The Parody of Parity (NASCAR Cup Series 2022)

The NASCAR Cup Series 2022 season began with many great expectations.  The next generation car was finally going to be on track after being delayed for a year.  This car was designed in order to keep costs down for NASCAR teams.  It was also supposed to improve driver safety and increase parity in the sport.

Apparently, NASCAR executives felt the years of domination by “the big three” (Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., and Kevin Harvick) in the late 2010s was not good for their sport.  The 2020 season continued the trend of regular season domination by a couple drivers (Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin.)  Finally, in the year the next gen car was originally scheduled to make its debut, 2021, we saw eventual champion Kyle Larson dominate the wins column.

In the debut year of the next gen car, 2022, there would be no dominant driver.  In fact, we saw a total of 19 different winners.  Furthermore, only one driver would pull off consecutive wins in the next gen car’s first season.  Kevin Harvick, who would later anger executives with his “crappy parts” comment, pulled off consecutive wins at Michigan and Richmond.

If we didn’t literally see those 19 different winners, the announcers and commentators made sure we heard about it.  Even as drivers like Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, and Denny Hamlin raised questions about the safety of the next gen car, the parity the car brought remained NASCAR’s focus.  The fans’ attention was continuously redirected to the amazing number of different winners.

Are 19 Different Winners a Good Thing?

The next gen car has clearly brought “parity” to the sport.  The question that needs to be asked is the following:  Is this parity a good thing for NASCAR?  We have been told over and over again that the 19 different winners is the proof of concept for the next gen car.

Yes:  The Unpredictability of Parity Creates Excitement

People do seem to enjoy the races at Daytona and Talladega.  These races always get rather exciting at the end, even if they do sometimes become somewhat of a high-speed parade the rest of the race.  Furthermore, you never really know who is going to win.  With the playoff format, NASCAR had already kind of set their season up to play out like a race at one of these tracks.  This is great for the casual racing fan.  Clearly, this is the type of fan NASCAR is after.

NASCAR wants to become a sport that can pull in the casual viewer to increase ratings.  It has a playoff system in place that can do that, at least for the end of the season.  The problem with that is that it, hypothetically, makes the regular season seem kind of meaningless.  This means that the casual viewer may not be as likely to tune in during the regular season.  The next gen car and the parity it has brings seems to be an attempt to fix that.

The next gen car has proven that it can make race outcomes more unpredictable.  It has proven that it can alter the fans expectations about a race.  It is no longer assumed that only one of a handful of drivers can win the race each week.  In a very real sense, the next gen car has made almost every race feel like a race at Daytona or Talladega.  You don’t ever know who is going to pull off the win, unless of course the race is on a short track.  In those races, for the most part, it is pretty much whoever leads after the last restart.

No: The Unpredictability of Parity Hinders Rivalry Development

One could make the argument that great rivalries helped bring the most new eyes to the sport in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  While the 2022 season gave us some rivalries, not all rivalries are created equal.  The rivalry of Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt comes to mind first when thinking of great rivalries.  This rivalry wasn’t so much on track as it was off track.  Furthermore, it was mostly a rivalry between the fans of each driver.  Gordon fans hated Earnhardt, and Earnhardt fans hated Gordon.

If NASCAR had never changed points systems, Jeff Gordon would have been a seven-time champion.  Dale Earnhardt was a seven-time champion.  The best rivalries are between dominant drivers.  Even if they come about as one driver is fading and the other is coming up, such rivalries bring eyes to the sport.  While many fans did not enjoy the Buschwhacker days of what is now the Xfinity series, whenever Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch drove in one of those races, fans of each of them would tune in.  Yes, they dominated often, but that contributed to their rivalry.  That rivalry, in turn, carried across into the other top national series.

If not for the parity brought about in 2022, by the next gen car, we may have seen great rivalries develop between Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott and/or Kyle Larson.  Such a rivalry could have been on the same level of the rivalry between Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.  While NASCAR may just be promoting what they have with this new car, it certainly seems that those running the sport have forgotten the sport’s history.

Everyone Versus Everyone Is No Great Rivalry

While 2022 temporarily gave us Ross Chastain versus [insert name here] on an almost weekly basis, that’s not the same thing as a great rivalry.  The next gen car is almost too durable, both for the safety of the drivers and the quality of the racing.  Each race is almost a crap shoot, especially when those handy debris cautions start being thrown.  The overall aggression has increased, but aggressive driving alone doesn’t build rivalries.  Everyone versus everyone is not what most people would define as a great rivalry.

This was a very interesting season.  It was a season, however, which lacked any sort of overarching story, other than the lack of an overarching story.  Arguably the biggest rivalry of the year was the drivers versus the executives.  Certainly, it was an experience to see 19 different winners in one season.  Then again, it was also an experience for the largest crowd at the Bristol Night Race, in quite some time, to watch that circular parade.

Racing, by definition, is about competition.  It has never been about parity.  Competition is what drives the sport.  Somehow, NASCAR executives have gotten the idea in their heads that parity equals greater competition.  Personally, I don’t care how many lead changes the past season had.  I don’t care how many different winners there were.  In my honest opinion, the “competition” that parity has brought about is a parody of competition.  If anyone can win on any given weekend, does that not reduce the existential meaning of a win?

Clearly, NASCAR believes parity to be a great thing for the sport.  Obviously, I do not.  No one ever really asked the fans directly.  So we’re asking you.  Let us know what you think about parity in NASCAR in the comments below.