What’s Happening?

Dale Earnhardt Jr claims that during a recent conversation with NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell, O’Donnell told him that any changes made to the NASCAR playoff or points system will also be in effect for all three National Series.

Throughout the season’s lengthy conversation about changing the NASCAR playoff format or points system, often lost in the discussion about potential changes is what would happen to NASCAR’s lower National Series in the event of a change.

While the Craftsman Truck and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series utilize the current playoff system, the idea of the two series having a different points system from the Cup Series is nothing new.

When NASCAR introduced the Chase system in 2004, the Cup Series adopted a 10-race playoff, while the Trucks and Xfinity Series maintained a traditional season-long system. In fact, this remained the case until 2016, when both series adopted the elimination-style playoff format.

Earlier this season, during an interview with Eric Estepp, NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell even hinted that NASCAR could explore alternative formats in these two series as a test.

”I think for us the decisions are gonna be, ‘Do you put something immediately in the Cup Series? Do you try something around next year’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Trucks? Do you try three different things?’ ” — Steve O’Donnell

However, it appears this will not be the case, as NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims to have spoken with O’Donnell to clear the air on the matter.

Following Suit

In this week’s episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt says that while exiting the track following JR Motorsport’s heartbreaking championship loss this past weekend, he ran into O’Donnell and asked if any changes to the Cup Series playoff format or points system would affect the sport’s lower National Series.

“I said, ‘Hey, Steve, a lot of people [are] talking about the Cup stuff, we know that’s probably coming, in terms of a change to the format. 
But nobody ever says anything about the Xfinity or Truck [Series]. And I guess we’re all just assuming that whatever happens to Cup, something similar will happen. And he’s like, ‘yeah, something very similar will happen.'” — Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Though something similar does leave room for interpretation, this wording could be due to Earnhardt’s recollection of the conversation, or it could allude to differences found in the current system across series.

For example, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series playoffs, unlike the Cup Series, consist of only eight races and feature 12 drivers. While the Truck Series, under the current system, utilizes a seven-race 10-driver playoff, that also features the sport’s only two-driver elimination round after the first three races.

As of presstime, NASCAR has yet to announce any changes to the points system for any of its three National Series. For more information on NASCAR’s search for a new points system, make sure to check out the article linked below.

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