“It’s wonderful, except, we ain’t playing. Nobody plays.”
Mark Martin comes from a different era of NASCAR. In fact, NASCAR couldn’t be much further from the start of his career in stock car racing.
Martin made his Cup debut in 1981. He won 40 NASCAR Cup Series races in his career. The now 66-year-old retired following the 2013 season.
In the late stages of his career, NASCAR introduced stage racing, overtime finishes and the playoff format.
Recently, NASCAR drivers have called for changes to the playoffs format. NASCAR themselves have expressed they are exploring changes.
NASCAR is using AI to generate a new playoff format after criticism
Martin hates all of it…
Mark Martin knocks the playoff format
“The word playoff is very catchy,” Mark Martin stated via the Kenny Wallace podcast.
“It’s wonderful, except, we ain’t playing. Nobody plays. And there’s not two people out there.”
“It’s not the same as ball sports. And, I don’t like it being called playoffs because it’s not a playoff.”
“Even the championship, last round, if it was really a playoff there’d be four cars on the track, not 36.”
“I don’t like calling it overtime. I’d rather call it green-white-checkered. Our races aren’t timed.”
“They’re trying to make it like ball sports because the TV people, and I’ve heard this from some. They want the casual fan to be able to relate to the other ball sports. Because they think that those fans might watch.”
“If they flip over there and they’re not a race fan but they see sparks flying and everybody running over each other on these restarts. They might watch. The problem is when that’s not going on, they might not watch.”
“The old people. They’ll watch it all. Except, they don’t like what they’re seeing now. So, maybe they won’t. And, I think there’s a problem with all that.”
Martin later added that his own success feels cheapened by the current direction of NASCAR.
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