Is This It?

The 2025 Cup series championship race was one of the strangest races I've ever watched. It shouldn't have been.

I have been a NASCAR fan since 2013. In 2018, I became fatigued by the state of the sport, and took off most of that season and into 2019. Ironically enough, the COVID races of 2020 brought me back. It provided entertainment and distraction from everything else that was falling apart in the real world. At this point, I also decided to switch drivers from Brad Keselowski to Ryan Blaney. Most people who have known me from Twitter know that I’ve followed Ryan’s whole career due to his backing from Brad, but the time had come for a change. Finally after race after race of painful events, Ryan’s career began to take an upward trajectory.

2023 was an incredibly difficult year for me personally. Early in the year, my only living grandparent had a debilitating stroke. To leave out a lot of details, there was no other option than for her to move in with my parents, brother, and I. Over that summer, my relationships with my then boyfriend and family suffered, as I moved back to my college for a month to mentor 20 European students. It was demanding and grueling, but an incredible experience. By the time the program was over, so was my relationship. I had nothing but time until I went back to school for the semester, so I pushed myself to turn on the TV every Sunday for a four hour distraction.

My fall semester of my senior year was more of those same themes. I began the strenuous process of applying for grad school with a lot of pressure and expectations on me. I went to the Stevie Nicks concert that my boyfriend was supposed to take me to with my family instead and cried. I had a major falling out with one of my roommates, someone I had known since kindergarten. But by October, when Blaney began to make a playoff run like he never had before, I began to feel excited for every Sunday. All week I would talk with my online friends about the next race, and every week his results got stronger. Finally, I had something to look forward and a healthy distraction. I was sitting at my desk at my job in the tutoring center when he won his championship, tears streaming down my face. My best friend, who knows nothing about racing, sat next to me and I didn’t need say a word to her. Although it had nothing to do with me personally or my life in the grand scheme, it felt like a weight was taken off my shoulders. It had felt worth it to keep going.

That was a bit dramatic. But I give you that whole sob story to say that NASCAR is meaningful to me. I know many others have serious stories and memories as well. So, all this is to say - I care. I try not to be so negative and hateful about it, because if I really felt that way, I would quit watching for good. And I don’t want to do that until Ryan Blaney is retired.

I care about the playoffs, or lack thereof, and how the series is perceived to others. I phased out using Twitter (no I will never call it X) after the election last year but I still have a side account. Social media, more so the figureheads on it that work for NASCAR in some capacity, has been damaging for the sport. I don’t follow any other sports; racing is it for me. So for these figures to consistently, for years, try to compare racing to “stick and ball sports” or point out how they’re not alike because we’re better, is exhausting. I hate it almost as much as “game 7 moments.” I don’t like to be belittled or told that I should have a certain opinion or that I’m not loyal enough. I have spent enough time and money on NASCAR to determine my own opinions, and I think everyone else rightfully feels that same way.

The Cup championship race in Phoenix gave me a very strange feeling. I felt bad for Denny Hamlin, and I hardly cared that my favorite driver won the race. Both of these things seemed ridiculous, and I tried to shake it off during my usual post-race shower thoughts. But the way the race had ended just didn’t sit right with me. It was about to be a cliche fairy tale ending for Hamlin, but it felt deserved - he had dominated the race and avoided everything that had plagued him in past championship attempts. And then the caution hit, they went into overtime, it was over as soon as it had began, and Kyle Larson won instead. My feelings were also stemming from the night before in the Xfinity series. I like Justin Allgaier, but Connor Zilisch had 10 wins. Neither of them became champion anyway because their pit crew messed up or their car was off that race. This is how racing works; no one is perfect 100% of the time, but Zilisch was pretty damn close. And now he has nothing to prove for it.

The playoff format needs to change. Wow, I’m stating the obvious, as it’s even clear to NASCAR execs and journalists who have been teasing rumors all year. To what exactly, I’m not sure, but what I do know is still not enough people will be happy. This is a dilemma and sacrifice NASCAR faces and has to make.

