NASCAR veteran Michael Waltrip sparks debate with proposal to let all Round of 8 drivers fight for the championship

With the final eight NASCAR drivers entering the Round of 8 in pursuit of making it into the championship four in Phoenix, Michael Waltrip has sparked up the debate of doing away with the championship four. The two-time Daytona 500 winner talked about how having the final four races for the top eight finalists could boost the championship differently.

Waltrip has raced in the NASCAR sphere in both the full-season points championship format and the playoff system. While the implementation of the playoffs promotes the championship battle going down to the wire as the winner is crowned at the season finale, it also has its disadvantages.

With the debate revolving around playoffs being a constant in the NASCAR discussion sphere, Michael Waltirp has sparked up a new proposition and seemingly given a hybrid solution.

The 62-year-old proposed that the Round of 8 drivers could fight for the championship in the final four races, and the driver who has scored the most points in this timeframe would be crowned as the champion, as he wrote on X:

"What if NASCAR asked the Round of 8 if they want to race the next 4 races for the championship instead of cutting it to 4 drivers after Martinsville?"

Michael Waltrip

@MW55

What if @nascar asked the Round of 8 if they want to race the next 4 races for the championship instead of cutting it to 4 drivers after @MartinsvilleSwy ?

Meanwhile, Michael Waltrip was a revered name in the NASCAR sphere until two different scandals brought him and his team down.

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What led to the downfall of Michael Waltrip in the NASCAR realm?

Former driver and team owner Michael Waltrip - Source: Imagn

Michael Waltrip had already been at the heart of one controversy as his car's engine was found to have an illegal substance ahead of the 2007 Daytona 500. This had tarred his and his team's reputation, but the major hit to his NASCAR career came after the 2013 Richmond race, infamous for the Spingate.

There, Clint Bowyer's fabricated spin had urged NASCAR officials to hand out the biggest penalty that they had ever dished out. Talking about how the situation spiraled out of control, Waltrip said on the Happy Hour podcast:

"Just when you think you got it all figured out and you’ve put together something that’s going to be special and you’re going to be one of the franchises in NASCAR that’s going to win a lot of races. That fiasco in Richmond went down,” (24:43 onwards)

"Brian France came down on us real hard. Our sponsors left, and my partner, Rob [Kauffman], said we can’t continue on like this, and so the team closed down. That’s probably the most disappointing thing that’s happened in my career because I couldn’t overcome it... You lose 462 races and you win and you overcome it. You don’t run well, you get better, you overcome it.”

Ultimately, Michael Waltrip Racing ceased operations after the conclusion of the 2015 season.