I think as we take a deeper dive and look at this and look at how you get in the Playoffs, and how you get from round to round. Is that equitable? Is that the best way to do it? I think you take all that input -- and we have some really smart people in our industry, with our teams and drivers, and being able to get feedback -- maybe what we have is the best model, but if it's not, we're open, we're all ears on it."
"We have some ideas, but we want to make sure as an industry, we're doing the right thing for our sport and the right thing to crown our champions."
Whether or not the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs format will undergo a facelift, or even a slight tweak, for the 2025 campaign is yet to be seen. However, the fact that NASCAR is willing to take input from people within the industry is definitely a positive sign.
