Austin Dillon‘s win in last Saturday’s race at Richmond Raceway brought new life to the playoff format debate. Dillon entered the race 28th in the points standings but is now playoff bound with the win and you’re in system.
NASCAR media personality Mamba Smith found himself in the middle of the debate on social media, and one of his takes caused quite a stir: “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.” You knew that one was going to garner a response from his “Happy Hour” co-host Kevin Harvick.
Harvick said that the driver “makes the most difference” when it comes to a team’s level of success. He initially felt Smith was trying to say the team was “more important than the driver.”
Kevin Harvick has his say on Mamba Smith’s viral tweet
“The way I interpreted your tweet was that the team was more important than the driver,” Harvick said on Tuesday’s show. “The driver drives everything that happens; the teams think their names means something, but the guy’s name above the door means the most. And the guy who makes the biggest difference is in the seat. But you can’t do it without the rest of it. So, I understand what you’re saying, but it is a driver driven sport — by a lot. … I agree that it’s a team sport. But I think the way you typed it was like you were half asleep.”
Smith’s tweet quickly went viral. As of Wednesday afternoon, it’s attracted 1.6 million views. Some agree, some disagree. Denny Hamlin was in the latter category.
“Oh man, yikes,” Hamlin responded.
Smith and Harvick talked through the tweet at length. In the end, Harvick determined that Smith’s overall point was misinterpreted.
“Don’t ever forget that the drivers are the most important piece to the puzzle. The pit crew guys — some of them want to feel they’re more important,” Kevin Harvick said. “… I was reading it as you were trying to give credit to the teams that made it happen in that moment as you were kind of defending the current points system. … You were misinterpreted… they’re [fans] gonna be mad if someone wins by 300 points. There’s a middle road.”
NASCAR president opens up about criticism of playoff format
With the 2025 playoffs soon to be underway and the 2026 schedule out, NASCAR is under some pressure to decide what the playoff format will look like next season. NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell told Eric Estepp that they are in the “final processes” of determining what 2026 will look like. O’Donnell mentioned that if they stick to the status quo, “there’s got to be a pretty good explanation as to why.”
“We are kind of in the final processes,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve tried to talk to as many of the stakeholder groups as possible, we have a couple more of those conversations to have. And I think for us, the decisions are going to be do you immediately put something in the Cup Series? Do you try something around next year’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Truck Series? Do you try three different things? Most sports are like, ‘Let’s try this in Triple-A baseball and if it works, great. If we want to tweak it, OK, let’s make those tweaks and put it to the next level.’ We’ve historically not done that. So, we’re just going to try to beat up a lot of those things.
“I will say that if we stay status quo and don’t do anything in all three series, there’s got to be a pretty good explanation as to why and to who we spoke to. But there is some momentum to try some things, for sure. I think you’ll see that. I don’t have the final answer yet, but I can assure the fans there’s been a lot of really good debate, a lot of things to think through.”
