As the Cup Series playoff round of 12 elimination approaches, the racing world finds itself in shambles, thanks to the bombshell that is the 2024 calendar drop. In a classic NASCAR fashion, the schedule announcement has sparked vehement outcry and vocal disappointment. The biggest source of discontent stems from the massive changes to the calendar and the bewildering assortment of tracks in the postseason lineup. It’s as if NASCAR threw caution to the wind and selected tracks at random, with no rhyme or reason. The Daytona 500 might be the starting point, but what follows seems like a chaotic roll of the dice.

The 2023 playoffs brought a dose of unexpected drama, overshadowing even Bubba Wallace‘s debut playoff entry. Defending champion Joey Logano stumbled, and the 2014 champ Kevin Harvick‘s dream of a second title evaporated. Meanwhile, regular-season champ Martin Truex Jr barely scraped into the next round. Leveraging this chaos, a Joe Gibbs Racing veteran seized the opportunity to criticize the playoff track choices, warning of impending misfortunes if NASCAR continued down this unpredictable path.

Shuffling the deck: NASCAR’s 2024 calendar and playoff changes

The big changes? Brickyard 400 is set to return to its former glory, ousting the Indianapolis road course from the lineup. Similarly, the Bristol dirt race has met the same fate. The regular season finale lost its iconic Daytona oval backdrop, making way for a new trip to the Iowa Speedway early in the year.

What truly left everyone in disbelief was the reshuffling of events within the calendar. The season opener featured a drafting track followed immediately by a road course, a move that played into the sport’s inherent unpredictability. However, this decision raised eyebrows, particularly with the disastrous short-track package of the Next Gen car, an oversight evident in the selection of the 0.8-mile oval in Iowa.

To add to the bad decisions, the grid is set to head over to an additional drafting superspeedway and road course in the playoffs for 2024. The playoffs will kick off with the high-banked 1.54-mile drafting oval at Atlanta, followed right after by a trip to Watkins Glen. NASCAR’s Senior Vice President Ben Kennedy defended the changes, saying, “We felt like it was an opportunity to introduce a little bit of variety to the schedule in the playoffs.

“Introducing a drafting-style track like Atlanta to the Round of 16, to follow it up with Watkins Glen and then the Bristol Night Race is really going to test the variability of our drivers and their skills as they think about punching their ticket to the Round of 12. Something we wanted to do that was a little bit different and shake it up a bit.”

However, not everyone shares his enthusiasm. Hamlin, a vocal critic of adding another drafting race to the playoffs, argued passionately, “I don’t like it. I think you continue to make this a game of chance. One of the common quotes you hear from the leadership is that we like to test out drivers. That’s silly. You’re testing their luck; you are not testing their skill.” 

In his signature sarcastic tone, Hamlin quipped, “We like to keep the sample size smaller and smaller every single year, and I think this year, with nearly having our regular-season champ [Truex Jr] knocked out, surely a year like next year should get the job done.”

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Denny Hamlin cracks the code: How much does luck factor into a superspeedway victory?

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The start of the 2023 NASCAR season brought with it a timeless debate that continues to swirl among drivers and fans: how much does luck truly weigh in on a superspeedway victory? As the grid prepared to tackle the mammoth oval at Daytona, drivers shared their thoughts on this unpredictable factor that seems to play a pivotal role in the outcome of these high-stakes races.

Corey LaJoie dropped a truth bomb in a recent conversation on the Stacking Pennies podcast. He boldly claimed that winning the Daytona 500 has nothing to do with talent, stating, “Even though it takes literally zero driving talent. Not like 1%, like zero.”

Contrastingly, Hamlin offered a more balanced perspective, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of superspeedway racing. He stated, “It takes 33% luck, 33% driver skill, and the other 33% is execution, which is not making mistakes. Especially with this Next Gen car[…] It’s hard to get all three of those things to line up perfectly on any given day”

NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr, in an episode of The Dale Jr. Download in February this year, seemed to find a middle ground in this debate. He quoted Hamlin, saying, “You’ll luck in one. But you won’t luck into two, you won’t luck into three. You have the ability, the knowledge everything that you need in terms of the mental attitude to start to racing and everything to get going. But you know, outside of a win, what is going to make you happy?”

Racing Community Livid as NASCAR Bids Farewell to Daytona Amid Massive Calendar Overhaul

With the 2023 season still stretching out ahead, we have a long way to go before packing our bags for the next season. It will be some time before we witness how this rollercoaster of a calendar translates on the asphalt. Until then, drop your viewpoints and speculations down below.