2020 NASCAR Discussion ThreadNASCAR 

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Best race of the season. Excitement from start to finish and a well deserved win for the 9.
 
Logano, Elliott, Keselowski and Hamlin advance.

Harvick, Bowman, Truex and Kurt Busch eliminated. Harvick tried to turn Kyle Busch to make the final 4 but ended up crashing himself.
 
They really need to make it so the regular season champion gets a ticket right to the finale (or preferably just do away with the chase entirely).

Hopefully Denny wins.
 
Great race. Bummed Harvick didn't make it through, but he didn't have a good car from the start. I don't mind the chase, but I think it was a lot better in the first few years before all the stages and cutoff round crap.

I'm guessing it'll be one of the Penske cars that wins it all.
 
Great race. Bummed Harvick didn't make it through, but he didn't have a good car from the start. I don't mind the chase, but I think it was a lot better in the first few years before all the stages and cutoff round crap.

I'm guessing it'll be one of the Penske cars that wins it all.
Honestly, if we can’t go back to a full season championship, the old 10 race format without eliminations would be fine for me.
 
It’s more the points payouts I have issue with. The stages in the playoffs are fine. But a payout system where a guy could finish 5th, but ran up front all day could score more points than the winner is what throws me for a loop.
 
SHR not putting the 10 and 14 behind the 4 was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen

Considering the last time a team blatantly tried team orders during a race it started a chain reaction that resulted in the team closing, I'm not so sure it was a dumb call.
 
Considering the last time a team blatantly tried team orders during a race it started a chain reaction that resulted in the team closing, I'm not so sure it was a dumb call.

Getting teammates to work their way behind a car with 50 laps to go isn’t that difficult to do in a non-blatant manner, and it’s far different than spinning on purpose and causing a caution. Chase slowing down to let Jimmie get his lap back, or Matt D letting Brad by and defending him, and Jones not trying to pass Hamlin at the end, and the lapped Allmendinger playing defense for Haley, and the other two JRM cars protecting the 7 and 9 yesterday, are no more or less blatant, and that’s just this weekend. It’s just strategy, and I’d expect more thought from a team with F1 connections
 
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I hate this championship format so much.
Honestly, now I understand the hate towards it... Although I don't justify Harvick's actions, come on, the guy had the most points in the year, he should be at least having a locked place on the final 4!!... I do understand his frustration... This format needs to change, but NASCAR being NASCAR, it enters from one ear, it comes out from the other... -.-
 
It’s more the points payouts I have issue with. The stages in the playoffs are fine. But a payout system where a guy could finish 5th, but ran up front all day could score more points than the winner is what throws me for a loop.
Funny thing, I recall that being one of the justifications for the stages from owners when it all started.

I expect Harvick to win by 3 laps next week.
 
Honestly, if we can’t go back to a full season championship, the old 10 race format without eliminations would be fine for me.
I like this because it means consistency is still valued. Given that a race win is an auto-ticket, it'd be a shame if one guy leads only the last lap after wavering in the pack and comes out with more points vs drivers and cars that dominate entire races.

It also ensures driver's are not just taxiing around for the first 80% of the race and the jostling seriously just for the last few laps.
 
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I hate this championship format so much.

I missed the race, but I watched a replay of the finish (and a few highlights), as well as Harvicks move on the 18. On one hand, Harvicks move on the 18 was dumb, dangerous and totally stupid, and to most serious racing fans just makes him look like an idiot....

....But, on the other hand, in any other top-level series with a standard point structure, Harvick would be champion, no questions asked. He put in a Champion-level performance this year with 9 wins, as well as a buttload of Top-5s and Top-10s, and was a consistent front-runner this whole year. While I'm definitely not a fan of his overall, Harvick absolutely earned the title this year. However, because of the playoff format, he had to pull a move on the 18 to even have a chance to earn the title next week, and with 9 wins, 20 Top-5s and 26 Top-10s, will have to settle for a 5th place finish at best. Quite frankly, while I hate Harvick's move on the 18, if I was in his shoes with this format, I would've at least been tempted to do the same thing.

I normally don't pay any mind to the people who rag on NASCAR and call it an "unworthy" motorsport, but tonights race was just absolutely painful, and makes NASCAR look like a total :censored:show imo. This format needs to go.

On an unrelated note, if Chase wins the title next week, they better have his Jackman hoist up the trophy, because that guy was Da Real MVP of the 9 team today.
 
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With the way they give out playoff points for race and stage wins, combined with the regular season champion bonus, it's honestly astounding that Harvick could manage to not advance through each round of the playoffs in bonus points alone.
 
I just finished watching the race. Agreed about the Harvick issue. I'm not a fan of his, but he's had a season worthy at the very least of racing for the championship in the final race.

In any case, Elliott was unstoppable, and luckily the jackman had the mental wherewithal to go back to the pit wall to avoid the penalty. I was also holding my breath when checking Jayski to see if the car passed post race inspection. You can see he dented the hell out of his roof when pounding on it in celebration. :lol: In the past, he wouldn't have made it through inspection and would have been bounced from the playoffs. I still remember NASCAR putting up those stupid cages to keep the drivers off their roofs after a win.
 
I like this because it means consistency is still valued. Given that a race win is an auto-ticket, it'd be a shame if one guy leads only the last lap after wavering in the pack and comes out with more points vs drivers and cars that dominate entire races.

It also ensures driver's are not just taxiing around for the first 80% of the race and the jostling seriously just for the last few laps.
NASCAR is in an undesirable situation (well, in their minds) that the champion should be the driver with the most wins and the highest average finish. The irony is that the old system did just that, and all this system has done (and any of the previous Chase systems), is not correct for that. Harvick should absolutely be contending for the championship.
 
As much as I'd like to not acknowledge NASCAR's existence under this format at all, I find this choke job to be a nice little karmic payback for Harvick's classlessness in the 2015 Talladega Cha$e race. Back then, I remember losing hope in the series ever getting on the right track when even that and the Kenseth/Logano situations weren't enough to change things.
 


If NASCAR wants to draw a line in the sand, now’s the time, but making any sort of call here would be completely ridiculous and hypocritical, even by their usual standards. And they’d also be saying that deliberately trying to wreck someone for 8th place for a single point is ok, but something that happens in literally every other racing series on the planet isn’t.

I still can’t believe Jones would even listen to orders from the team that fired him.



Good.
 
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Anyone but Hamlin this coming race. If Harvick, who won the championship in a normal championship system after Texas, can't complete for the championship, then no one should be, especially if their teammates are literally told to stay behind.

Still waiting for those "fans" that are defending the playoffs because "it's better entertainment" to explain how this gimmicky system is "fair."
 
They really need to make it so the regular season champion gets a ticket right to the finale (or preferably just do away with the chase entirely).

Hopefully Denny wins.
They need to make it so you just accumulate points based on finishing position for each race, and whomever has the most points at the end of the season wins. If that means the driver who never finished higher than 3rd at any race wins, then so be it. Reliability should be what matters, not win percentage.
 
They need to make it so you just accumulate points based on finishing position for each race, and whomever has the most points at the end of the season wins. If that means the driver who never finished higher than 3rd at any race wins, then so be it. Reliability should be what matters, not win percentage.
I.E., go back to the 1975-2003 system or even just use the current point system without resets or segments. If you want to give bonus points to the driver who led the most laps, that's fine.
 
I.E., go back to the 1975-2003 system or even just use the current point system without resets or segments. If you want to give bonus points to the driver who led the most laps, that's fine.
That system was flawed as well reason: The champ from previous year always got to pick pit box first no matter where they qualified.
 
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