The NASCAR Playoffs Are Matt Kenseth’s Fault … Sort Of

It’s been 20 years since NASCAR first utilized a playoff system to determine the NASCAR Cup Series champion.

And while the format has varied, the purpose of it has remained constant: keep the champion from being decided before the final race.

The next-to-last race of the year has been the scene of many title celebrations. When Dale Earnhardt tied Richard Petty with his seventh Cup in 1994, The Intimidator was handed the big trophy with one race yet to be run. It was the third of his seven crowns to be wrapped up before the final checkered flag waved.

In four of the final five years prior to the implementation of a playoff, the title was mathematically locked up in the penultimate race of the year. True, Tony Stewart and Mark Martin did put on a spirited battle in 2002 that went down to the wire. But from 1998 through 2001, there’s no denying that Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte and then Gordon again stunk up the show a bit.

Gordon’s 1998 was a mastery of winning races, and he simply scored the most points by finishing first the most. In fact, there was a run of six races where eventual championship runner-up Martin finished second, second, second, fourth, first and second, yet lost ground to Gordon because the No. 24 won five of those six contests. None of the championship formats used throughout NASCAR history would’ve ended with anyone else winning the ’98 title.

Jarrett and Labonte both used a more consistent approach, not only winning four races in their title seasons, but finishing in the top five and top 10 more than anyone else.

But in 2003, Matt Kenseth took stifling consistency to a whole new (and arguably undesirable) level. Kenseth only won one race that season: at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.

However, through 28 races, Kenseth had only finished worse than 14th on two occasions, and those were a 20th and 22nd, respectively. Needless to say, he had built up a massive lead in the standings to that point. Kevin Harvick trailed the No. 17 by 465 points, which meant that even if Kenseth finished last in every remaining event, it would take Harvick at least three races to surpass him.

Despite back-to-back showings of 33rd and 36th, Kenseth clinched the championship in the next-to-last race at Rockingham Speedway. The lackluster title fight sucked most of the drama out of the final races, which certainly didn’t sit well with the sanctioning body.

But Kenseth and the No. 17 Dewalt team…