NASCAR XFINITY Series Florida 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2015 in Daytona Beach, Florida.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFor whatever reason, NASCAR had previously felt that a playoff system wasn\u2019t necessary in the two junior leagues. One frame of mind was to keep them different from the Sprint Cup Chase.<\/p>\n
Another frame of mind may have been that since they are developmental leagues, they don\u2019t necessarily need their own playoffs.<\/p>\n
But that thinking has obviously changed and, as a result, we now will have modified playoff formats in both series.<\/p>\n
Kudos to you, NASCAR.<\/p>\n
I admit there are still a number of holdouts that, even after 12 years of the Chase, are still not in favor of it. Many feel it offers an artificial playoff and, ergo, artificial excitement.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure some people will feel the same way about the Xfinity and Truck series adopting a playoff format now. But if those same critics would have an open mind, they might realize the reason why NASCAR chose to go in such a direction.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not about money, if you\u2019re thinking that.<\/p>\n
Rather, it\u2019s to offer up a system that will enhance the overall popularity and excitement for both series as they come down to crowing a champion.<\/p>\n
Face it, when you attended in-person or watched some of the final races of the season in both the Xfinity and Truck series last year or the year before, while the standings were tight and one point could potentially make a difference between who becomes champion and who doesn\u2019t, one thing was glaringly missing:<\/p>\n
Fan interest.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t count the number of racetracks that struggled to draw fans to those races in the latter parts of the season \u2013 even though bonafide championship battles were the order of the day each and every time the green flag would fall.<\/p>\n
![\"NASCAR](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/PIR_NCWTS_GFlag_1113153-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Now, with a modified playoff system that is based upon the Chase, but adapted more specifically for the two junior series, race fans will start to hopefully feel some of the excitement that the Chase has generated \u2013 particularly in the last two years with its new format that was implemented in 2014.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, it will take a while for fans to potentially get used to the Xfinity and Truck playoff formats. It\u2019s new, and whenever something new is introduced in NASCAR, it typically takes time for some fans to warm to it.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ll say this, based upon many of the comments from Xfinity and Truck drivers since the new formats were announced, they not only are pumped and excited, they realize that there\u2019s the potential to draw many more fans into the stands or in front of their TVs.<\/p>\n
As a result, that will lessen the chance of those same drivers having to continue to wallow in some semblance of relative obscurity \u2013 even in the most exciting time of their respective seasons \u2013 due to the more popular Chase format that exists in NASCAR\u2019s major league.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been a student and fan of both the Xfinity and Truck series for probably at least the last 15 seasons. I recall early in the new century where there was considerable talk of potentially doing away with one or both series.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, NASCAR chose not to go in that direction.<\/p>\n
And now, finally, we\u2019ll hopefully be able to lift the exposure, excitement and outreach of the Xfinity and Truck series and give them the attention \u2013 particularly in the most crucial part of their respective seasons \u2013 that they\u2019re both long overdue of having.<\/p>\n
Yes, truly, it\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n
Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jerry Bonkowski thinks the Chase-style championship proposal for the NASCAR Xfinity and CWTS series is a fine idea.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":23193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,3424,3470],"tags":[3985,3986,218,3384,127,2649],"class_list":["post-23187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-column","category-nascar","category-news","tag-camping-world-truck-series","tag-chase-format","tag-guest-columns","tag-jerry-bonkowski","tag-nascar","tag-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/NXS-4C-PRT2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-61Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23195,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23187\/revisions\/23195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Chase-style](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/NXS-4C-PRT2-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>![\"Chase-style](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/NCWTS-4C-PRT1-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n![\"](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/almirola_aric_2015car_nxs-1024x683.jpg\")