Full season points sound good on paper and maybe even in theory, but I’ve followed F1 and remember the hybrid era and the return of the Red Bull era. Plenty of NASCAR fans have made fun of F1 for how Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have wrapped a season up with multiple races to go. The system rightfully rewards dominance, but it does not fit with NASCAR’s marketing model. NASCAR is touting a tagline of “hell yeah” for 2026 and a driver wrapping up the season with several races left probably wouldn’t fit that. But F1 has had a major breakthrough in the U.S., which NASCAR is clearly chasing. IndyCar has full normal points too, but I have been turned off of following it for years, and I really don’t think anything could bring me back. I know some fans love to recreate Winston Cup points and dream of nostalgia, but I really do feel like the feeling would wear off after a year of this (of course, depending on the driver that would win.)

The Chase format was a compromise, but my main memory of my first season in 2013 was Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth trading wins instead of the parity that a lot of younger fans would look for. I will admit that “The Big Three” of 2018 was a large factor in pushing me away that year. Yes, even if Blaney were a part of it - I think it would feel odd without a variety of winners or contenders. I would argue this is a strong format overall, but I only have one season of following to base it off of.

The modernized Chase from 2014-2016, to then playoffs from 2017-probably next January has delivered both highs and lows, but it felt doomed from the day it was changed to “playoffs” to mirror…stick and ball sports. I can’t be bothered to type out all the grievances with this as it seems like fans invent a new one daily. Personally, I think I have finally figured out that my issue is that the championship comes down to one singular race.

It was noted after the race that really, Larson did have a great season. Okay, I’ll recognize I’m not immune to recency bias, and I feel partially the way I do as Hamlin had won most of his six races more recently than Larson, who hadn’t won since May. But let’s go back to last year (sigh) with Joey Logano and his average finish of 17.1. Or Kyle Busch’s first championship after missing a high amount of races after breaking his leg. I might as well say that Shane Van Gisbergen wasn’t even in the top 30 in points when he first won and was entered into the playoffs. People are also still bitter about Blaney in 2023. Actually, I’m not sure which season people were collectively satisfied with and I could probably argue it anyway if I was in the right mood.

The winner-takes-all race is unfitting to me because racing is not about total perfection, and NASCAR is not the series for that. If you are not good at the particular track, your tire blows as we saw in this particular race, or you just get beaten on that day, that’s your season defined and done. Larson even recognized this after the race and William Byron went to apologize to Hamlin. That is not a satisfying result. NASCAR has had this happen multiple times across all three series. So hence the rumor that they are going to a multi-race finale. If four drivers are going to compete against each other, it may feel more “legitimate” for drivers if they are able to beat each other across a very mini-season within a season. I think I like this and it feels like a decent compromise, but what about the other components?

I feel almost more negatively about overtime than the playoff structure. NASCAR themselves love it, but it is destroying the racing experience. I went to the Bristol night race where tire fall off was a major part of the race, but there were constant cautions throughout the night. They spent close to 10 laps pacing each time, and of course went into overtime. That didn’t ruin that particular race, but the idea of this manufactured drama tainted it. I get little enjoyment of knowing the race is about to get very stupid, very quickly when the laps left get reset into overtime. Actually, it doesn’t do much for anyone besides TV networks and commentators, and whatever driver is able to luck out from it. Ending under caution is annoying and I’ve seen those races. But it feels better than the manufactured chaos.

I don’t care about stages. I’ve watched enough races that ran green for seemingly the whole day and let’s be real, cautions can sometimes be necessary just for anything interesting. So they can stay along with the corresponding points. I also don’t care about double file restarts and I’m not sure how that argument even started.

Is this it for NASCAR? Is this the tipping point, the breaking point where even most of the drivers are dissatisfied? It seems so, and that needs to be a flashing, bright red flag for the execs and promoters that argue on Twitter. I would say that it’s about time, and I have also had enough.

It should not be a yearly debate of if a champion driver is “legit” or not. This is not happening elsewhere. The NASCAR season is too long for drivers to let their season be defined in one single race. I am tired of being disappointed and seeing other fans disappointed, because then I feel negative about something I really enjoy. We do get plenty of good races in the average season, but it’s quickly overshadowed by something else, or the championship taints the whole year. There needs to be a sacrifice of “hell yeah” for full season points to reward drivers, or a best of however many races with the final four drivers. This is unfortunately a breaking point for NASCAR and what happens next is going to decide the future of the series and its stance as a motorsport. Hopefully they decide to make a choice to move forward, but I’m not exactly holding my breath.