It's shocking to think NASCAR's playoff format has been around for 20 years. Its Chase for the Cup, the original 'new' playoff format, kicked off in 2004. In its first three years, it produced three champions from three different organizations. It seemed to be accomplishing exactly what NASCAR intended it to do, keeping the title fight interesting to the very end. And then came along Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team to smash their hopes into a million Lowe's-colored pieces.
NASCAR has always been keen to tweak the format, and come 2014, the series' complete overhaul stunned the racing world. The new, multi-round elimination format would hopefully ensure no single driver could ever game the system like that again. Except, after Joey Logano's third title win in Phoenix, along with Team Penske clinching a third consecutive Cup title, you have to wonder if maybe they'd successfully accomplished NASCAR's nightmare: Cracking the code to winning the playoff game as the No. 48 once did.
