Nicolò Bulega will replace Marc Márquez for the final two MotoGP rounds at Ducati. Cadillac announced its IMSA lineup for 2026 with Wayne Taylor Racing, and Colton Herta will contest the three longest endurance races. If Herta has enough time to run those, then I think he will have enough time to run the Indianapolis 500, which occurs during a six-week break for Formula Two. Speaking of Herta and Formula Two, he tested a car at Monza in the wet. Felipe Massa is chasing after money. Mathieu Jaminet is leaving Porsche. Marco Andretti has retired from racing. The only thing that has been on my mind has been Phoenix, and I have been thinking all week.
A Hollow Ending
Leading into the NASCAR finale and the three championship-deciding races, as there was much consternation over how the three races would play out and who would be champion in each series, it was another season of soul-searching over what you believe a champion should be, and what feels right.
As we went into this weekend worried that in two series drivers who smashed the competition since February could possibly lose titles despite being statistically better than everyone across, many questions floated in my mind and some floated over the airwaves, and the truth is the world is not black-and-white. There are no absolutes, whether that is in daily life occurrences or how a NASCAR champion should be decided.
Are You OK if the Driver with the Most Victories Doesn't Win the Championship? Yeah... Kind Of.
The question above came to mind because we went into this weekend with Connor Zilisch and Corey Heim miles ahead of everyone in victories in NASCAR's second division and the Truck Series respectively, but those two were miles ahead of everyone across the board. It is no doubt who the best two drivers were this season in those two series. But I don't believe a championship should be as cut-and-dry as "Who won the most races?"
Let's cover right here that in no way am I saying it is a good thing Zilisch lost his championship nor would it have been fine if Heim had lost the Truck title.
But motorsports is a little more complex, and there are circumstances where I can live if the driver who won the most races wasn't champion.
Motorsports is wonky. Driver A could win ten races in a season, but then in the other 26 races finish 30th or worse. Is it clear as day that driver should be champion? Maybe not if Driver B only won twice, but finished in the top three of all 36 races.
Yes, Driver A won ten times, an incredible achievement, but 26 finishes of 30th or worse is glaring. Driver B, who had an average finish that could have been no worse 2.889 over an entire season despite winning 80% fewer races, seems championship worthy, especially when you consider the other driver could not have an average finish better than 18.4.
That is what motorsports is. One driver can be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, either gloriously on top or in the gutter. Another driver can be tortoise, slow and steady and coming out at the front all the time. When crowning a champion and taking into consideration a full season of results, it could lead to such circumstances, and that is understandable.
Even in a more practical outcome where a driver wins eight races and loses the championship to a driver who only four times, there are circumstances where you can look at the four-time winner as being the better driver only the entire season. It isn't absolute.
However, in the case of Zilisch and Heim, it was. No one was close to them in their respective series. Heim's season was practically flawless, and he capped it off with his 12th victory of the season at Phoenix. Zilisch had a slow start but he also had 20 top five finishes and 23 top ten finishes in 32 starts. He lost the championship because a "bad day" in the finale was finishing third.
Winning does matter, and it should be rewarded more, but if you want it to mean more than finishing second and third and fourth and so on, then you need to make every position worth proportionately less.
NASCAR's issue has always been not that winning isn't worth enough but finishing second and so on is worth too much.
From 1975 to 2003, a victory earned a driver 175 points, plus five more for leading at least one lap, so 180 points. Second-place paid a minimum of 170 points. In that case, second-place is worth 94.44% of a victory. Third-place was worthy 91.667% of a victory. Tenth-place was worth 74.44%. It wasn't until you reached 25th position that someone scored less than half what the winner got.
Even after NASCAR made the change in 2011 and awarded a point per position with a few extra for winning a race, it didn't fix the proportional problem of the points system. A winner was now scoring at least 47 points with second earning a minimum of 42 points. Second-place was still earning 89.36% of a victory. Tenth was worth 72.34%, and now 21st was the first position where someone scored less than half the winner's total.
A change is coming to the championship format for NASCAR, but if everyone is afraid of a championship coming down to a driver just finishing eighth in every race and not trying to win, then make eighth worth significantly less than a victory.
In IndyCar, second-place is worth 80% of a victory. Fifth is only worth 60%, and seventh-place is the first position that pays less than half the winner's total. Tenth is only worthy 40%. If Formula One, second is worth 72%, third is worth 60% and fourth is worth 48%.
It doesn't come down to whether or not the champion is determined via a full-season aggregate or if there are resets or playoff points or whatever, but it also comes down to how NASCAR distributes points, and if it wants winning to be worth more, it must make finishing second on down worth less.
Pay 100 points to the winner, 70 for second, 50 for third and then go 40-35-30-25-20-15-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 with maybe everyone 21st and worse also getting one point because NASCAR gives out participation points anyway. And get rid of stage points because it dilutes a finishing position. You reward winning but you also do not incentivize finishing seventh or eighth every weekend.
Give me a day to work out the math and we will see what this could hypothetically could have looked like.
The NASCAR finale has become less satisfying over each of the last 12 seasons. It made the finale "winner-take-all" for a "game seven moment," but in the process it took all the joy out of the season. More and more a season ends and it feels like we know less about what we just witnessed. We aren't sure who was the best, which a champion is supposed to determine. Did the best driver win the Cup championship this year? In a season where there was no outstanding driver, you could make a case that any of six could have been champion, but none of them are compelling. You aren't sure what matters. Race victories? Top five finishes? Laps led? Average finish? Who was the best this season? Playoffs have muddy the waters and not for the better.
Everything boils down to one race, but when the system tosses out everything that happened prior to it, the champion becomes a toss-up. The fate of a caution and the decision to take two tires over four determined the Cup champion. It could happen under any system, but in this one it is a hollow way for the title to be decided. The finale is isn't a race that confirms what we saw over an entire season. It is one result that determines how the history book recognizes a season, even if it doesn't add up.
Champions From the Weekend
You know about Corey Heim, but did you...
Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Cup Series championship with a third-place finish at Phoenix.
Jesse Love won the NASCAR Grand National Series Championship with a victory at Phoenix.
The #1 TGR Team au TOM's Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita won the Super GT GT500 championship with a victory in the Motegi finale.
The #65 K2 R&D LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG of Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami won the Super GT GT300 championship with a sixth-place finish at Motegi.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Corey Heim, Jesse Love, Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita, but did you know...
Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup race from Phoenix, his fourth victory of the season.
The #5 Team Mach Toyota of Iori Kimura and Yusuke Shiotsu won in GT300 at the Motegi Super GT finale.
Coming Up This Weekend
MotoGP will be in Portugal.
Formula One is in another Lusophone nation for a sprint weekend in Brazil.
The FIA World Endurance Championship concludes its season with an eight-hour race in Bahrain.
Rally Japan takes places as the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship.
