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Brad Keselowski fully supports Chase Elliott’s take on NASCAR championship format

    Brad Keselowski has shown his support in favor of Chase Elliott’s statement, asking for a full-season points system over the current playoff structure. He shared the same retweeted tweet by motorsport journalist Jeff Gluck, who shared Elliott’s take on NASCAR’s current format.

    Brad Keselowski’s point revolved around how the limited number of races in the playoff system fails to properly reward season-long performance. The current format, in his view, makes it hard for fans to recognize just how demanding and competitive the sport has become since the introduction of the Next Gen car. In the tweet, Keselowski wrote:

    “Strikes me just now, part of what’s holding the Nextgen car back in popularity is that the parity it has generated can’t be recognized and celebrated in a playoff format. The small sample size of races in the current format creates a natural oblivious state to the excellence this car requires from teams and drivers to get weekly results… Or In short: What Chase said…”

    The idea that echoes with Keselowski and is shared by Chase Elliott is that the battle for the regular season championship had been tight and competitive in recent years. Referring to the past few seasons, he said,

    “We’ve had a really good and competitive battle to the regular season (championship) over—correct me if I’m wrong—the last two or three years. It’s really been pretty tight all the way down to Daytona.”

    Strikes me just now, part of what’s holding the Nextgen car back in popularity is that the parity it has generated can’t be recognized and celebrated in a playoff format.

    The small sample size of races in the current format creates a natural oblivious state to the excellence this car requires from teams and drivers to get weekly results…

    Elliott added that using a full-season format, where all 36 races count toward the title, would still be valid even if one driver performs well. He said that such dominance should be acknowledged and appreciated instead of being neutralized by a playoff reset.

    “If somebody runs away with it, so what? Let’s celebrate the fact that somebody ran away with it, that somebody was just that good. Motorsports does not have to be like everybody else to be successful. And I’ll stand by that til I get done.”

    Here’s one for ya: I asked @chaseelliott about the topic of the week with the NASCAR championship format debate, and he endorsed full-season points.

    Chase: “We’ve had a really good and competitive battle to the regular season (championship) over — correct me if I’m wrong — the last two or three years. It’s really been pretty tight all the way down to Daytona.

    If you just take that as your sample set over the first 26 weeks, it looks pretty solid to me.

    The system would be just fine if you just had a full season. And if somebody runs away with it, so what? Let’s celebrate the fact that somebody ran away with it, that somebody was just that good.

    Motorsports does not have to be like everybody else to be successful. And I’ll stand by that til I get done.”

    NASCAR’s current format relies on a multi-round elimination-style playoff system. Since 2004, NASCAR has introduced various versions of this playoff format. The current structure consists of 16 drivers who qualify either by winning races or by earning enough points across the first 26 races. The final 10 races make up the playoffs and are broken down into four rounds: Round of 16, Round of 12, Round of 8, and the Championship 4.

    The problem Brad Keselowski is pointing out is that when the points reset for the playoffs, the value of consistent performance over 26 races is diminished. A driver who performs well all year can be eliminated due to one bad race, while a driver with fewer good performances but one playoff win can advance.

    Points are awarded by finishing position and stage wins, but once the final race arrives, none of that matters for the top four. The champion is simply the highest-finishing driver among the Championship 4, regardless of how well others have performed throughout the season.

    Crashed early, hopes crushed – Brad Keselowski’s Chicago Street race ends in disaster

    Brad Keselowski’s tough season took another hit earlier in July when he was forced to retire early from the NASCAR Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course. On lap four, Carson Hocevar hit the wall off Turn 10 and spun, clogging the track.

    Brad Keselowski tried to stop in time, but Daniel Suarez pushed him into the wreck, after which several more cars piled in. His #6 Ford Mustang suffered a broken left front suspension, forcing Keselowski to exit the race with his sixth DNF of the season.

    The incident also involved Austin Dillon, Todd Gilliland, AJ Allmendinger, Will Brown, and Riley Herbst. Speaking to NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass after the race, Brad Keselowski said:

    “Wrong spot, wrong time. The #77 (Carson Hocevar) wrecked and blocked the track. I was going to get stopped to not hit him, or if I was going to, it was going to be light, then like three cars came from behind and blasted us.”

    He added, “It broke the left front suspension off the car. It’s a shame we never got a chance to show what we had. I thought we were pretty good, but that’s just how it goes.”

    This crash not only knocked Brad Keselowski out of the In-Season Challenge—where he lost to Ty Dillon—but also put a dent in his already slim playoff chances. He came into the race ranked 27th in the standings.