“They don’t listen to me a whole lot”: Richard Petty unsure about NASCAR making major format changes after Harrison Burton’s Daytona win

Former driver Richard Petty thinks NASCAR will not change the current playoff format despite Harrison Burton, who has only five playoff points, making it to the postseason. Burton made a last-lap pass over two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch and won last Sunday's Coke Zero Sugar 400.

While drivers like Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs, and Chris Buescher are in the top 12 of the Cup Series standings withsignificantly more points than Burton, none of them are locked in the playoffs yet.

On the other hand, Burton, who is 34th in the Cup Series standings, is one of the 13 drivers to have qualified for the playoffs.

"I don't see them changing a whole lot. I think they're pretty satisfied with the way things are right now," Richard Petty said in a recent episode of the 'Petty Raceway Recap' while answering a fan's question regarding the same. "There's a few suggestions I would probably have for them to change the point standings but they don't listen to me a whole lot."

Making it to the playoff rumble comes down to just one decisive factor: winning a point-paying regular-season race. Winning a race automatically guarantees a spot in the Round of 16 opener.

Before 2023, a driver had to be at least P30 in the Cup Series standings (P20 for Xfinity and Truck) to render himself playoff-eligible by wins. However, that is not the case now.

With three playoff berths remaining, NASCAR prepares to host its regular-season finale at Darlington Raceway on September 1. The 367-lap event will stream live on USA and NBC Sports (6 PM ET). Fans can listen to radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Richard Petty recalls his first Daytona experience

Richard Petty at the Daytona 500 in February (Photo Source: IMAGN)

The Daytona Beach News-Journal is all set to launch a book this fall. Titled "High Banks & Heroes: 65 Years at Daytona, Home of the Great American Race," the book is the result of a collaboration between the Daytona Beach News-Journal and Pediment Publishing. Readers can pre-order it now on pediment.com.

The book contains a foreword penned by Richard Petty. In the foreword, the 7-time Cup Series champion and 7-time Daytona 500 winner wrote about the first time he saw the iconic Superspeedway in 1959.

"None of us had ever seen a 2.5-mile race track like Daytona," Petty wrote. "It was almost overwhelming. Of course, I was just a 21-year-old kid, so anything new was good. And I knew from that first time I saw it, Daytona was going to be good for me."

"When we went to Daytona, I had just started driving. I was still learning at every race. My first race at Daytona was the convertible race. I remember we came up on lapped traffic and just pulled out and went around them. The next thing I knew, I looked in the mirror and those lapped cars were running right along with us!" he continued.

The winner of the first race at Daytona was Lee Petty, and the most recent winner is Harrison Burton of Wood Brothers Racing. However, Petty's record of seven wins at the track remains unmatched to this day. Cale Yarborough is the second-winningest driver at Daytona, with four wins under his belt.