Mamba Smith on NASCAR playoff system: ‘The point isn’t to crown the best driver’

In recent weeks, many racing fans have expressed their dissatisfaction with NASCAR’s playoff system, which guarantees four drivers the ability to race for a championship in the final race of the season. From legends like Mark Martin to current drivers like Denny Hamlin to the online NASCAR fanbase, the dissatisfaction with the playoff system appears to be a consensus opinion.

Offering a dissenting opinion, TNT/Bleacher Report NASCAR contributor and Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour co-host Dylan “Mamba” Smith stuck his neck out defending the current system. It didn’t go well.

During a back-and-forth discussion on X, Smith posted, “the point isn’t to crown the best driver… It’s to crown the best team who executed the best when the pressure was at its highest and the lights were the brightest.”

The point isn’t to crown the best driver… It’s to crown the best team who executed the best when the pressure was at its highest and the lights were the brightest. https://t.co/EctxqbV2je

— Mamba Smith (@MambaSmith34) August 17, 2025

That brought over a thousand reactions, nearly everyone disagreeing, with Denny Hamlin most notably replying “Oh man, yikes.”

Oh man, yikes.

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 17, 2025

For better context, Smith said earlier that he preferred having three races in the Championship 4 final round, which would help alleviate some criticism that crowning a championship on one race is more about luck than a season-long journey. And reading between the lines, Smith is coming from a stick-and-ball sport perspective that in any other playoff system, the best regular season team doesn’t necessarily win the championship. They may get a chance at winning, and the better regular season teams may get an easier road to winning a championship, but they still have to go out and win.

That being said, the point of the championship is to crown the best driver — it’s quite literally the “driver’s championship.” The owner’s championship is for the teams.

Additionally, NASCAR’s playoff system promises a Game 7 moment every season, but Game 7’s aren’t guaranteed in stick-and-ball sports and that’s what makes those moments special. The NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final only went seven games twice since NASCAR adopted the current playoff system in 2014. But if we know there’s going to be a Game 7, why would we bother watching Game’s 1-6?

NASCAR is now in a situation where fans are addicted to the stakes and the product is under pressure to have a great race every week for their instant gratification that unless we see a three-wide photo finish for the win, fans forget what happened in a given race after a week or two. Nothing is memorable anymore because everyone tries way too hard to create memorable moments that nothing stands out. Unless you’re riding the wall at the end of a race or breaking your collarbone celebrating a win.

People remember the tight points battles of 1979 and 1992 because they didn’t happen every year. Even in some years where the championship was all but clinched, the driver still had to go out there and finish in a certain spot to win the title in the final race in most seasons before the Chase era.

If Smith feels like the current playoff system is the best way to determine a NASCAR champion, more power to him for vocalizing that. He’s on an island, but he’s a NASCAR fan and a debate needs to have someone on the other side.

That being said, there is a lot of space in the middle to determine a better system than what’s out there now. Is that a three-race final round? Is that going back to the Chase format where it’s 10 races with 10-12 drivers and some years it was so close we had a tie for the championship? Time will tell, but it’s not a good sign when there is so much opposition for a system that’s trying to get fans to watch NASCAR.