While the NASCAR playoff format has become a proverbial punching bag for people these days, and sometimes unfairly so, what happened last weekend at Martinsville is 100% a byproduct of it. The NASCAR playoffs are structured in a way so that title favorites like Kyle Larson can easily be knocked out of championship contention and drivers with so-so seasons like Joey Logano get to fight for the crown. And that's not a knock against Logano, who has once again nailed this all or nothing format. Don't hate the player, hate the game.
And the game deserved plenty of hate after Martinsville. This wasn't a teammate pushing another to the win at Talladega, but a blatant attempt to bend the outcome to one manufacturer or another's will. The drivers involved weren't even on the same team as the drivers who benefitted from shenanigans, but manufacturers have so much sway over the sport now, Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon can't even think about taking that position from William Byron, even though they're racers — they want to finish as high as possible. Then there's Bubba Wallace who claimed something was wrong with his car, but obviously, NASCAR saw that claim as race manipulation as well.
