The very fabric of the NASCAR Cup Series championship is currently woven into a tense, elimination-style drama that demands aggressive driving over season-long consistency. The current format, adopted in 2014, funnels 16 drivers into a ten-race postseason, which is chopped into three-race rounds, eliminating 4 drivers at each stage. This system, which rewards regular-season performance with playoff points that carry over between rounds, is designed to generate big moments and do-or-die moments that are attractive to a television audience and discourage drivers from cruise-control racing to a title.

However, the intense pressure and the focus on just one final race mean a driver who dominates the full 36-race schedule can see their entire year ruined by a single mechanical failure in the f

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