John Nieman
The events of the election have made it clear to me that our country—in my view, the greatest country in the world—is not only not exactly the country I thought it was, but it is unique from the rest of the world in so many ways. To discover that a failed businessman and game show host can be elected president by the majority of the country, not just the electoral college, is both sobering and enlightening.
But this is a sports column. The reason I bring up the matters above is that I have been pondering the incredible difference between the way we crown champions in this country as opposed to the rest of the world. For whatever reason, we do not recognize the work of a full season except to allow them to qualify and to seed a championship playoff. In each of our major sports, a team can go undefeated during the season and still not be crowned champion.
One would think that in a sport such as motor racing, where all of the participants are competing against each other in each race, a playoff system would be at the very least problematic. And so it is with NASCAR.
I put my hand up now to say that when the playoff system was first instituted in NASCAR, I found it intriguing. I still find it so. I guess that at this point what I’m most intrigued about is how long it took the participants to figure out how to game the system.
And I find it intriguing that NASCAR seems surprised that this has come about. You get down eight race teams- who, by the way, are affiliated with other race teams as teammates and as having the same manufacturer–who are vying to become one of the final four. These eight teams are not merely running against each other, they are running against the entire field. A field made up of cars many of which having nothing to lose and having varying degrees of relationships with each other.
I thought about this a lot and I can’t really come up with a workable solution. For me, the best answer seems to be that NASCAR goes back to some form of point system that recognizes achievement over the course of an entire season and ditches the notion of playoffs. I realize that takes away some of the drama associated with a playoff system and that there will be seasons where there will be a runaway champion.
But I believe that will be far more satisfying. And will result in several seasons where the championship comes down to the wire on the last day. It will take away the contrived excitement that comes with these playoffs, but it will recognize real achievement. And NASCAR fans are not the dolts that the powers that be seem to think them to be. For decades in the past, the fans were able to understand and follow the points system.
At least that is my faith in fans. It is, I admit, faith that has been sorely tested by the past election.
It seems to me the only other solution is to not penalize all of the gamesmanship that occurred in Martinsville and other races. Just let it go and realize that this is the result of having a playoff where everyone in the league is playing every game. I’m pretty sure I would find it interesting and exciting to watch a race where there are tactical moves and tentative agreements made throughout the race by the 30-odd race teams who are not in the playoffs but are racing around a track at over 100 mph.
NASCAR’s position that all cars in every event must spend the entire race focusing only their performance when only eight or four teams are running for a championship is, quite frankly, preposterous.
On a completely unrelated note and veering off in a whole different direction, I think as soccer fans it is time to decide whether there is something radically wrong with Kylian Mbappe or whether the French Ligue1 is a vastly inferior league. There is little doubt that at the very least Mbappe has never had the offside rule explained to him. It is so frustrating to watch the fastest and quickest athlete on the field being unable to begin his runs in an onside position.
I’m just saying…
Of course it’s easy for me to criticize. I play in leagues where they don’t enforce the offside rule. I continue to be grateful to my teammates on Dynamo who allow me to continue to do so. I can imagine that I am very often very frustrating to them. But if not for their willingness, I can’t imagine where the Index would be.
For now, Fat Boy Index: 287.