It’s understandable why some NASCAR fans are so happy over this season’s three winningest drivers in their respective series: Denny Hamlin (Cup) has six wins, Connor Zilisch (Xfinity) has 10 wins, and Corey Heim (Trucks) has 11 wins.

Add those wins up, and we’re talking about 27 total wins among the trio of drivers.

But what if one, two, or – God forbid – all three fail to win their respective championships? How will fans react? Will that be the final push necessary for NASCAR to significantly alter the playoff format in all three series starting next season?

With the exception of the Cup Series, I can’t think of another season since the expanded playoff format was introduced in 2014 where there was such a disparity between the winningest driver heading to Phoenix and the three other challengers.

I can understand fans’ complaints. They want to see risk vs. reward, honoring drivers who have won so much, even though those top winners admittedly still have a 75% chance of leaving Phoenix this weekend without their respective series championship. It’s a very logical argument.

How does each series shape up heading to Phoenix?

Let’s break things down:

In NASCAR Cup, Hamlin won one-sixth of the races, while his Championship Four contenders, William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Briscoe, all have three wins apiece heading into Phoenix.

In the Xfinity Series, the disparity between the winningest driver (Zilisch) and his three championship rivals is significantly greater, with the latter three combining for just four wins: Justin Allgaier (3 wins), Jesse Love (1 win), and Carson Kvapil (0 wins).

What would happen if Kvapil wound up winning the championship – and he doesn’t even have to win the final race, just finish higher than his three other challengers? Would already incensed NASCAR fans roar that Kvapil is not a legitimate champion? And what if Zilisch is caught up in someone else’s wreck (especially a lapped car) and his 10 wins basically go out the window?

And then there’s Trucks, where the situation is the worst of all: other than Heim, only one championship contender has reached victory lane this year, that being Tyler Ankrum, with just one win. The other two title contenders, Kaden Honeycutt and defending Truck Series champ Ty Majeski, both have failed to win even one race this season.

What’s more, Honeycutt is driving for his third different team this season! “Honestly, man, we’re playing with house money this weekend,” Honeycutt said. If he wins the Trucks title, does that mean he’ll have to split some of his prize money three different ways? That should be interesting if it happens, for sure.

How will fans react to a champion that ends the season with zero wins?

With the exception of Cup, seeing a champion emerge with only a few or even zero wins is not what fans want to see. Given how few wins the other drivers have in Xfinity and Trucks, one must wonder if there will be a large TV viewership or at-track attendance for those two races.

Of course, while Phoenix Raceway will likely be sold out for Sunday’s race as virtually every fan there will likely be rooting for Hamlin – even if they’re not regular fans of Denny – to finally earn his long-awaited first Cup crown in 21 years of racing in the series.

Many fans want the playoff system revised so that drivers with the most wins would be in the Championship Four battle. In other words, those drivers with the most wins – or let’s say at least three of the four final contenders, with the fourth being a potential wild-card  – would have an automatic berth into the final round, regardless of how they fare in the preceding Round of Eight.

Some folks would argue that if the Championship Four in each series is based only on wins, then what’s the point of having the playoffs?

That’s why I would leave a wild-card berth for the driver who has the most points during the season (or even just the playoffs) but does not have a win under his/her belt. While drivers with the most wins would be awarded for their multiple wins, the wild-card driver without any wins would get a berth in the final round based on overall consistency throughout the season.

In Xfinity, Austin Hill failed to make the final round, even though he has the second-most wins in the series this season (four).

And although he’s not eligible due to the current set of rules that contenders for the championship must compete in all 33 races, a strong argument could be made to include Aric Almirola in the final round because he has the third-highest number of wins (three), even though he only competed in half of the season’s races (16). Anyone who is that successful in a limited number of races deserves to be rewarded for that effort.

If the Championship Four format was revised so that drivers with the most wins had first priority to make it to the final round, the Xfinity Series should have Zilisch, Hill, Allgaier, and Almirola battling it out Saturday. Or if Almirola is deemed ineligible due to being only a part-time driver, then the fourth spot would go to Brandon Jones, who has two wins this season.

With emphasis on winning drivers, Trucks would also have a significantly different makeup this Friday night: Heim and Ankrum would square off with two drivers who are not racing for the crown but have the next highest number of wins this season: Layne Riggs (3 wins) and Chandler Smith (2 wins).

Why fans want to see playoff format change

Let’s face it: fans crowd into racetracks or watch races on TV to see “their driver” win. But if a winless to-date driver like Kvapil, Majeski, or Honeycutt ultimately winds up winning the championship in their respective series this weekend, that is problematic.

And what happens if Kvapil, Majeski, or Honeycutt doesn’t even win the race at Phoenix but still finishes higher than their counterparts battling for the championship, and they wind up winning their respective titles without having won even one race in the entire year?

That would be a very hard pill for fans to swallow, questioning the legitimacy of a so-called “champion” who never once visited victory lane this season. Fans want to celebrate champions who earned it the hard way, not just by somehow surviving the playoffs.

It should be interesting to see what changes NASCAR makes to next year’s playoff format, but this year clearly shows something needs to be done. Whether that means tweaking the points system, giving wins and points more importance, or revisiting the format completely, NASCAR definitely has to rethink what truly defines a champion.