Dale Earnhardt Jr. preposes radical fix to current NASCAR Championship format
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has urged the sanctioning body to make some changes to the playoff format.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via IMAGO)
The racing community is on a mission to convince NASCAR to change its playoff format, which started its adoption and they have been as successful as Denny Hamlin in the Cup title chase. Most of the veterans in the sport believes the format reduces the value of the championship and has been demanding changes. Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of the prominent figures calling for changes.
The JR Motorsports co-owner has gone on multiple rants over the legitimacy of the Bill France Cup winner under the new system via his social media as well podcasting platforms. In the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a bold proposal to make Cup format great again, which includes eliminating the regular season and making playoff the whole season.
What if we got rid of the regular season, and starting in Daytona with the Daytona 500, the playoffs began? The playoffs are the whole season ending with a final one-round championship round, or a three or four-race championship round.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.
So, what is the reasoning behind this wild suggestion, well the two times Xfinity Series champion believes there is a lack of urgency problem in the regular season. Drivers knowing they can afford to make more mistakes in the regular season, doesn’t use it as an opportunity to make more risks as they instead take the safer route.
Instead of this eight, four rounds and eliminate a few guys and all that, make the regular season feel like the playoffs. The problem with what we have right now is that when the season begins, there’s not a lot of urgency. In the old system, a bad race was damning on your championship hopes. So, Week 2, Week 4, a bad run, a broken engine or whatever, you felt that…
Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. admits drivers no longer value the championship enough
In the separate conversation on the same topic, Junior reiterated on his believes that the drivers don’t value the championship as highly as the victories of the past. So, he wants NASCAR to make the changes that will make the title matter to everyone in the garage and end the all noise regarding its legitimacy.
I’ve heard drivers tell me they want it to matter more to win a championship. They want to feel like when they’ve won that championship, that they’ve truly been the best and the best person has won it. They want it to matter more than it matters today. That’s an issue for me.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
With the massive platform and the influences, he has in the NASCAR community, Dale Jr. might be the one person that will make the sanctioning body to finally make some changes to the format. As long as it happens, the fans as well as the other veterans of the sport shouldn’t stop their efforts to achieve this target.
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