In the championship format of old, the storyline from Richmond would have been very different. We would have spent this week talking about how Austin Dillon has struggled through a very difficult season, but he was able to find one bright spot with a surprisingly strong run at Richmond. Maybe he would have come away with a race win. No matter the outcome, it wouldn't have changed the fact that he was outside of the top 30 in points, and winning wouldn't magically fix his season.
However, we don't live in that reality. In the modern era, a win means you're in the playoffs, and a driver is guaranteed to finish 16th or higher in points. When the points are reset at the end of the regular season, anything can happen. Not every driver would have done what Dillon did at Richmond, no matter their position in the points, but there's no doubt that Dillon only went that far because of the current format.
