For the second time in three NASCAR Cup Series Races, a driver below 30th in the points standings emerged as the winner.
A few weeks ago at Richmond Raceway, Austin Dillon scored his fifth career win after dumping Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final lap. Then, at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night (Aug. 24), it was Harrison Burton who shocked the NASCAR world. Burton captured his first victory by slipping past Kyle Busch on the last lap, then holding on in a frantic dash back to the finish line.
It was an enormous triumph for Burton, who got to celebrate with his family and earn the Wood Brothers’ 100th win before he departs the team at the end of the season.
Additionally, Burton is locked into the playoffs.
Yes, you read that correctly. NASCAR ditched the rule where a winner had to be in the top 30 in points to be playoff eligible. Burton entered Daytona 34th in overall points, dead last among all full-time Cup Series drivers this season. Even after the victory, he is still 34th in points. Burton’s only other top-10 result so far this season is a 10th-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway.
Until Saturday, he and the No. 21 team had not even shown flashes of competitiveness on any type of track. However, NASCAR’s rules for postseason qualification give priority to race winners, no matter where they are in the points standings. So, with one race left in the regular season and only 13 eligible winners, Burton is guaranteed a spot in the 16-driver playoffs.
Rules like the “win and you’re in” provision make it impossible to take NASCAR’s playoffs seriously. The championship format should always be, first and foremost, an agreed upon set of rules for fairly determining who the best driver is each year. How to define “best driver” is always going to be up for interpretation, but the stakeholders should agree that the champion is someone who exhibits excellence over the course of the whole season and demonstrates a high level of performance.
Even with the current postseason system, you should expect that the drivers and teams who qualify are the ones who have shown the most potential to compete for the championship. Given the lack of success he has had in 2024, Burton’s inclusion in the playoffs calls these principles into question.
To be clear, I am not under the impression that everyone who qualifies for the postseason is going to make a serious run at the championship. That ship…
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