“Forget the points”: Richard Petty proposes changes to NASCAR’s controversial championship format

Richard Petty recently touched upon the changes he would want to make in the current NASCAR points system. The former NASCAR driver stated that he would obliterate the points system and only allow the drivers with a race win to compete for the championship.

Petty's statement has come amid enormous criticism for the new NASCAR system. Fans and experts argued over the current system as they were far from happy with Joey Logano's latest title given the Team Penske driver's average regular season performance.

Petty and Legacy Motor Club co-owner Maury Gallagher recently sat to discuss NASCAR, and there, the former raised a question related to NASCAR's point system. Speaking about this, here's what Petty said on the Petty Race Recap on the Petty Family Racing's YouTube channel:

"I guess what I would do look at the deal and say, okay we've had this guy's won, that guy's won, this guy ain't won, forget the points, let the winners run for the Championships," Petty said. "I mean if the guy's won one race or 10 races, they get into the Championship."

"Looks to me like, in the long run that would be the best way because you got some guys up there that almost run for the Championship that didn't win any races. They didn't quite make it but there's a possibility and it has happened in the past," he added.

Logano and Team Penske's victory was subject to a lot of criticism after statistics revealed the #22 driver's poor overall results. Logano has the worst average finish for a NASCAR Series champion, with 17.11.

Prior to him, Blaney had the worst with 14.1, when he won the title in 2023. Notably, luck favored the Penske driver during the season as well, as he qualified for the round of eight after NASCAR disqualified William Byron following a failed post-race inspection.

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Joey Logano shunned NASCAR playoff criticism

NASCAR Cup Series driver Joey Logano (22) celebrates after winning the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship (Source: Getty Images)

Joey Logano slammed the critics who questioned the current NASCAR playoff system. He stated that every NASCAR driver knew about the rule before the season began. He termed the and criticism as "a bunch of "Bull****."

''They have the same opportunity to go out there and win and move on to the next round. So for someone to say this isn't real, it's a bunch of bull**** in my opinion. That's wrong," Logano said.

"This is something that everyone knows the rules when the season starts. We figured out how to do it the best and figured out how to win. It's what our team has been able to do for the last three years," he added.

Logano was the second-best driver in terms of race wins with four victories, after Kyle Larson (six) but was not anywhere in the top five of best average finish positions.