“I wish we would rotate the last race” – Kevin Harvick suggests interesting changes to make NASCAR playoffs better

Former NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick shared his thoughts on how NASCAR could improve its postseason, and one of his suggestions was to rotate the venue of the season finale race. The Phoenix Raceway has been hosting the championship race since 2020 and will also host the 2025 championship 4 race.

In the latest episode of the "Title 24" podcast with legendary motocross rider Ricky Carmichael, the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick discussed the NASCAR playoff format and suggested changes to the venue of the championship race.

Harvick wanted that season finale race to be rotated between Homestead-Miami Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Phoenix Raceway to end the unfair advantage some teams have at Phoenix.

“I wish we would rotate the last race. You know, I think Homestead, Las Vegas, Phoenix. I wish there was some sort of three-year rotation that you got to mix that up so it wasn’t, ‘Hey we ran this track last year; we’ve got really good notes. We’re going to be good if we can get there again.’ And it kind of mixes that up so that you can’t just prepare for one track,” Harvick said.

Recently, there has been discussion about the NASCAR playoff format and how it could be changed to improve the postseason. The talk has been going on much after Joey Logano’s 2024 championship win. There’s no doubt the #22 Team Penske driver put on an impressive show, winning at the right moment when it mattered the most during the playoffs.

However, his ordinary performance in the regular season raised some eyebrows, with many in the NASCAR world feeling that some drivers’ consistent performance isn’t rewarded by the current playoffs format.

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Kevin Harvick wants “byes” to fix the NASCAR playoff format

NASCAR legend also put forward some suggestions to give the 26-race regular season performance more importance by giving byes to the top finishers in the regular season points table.

Kevin Harvick wants the regular season champion to directly advance to the Round of 8, while the second and third place finishers in the regular season standings should get a Round of 16 and Round 12 spot.

In the aforementioned interview, Harvick said:

“I wish the regular season, first, second, and third place guys, I wish the champ of the regular season was, he was automatically had a bye until the final eight. But he could still, he still had to collect points and do that. Originally, I thought maybe he should be put into the Championship 4, but I don’t think that’s right. I think he needs to be able to race his way in and still have to gain points and things.

“And I think the second-place guy should be in the Round of 12 and [third place] automatically in the (Round of) 16. Because at some point we’re going to have more winners than we do spots. We came close to that a couple of times over the last few years.”

Many in the NASCAR world would agree with Kevin Harvick’s season final venue suggestion, but it will be interesting to see whether NASCAR will look into his suggestion.