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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 22h

Harvick was the best Cup driver of the 2010s, not this decade. I think I like Larson's 2021 over Harvick's 2020 anyway.

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 22h

Oh, sure, I don't think any of the Cup regulars except for SVG are elite road racers internationally, but he's better at his discipline than a lot of them are at theirs. I wouldn't take him over Broc Feeney this year obviously, but I probably would over Kostecki or Will Brown who aren't SVG level.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

Award the back half of the field a smaller percentage of points and you don't need the goofy patchwork that is stage points to correct for NASCAR's fatal flaw of bad luck hurting you more than a good run can help.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

The real problem is that the back half of the field receives way too many points relative to F1, IndyCar, etc... Fix that and you don't necessarily need more points for winning. NASCAR's had enough fluky winners I don't wanna add more points for winning and leave the rest of the formula the same.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

I absolutely think Larson was better than Hamlin for the season. I think the JGR cars were faster as evidenced by Briscoe dominating at times. Hamlin pretty much only led in wins. People are mainly hating on this because Hamlin was the sentimental favorite and people are sick of Larson.

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

I get why people do it but the schadenfreude whenever he crashes also gets to be too much quite often...

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

That discourse is stupid but I also think a lot of the counter-discourse underrates him. It was stupid for him to say he was better than Max Verstappen, but I still think he's pretty clearly been the best Cup driver this decade.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

There is a case he was still the best based on the cumulative amount he did this season and it's weird to see playoff haters who want a full-season schedule hating on this just because the majority of what he did was weighted in the first third of the schedule. (Personally I think Blaney was best.)

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

It's weird seeing how angry many anti-playoffs crusaders are at this when I honestly think Larson had a better season than Hamlin (although not the better race). Best season was Blaney though.

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

Larson is getting too much shit. The cumulative amount he did this year was still a lot even if others were better in the playoffs and the gaps between Bell/Blaney/Byron/Hamlin/Larson (however you rank them) were all pretty narrow.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

Like does Johnson have three straight engine failures in 2004 under Latford points? Doubtful. Do Briscoe and Hamlin have engine failures last week under Latford points? Doubtful. Playoff experimentation makes it even less likely that the drivers with the best average finish is best.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 1d

The underlying assumption that the driver with the best average finish is automatically best is often wrong, especially since people weren't racing under the Latford system. I do think Johnson and Hamlin were both better in 2010, but yeah, he'd have presumably won 2015, 2016, and 2018.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

I mean Kvapil would've been worse. Then he'd have lost ROTY too.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

The funny thing is the NASCAR playoffs are what convinced me that playoffs in other sports are bad, but people just embraced them usually because they already existed before they were born. The ones that didn't (like the BCS when I was a kid) also were hated at the time.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

I mean there are plenty of times even with good points systems where the best driver doesn't win the title. Feeder series don't matter anyway; it's just showing the speed to belong in the big leagues which Zilisch has and Love likely never will.

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

Yes. 1992 was a better event but there were a lot of better races. (To be honest, the racing in 1992 was mostly really, really boring Atlanta excepted but the narrative building was never better because that era of ESPN really knew how to hype a race like no one has since.)

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

I think the conventional wisdom when I was a kid was that THAT was the greatest race of all time and the 1992 Hooters 500 hype didn't start until later...

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

David Pearson also did it in 1976 I believe.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

His window ends when Bell overtakes him as team leader, but I thought that would be this year and I was wrong.

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

seanwrona.substack.com/p/bubble-dri...

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

This is honestly why I'm a little cold on Hornaday too. But yes, I remember there were people genuinely arguing for Crafton on the 75 Greatest Drivers list and I indeed thought that was ridiculous.

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

Blaney never won in Silver Crown actually; Stewart eventually did. Eric van de Poele in DTM is another one (he never won there before racing primarily in sports car series...)

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

That's happened in other series before. Tony Stewart in Silver Crown, Volker Strycek in DTM (I think he never won a race in his career actually), Dave Blaney in Silver Crown I believe, Scott Sharp in the IRL. Not unheard of. I'd say Honeycutt was better than Ankrum this year.

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Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not sure there is a right guy in Cup after the driver who I think had the best Cup season (Blaney) got eliminated...

Sean Wrona @racermetrics.bsky.social · 3d

It's probably the most underrated series in the world talent-wise most years... I realize part of that is because the back half of the field is usually entirely amateurs.

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