{"id":265007,"date":"2025-11-06T06:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T06:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265007\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T06:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T06:41:09","slug":"dale-earnhardt-jr-claims-nascar-playoff-format-betrayed-us-after-phoenix-championship-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265007\/","title":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims NASCAR playoff format ‘betrayed us’ after Phoenix championship weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has long been a critic of the current NASCAR<\/a> elimination style playoff format. After the finish to this past Sunday\u2019s Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway, Earnhardt can\u2019t help but think that the \u201cformat betrayed us really badly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The format was introduced in 2014 and features a one-race, winner-take-all finale. Throughout the years, Earnhardt can only recall one time he left the racetrack truly bothered by the outcome of the championship race. That was back in 2016, when Carl Edwards lost the championship after NASCAR issued a late caution for debris on the racetrack while he was leading. <\/p>\n

Then came Sunday at Phoenix when Denny Hamlin was out front, less than three miles away from winning his first championship when one caution changed everything. William Byron blew a tire and hit the wall, forcing NASCAR to wave the yellow flag. Overtime it was, where Kyle Larson restarted five spots ahead of Hamlin thanks to taking only two tires on the final pit stop to Hamlin\u2019s four. Larson won the 2025 title after finishing third, three spots ahead of Hamlin. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe format betrayed us really badly,\u201d Earnhardt said on Tuesday\u2019s Dale Jr. Download<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m trying to understand where my frustration or my angst is, what is to be directed at. We\u2019ve had this format for a while. It\u2019s done this before, but I\u2019ve never walked out of there going, \u2018F*ck, dude, that was way f*cking egregious.\u2019 What is it about this particular year? We\u2019ve had this format, a lot of people don\u2019t like it, we\u2019ve all kind of not said too much sh*t about it over the years. Now this year, everybody went full scorched Earth on this format. We did, we all did and about damn time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt took everybody a long time to come around to really what I\u2019ve been feeling about this format since it came into existence. Like, one race to decide it is too aggressive, but we all lived with it for a while. But I never walked out of Homestead or Phoenix going, \u2018That was just f*cking wrong.\u2019 Well, one time. Carl Edwards. \u2026 That was the one year that I walked out of there kind of nauseous, and I\u2019m not a Carl Edwards fan at that time. I like Carl now, we\u2019re good. But I was sitting there like that was bullsh*t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dale Earnhardt Jr. ready to move on from current NASCAR playoff format<\/p>\n

Larson found a way to win his second championship despite, at one point, going a lap down and failing to lead a single lap. Hamlin, meanwhile, led a championship race record 208 laps. <\/p>\n

Earnhardt wasn\u2019t bothered by that. However, he was surprised at Hamlin\u2019s inability to make up much ground in overtime. Just two days prior in the Truck Series championship race, Corey Heim restarted 10th and was able to make a seven-wide pass to get back to the front and take the checkered flag ahead of Ty Majeski. Hamlin was unable to do the same. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s an outrage over the fact that the yellow came out,\u201d Earnhardt said. \u201d \u2026 I don\u2019t look at the caution and go, \u2018Dang it, NASCAR, why\u2019d you do that?\u2019 I don\u2019t know that Denny\u2019s looking at it going, \u2018Sh*t, I\u2019m mad they threw the yellow.\u2019 Larson wins the championship and says, \u2018Man, we didn\u2019t even have a great car, and we didn\u2019t lead a lap today.\u2019 Listen, careful, because next year at the last race of the year, the champion might not have a great car, and he might not lead a lap and everybody\u2019s gonna be OK with it then. The fact that he had an average car and didn\u2019t lead a lap doesn\u2019t bother me. <\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, the green flag comes out, and I\u2019m watching Denny trying to get underneath those guys and get bottled up and not be able to finish the throttle off of [Turn] 2, and I\u2019m like, \u2018God almighty.\u2019 I thought his four tires would do better. We watched Corey Heim come from 10th, drive to the bottom of the racetrack and damn near take the lead. When they got to Turn 1, he was damn near side-by-side with the 5. When they got to Turn 1, the 11 is on the 5\u2019s quarter panel. \u2026 I was so surprised the 11 couldn\u2019t make that bottom work. \u2026 That was excruciating to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt Jr. has long been a critic of the current NASCAR elimination style playoff format. After the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-265007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}