Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
There were many championship awarded this weekend. It was the final act for two classes in Bahrain, and one of the winners closed out an era with a tremendous bit of history. Romain Grosjean announced his third team in four IndyCar seasons. Brazil had quite a storm and then more of the same. Formula One is considering overhauling the sprint. NASCAR ended it seasons, but it did not necessarily end on the highest of notes. One question comes to mind.
Who Is This For?
Two major series were questioning themselves over whether or not they are making the right decisions after this weekend.
For Formula One, another sprint weekend had it questioning whether or not this was the format was benefitting the series. For NASCAR, another championship weekend with the elimination format closed a season and skepticism remains over if this is the right way to decide a champion, especially after the events of Friday night.
Both Formula One and NASCAR made these changes for the viewers. The idea was these changes were done for the fan bases. It was meant to give the supporters more and also hopefully attract more to watch. But as this has played out, the question must be asked, who is this for?
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was essentially asking the same thing after Brazil. Horner told Motorsport.com over the weekend that the current sprint format does not work for anyone, fans, drivers, teams. Last month, Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein said the sprint weekend did not sell more tickets for the Saturday activities in Austin. A few drivers, Max Verstappen being the most notable of the bunch, has expressed opposition to sprint weekend. Formula One is now openly exploring overhauling the sprint format for 2024.
In Phoenix, NASCAR's three national touring series each decided their champions, but we were provided the model example of all the flaws with the elimination format. When Carson Hocevar spun Corey Heim out, it took Heim out of position to control the championship with under 25 laps remaining. This left it to be Grant Enfinger against Ben Rhodes for the title. Enfinger was ahead of Rhodes and leading the championship with three laps remaining before Heim collided Hocevar in what was an obvious act of retaliation, setting up restart after restart as the race continued beyond the scheduled distance but could not end with two consecutive green flag laps.
Enfinger suffered a tire puncture on one of the restarts, and that practically handed Rhodes the championship. The multiple green-white-checkered attempts allowed Enfinger one final gasp on fresh tires to win the championship but he fell a position short, finishing sixth to Rhodes in fifth.
Who is this for? Any of this for that matter?
The sprint races do not show us anything different than what we will see in the grand prix on Sunday. It is effectively the same drivers start at the front and finishing at the front. There might be some battles for sixth, seventh and eighth, but at some point a battle for sixth, seventh and eighth are just a battle for sixth, seventh and eighth. Those same battles will happen on Sunday likely between the same drivers. That isn't a reason to tune in on Saturday in that case.
A sense of dissatisfaction hung in the air over Friday night and into Saturday morning in Phoenix. I am not sure who the right driver should have been championship, but the general sense was we didn't see a race fitting to crown a champion. It doesn't seem like the way to decide a champion at all.
Corey Heim entered the Phoenix Truck finale with five consecutive top five finishes and nine consecutive top ten finishes. Illness forced Heim out of his truck for Gateway in June, but he had top ten finishes in 15 consecutive starts. He had 19 top ten finishes in his first 21 starts, 12 of which were top five results. The history book will say Heim was third in the championship after finishing 18th at Phoenix.
Ben Rhodes won once this year, back in May, smack-dab in the middle of the calendar. Rhodes had more finishes outside the top ten (eight) than inside the top five (seven). That is your champion.
On the Cup side of things, Ryan Blaney won the championship after finishing seecond in the Phoenix race, but his eight top five finishes are the fewest for a NASCAR Cup champion in NASCAR's modern era (since 1972). It is the third fewest number of top five finishes ever for a Cup champion behind Red Byron in 1949 and Bill Rexford in 1950, the first two seasons of NASCAR Cup Series competition, which had eight races and 19 races respectively. Blaney did not have a top five finish in June, July, August or September. His top five finish percentage of 22.22% is the lowest all-time among Cup champions. That is your champion.
But this was all done for the fans. This is what the fans want, or so we have told. Yet, the grandstands were not overflowing with people on Friday night in Phoenix and the Truck Series finale didn't start until after 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Viewership has constantly declined for the NASCAR Cup Series with this playoff system. The finale receives no viewership bump as guaranteed the championship decider, suggesting there is no any increased interest of who will win the title though the goal has been to create "game seven" moments.
Each series is hoping to attract more viewers and increase revenue. That is why these changes have occurred though neither has accomplished their goals. Formula One saw more viewership just from having a docuseries on Netflix, not because of the sprint races. NASCAR is trying to do the same, but if a streaming series is what increases viewership by 10%, 20% or 30%, then the playoff format and deciding the champions this way is not the answer.
These changes have been a step away from tradition, not that change is a bad thing, but when change isn't solving a problem, it must be asked if it was ever warranted. Formula One could abandon the sprint format tomorrow and no one would realize it was gone, yet it seem insistent on making it work. The same goes for NASCAR and its championship format. NASCAR could revert to a season-long aggregate and no one outside those who are already watching, who are arguably already unsatisfied, would notice the change.
Neither are working as intended. Instead of continuing onward and calling either a success, it is time for re-valuation even if it means abandoning ship altogether.
There does not seem to be fanfare for either the sprint format in Formula One or the elimination, winner-take-all finale in NASCAR. Isn't it time to start listening to what people actually want instead of making a change and hoping people will like it out of the blue with no evidence to suggest otherwise?
Champions From the Weekend
You know about Ryan Blaney and Ben Rhodes, but did you know...
Cole Custer clinched the NASCAR Grand National Series championship with a victory in the Phoenix finale
The #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa clinched the World Endurance Drviers' Championship with victory in the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
The #41 Team WRT Oreca-Gibson of Louis Delétraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade clinched the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers championship with victory in the LMP2 class at Bahrain.
The #36 TGT Team au TOM's Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata clinched the Super GT GT500 championship with victory in the Motegi finale.
The #52 Saitama Tooyopet GreenBrave Toyota of Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaai clinched the Super GT GT300 championship with a seventh in the Motegi finale.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about plenty of winners already, but did you know...
Max Verstappen won the Brazilian Grand Prix and won the sprint race.
The #85 Iron Dames Porsche of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gattting won GTE-Am class in the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Ross Chastain won the NASCAR Cup race from Phoenix, his second victory of the season. Christian Eckes won the Truck race, his fourth victory of the season.
The #88 JLOC Lamborghini of Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima won in GT300 in the Super GT race from Motegi.
Coming Up This Weekend
One more race in the Asia-Pacific for MotoGP, a round in Malaysia... and that is it. No really, that is all I have on my calendar. There must be some other series out there competing.
