Shane van Gisbergen has intriguing perspective on | Sports News

As stress mounts on NASCAR to regulate its controversial winner-takes-all championship format, Cup Series star and three-time Supercars Championship winner Shane van Gisbergen has given his intriguing perspective on the state of affairs.

The New Zealander’s spot within the 2025 playoffs is already solidified due to his wins on the highway programs in Mexico City, Chicago, and Sonoma. Despite these wins, given van Gisbergen’s comparatively average performances on ovals all through the season, which comes as no shock given his background is on tracks, he enters the twenty fourth race of the 12 months at Watkins Glen twenty fifth within the drivers’ standings.

This win and also you’re in factor of the playoffs, which sees the highest 16 drivers in playoff factors qualify for the event, which culminates within the championship race, is extraordinarily divisive, with many calling for a return to the total season factors format. This would benefit drivers who carry out on a more constant foundation, somewhat than these like van Gisbergen who concentrate on sure types of tracks.

However, it might risk championship battles being over long earlier than the total schedule has been accomplished.

“When I first won a race I was 32nd or something, so I can see why [the format is divisive], but I really want Brad Keselowski to win a race, cause he was like 30th as well at the time, and it would have been interesting to see what people thought about that, because he’s a championship, right? And he could run pretty deep in the playoffs,” van Gisbergen instructed Corey LaJoie on his ‘Stacking Pennies‘ podcast.

“I really like the dynamic it brings now, especially with Bubba [Wallace] winning, there’s some guys on the bubble and some good guys who are desperate for a win. I think it makes the racing much more exciting, like those guys doing a Hail Mary, and I think it’s pretty cool the pressure it brings in to, cause as like I said, it changes your year.”

But whereas van Gisbergen sees the optimistic aspect of the present format, the likes of championship favourite Denny Hamlin is eager for NASCAR to contemplate making some changes.

The 58-time race winner just lately revealed on his ‘Actions Detrimental‘ podcast that the NASCAR Playoff Committee is trying to change the present format, and particularly, the winner-takes-all championship race.

“I will say that most of the room, if not all of the room’s general opinion is that the one race thing needs to go,” he defined. “No one ever tries to throw mud on anyone that has won a championship under this format, but there is a large concern of the legitimacy of it, which is very valid.

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“One race is just not the way to do it, and stop comparing it to the Super Bowl, because that’s a 1 vs. 1. The other 30 teams are not on the field, you know, tripping you and tying your shoelaces together, trying to keep people [from] winning.”

Hamlin went on to say NASCAR has to “create a larger sample size to crown your champion because in one race, anything can happen,” including, “Anything could happen. So everything that I work for can get taken away by someone else that has nothing to do with this championship battle.”

In the meantime, getting into Watkins Glen, three playoff spots stay up for grabs, with Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Chris Buescher at present occupying these positions. Meanwhile, the likes of Ryan Preece, Kyle Busch, and Ty Gibbs are amongst those that sit just under the cutoff line, in addition to the aforementioned Keselowski.