Hey everyone NASCAR484 here and today I'm making a different publish today to really acknowledge the drivers that don't get the credit they deserve for being a champion in NASCAR's highest 3 levels. Lately on YouTube some people have been saying that some drivers from 2004-2021 aren't "true champions" Why? Because NASCAR doesn't either use the "Winston Cup " format or the guy who wins the most races in a season doesn't win the championship. So the Winston Cup format was known as the longest points system ran in NASCAR history last used in 2003 for the Cup Series and 2015 for the Xfinity and Trucks. Back in those days there was no Chase for the Cup or Playoff format that we know today. It ran the whole season from start to finish any reseeding, bonus points, or eliminations. Some of these people say it's the original format but guess what? IT'S NOT. Yep, NASCAR has used multiple and different ways to crown the champions of the sport. Here is a video of a Youtuber named "The Iceberg" going over the history of ALL the points systems ever made in NASCAR history.

https://youtu.be/W1doFGcOG_k

Yep, those were all the ways NASCAR crowned it's champions. Sounds weird right? Honestly at this point what do you think about all of the points systems in NASCAR history? I'm curious. Anyway from formats biased on money, laps completed, miles completed, number of starts in a race, and even combining all of them into one there you go. The drivers back then could win the title in some really strange formats like Richard Petty in 1974 is ok but when a guy wins the title in years like 2004,2007,2008, 2010, 2011, and basically 2014-2016,2018,2019,somewhat 2020 and 2021 in the format we have now they shouldn't be champions according to these people. I have looked in the past and try to figure out what reasons or why these people make those kind of claims and you'd be shocked to read what I found out. One popular thing is races started. Some people really think that Kyle Busch does not deserve to win the championship after missing 11 races after breaking his leg and foot in the Xfinity series season opener at Daytona. I'm gonna quote what Jeff Burton said on NBC America "That's a bunch of crap! It was a real championship!" In 2009 Kyle Busch was competing for the Xfinity series championship but the Copart 300 the JGR driver was battling a fever and it was too bad to the point where he got Denny Hamlin to fill in for him. The rulebook states and still applies to this day that for a driver to earn points that they must start the race. Kyle technically didn't run the whole race nor the WHOLE Xfinity series season but in the end he still won the championship. Fully deserved right? No one says a single word about this but when Kyle Busch followed a rule that he was eligible for a waver as long as he got in the top 30 and won a race that he was chase and championship eligible in Cup then completely maximized it he gets hated on for it. No sense whatsoever, he DIDN'T TECHNICALLY run the whole Xfinity season in 2009 and won the title noone says a thing cause but in the 2015 Cup series it's apparently a crime when he was in line both seasons. Wait! But that's not all!

In 2002 Tony Stewart had a worse average finish than his title rival Mark Martin but noone whines about Stewart not deserving it his 1st Cup championship.

In the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 1998 season Jack Sprague finished 2nd to Ron Hornaday by 3 points. Similar stats Hornaday had 6 wins 16 top 5s 22 top 10s with an average finish of 7.2 but Jack Sprague has 5 wins 16 top 5s 23 top 10s and an average finish of 6.9. Soooooo does that mean Sprague should be the champion? Cause he technically on AVERAGE did better than Ron Hornaday yet when people hate on some NASCAR champions on average finish cause they technically weren't the best but when this happened nobody complains. In fact this isn't the first time this happened! In 1999 Sprague this time prevailed as a champion with 3 wins, 16 top 5s, 19 top 10s, 8.2 average finish, and finished 22 of the 25 races. Biffle lost out despite getting 9 wins, 14 top 5s, 19 top 10s, 6.7 average finish, and completed all the races but NOBODY WHINES about this season. The follow are other seasons in the Truck series to continue this theme of the champions having either a less average finish or for the most part worse stats than their rivals.

2001

2004

2008

2011

2012

I have limited photo space but also include now in the playoff era 2018 Brett Moffit the championship winner 6 wins, 13 top 5s and top 10s with an average finish of 8.9 with Johnny Sauter the guy people claim should be a champion with the beloved Winston Cup format has 6 wins, 14 top 5s, 17 top 10s and 6.4 average finish. 2019 REMEMBER THIS everyone! I'll come back to this later on with Matt Crafton earning his 3rd Truck championship being winless 7 top 5s, 18 top 10s, 8.8 average finish along with finishing the most races vs a guy like Brett Moffit with 4 wins, 13 top 5s, 17 top 10s with an 8.8 average finish as well. 2020 has had some critics hating but nowhere near as much as others, Sheldon Creed the champ got 5 wins, 9 top 5s, 13 top 10s, lead the most laps of the year, 10.2 average finish and tied with most completed races with 3 other drivers. BUT ironically Brett Moffit if the full season format people claim to be the saint way to decide a championship would have won with 1 race victory, 10 top 5s, 16 top 10s, 9.7 average finish with 2 more lead lap finishes than Creed, with the SECOND BEST average finish.........soooooooo yeah any toxic fan wants to go after him for not having the best average finish???? No? Now the fanbase OH as I heard my irl friend and some friends online say, we gonna SPILL SOME TEA on the toxic fans but I'm getting ahead of myself. Now the Xfinity series ones with champions having some/mostly worse stats or average finish than their rivals.
1985

1986

1998

2001

2003

2005

2012

2016

2017

2018

Plus 2021 Daniel Hemric won the championship with 1 win, 15 top 5s, 21 top 10s, 10.8 average finish and completed the most races out of anyone against Austin Cindric with 5 wins, 22 top 5s, 26 top 10s, lead the most laps out of all his rivals plus an 8.2 average finish. I'll come back to THIS ONE LATER. Honorable mention to 2020 mainly cause the champion of that season Austin Cindric had the 3rd best average finish. Chase Briscoe won the most races, lead the most laps and had the 2nd best average finish while Ross Chastain a guy who was WINLESS had the BEST AVERAGE FINISH AND COMPLETED THE MOST RACES THAT YEAR, ALL OF THE RACES! Anyway the NASCAR CUP series has too many so here are the years of all which apply to my point 1949-1953, 1961, 1963, 1973, 1974, 1981, 1990, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2007-2011, 2014-2016, 2018, and 2020. So now I'm going to get into a theory of why I think some people are hating some of the champions from 2004-present, cause of who the driver is. Obviously people are gonna love some certain drivers more than others or hate certain drivers more than others. One thing I want to make clear is I'm NOT saying liking or disliking certain drivers are bad things. We all have our own heroes and villains so there is NOTHING wrong disliking or liking a particular driver. Anyway now I'm going to try to put this in perspective to try to get everyone to understand where I'm coming from. Even though this doesn't have any championship implications here is one incident revolving around NASCAR Cup series most popular driver Chase Elliott in the 9 and Kyle Busch the 2 time defending champion and NASCAR'S main villain.

https://youtu.be/uJXQawoE-Y4

Ok big mistake made by Kyle Busch. No question on that right? It is uncharacteristic for him to misjudge a gap and it unfortunately ruined Elliott's race. Chase Elliott's crew chief Alan Gustafson and Kyle Busch did have a conversation and just like Kyle said "There's no doubt about it I made a mistake " that's literally the first thing that came out of Kyle's mouth. Plus like he said Hendrick Motorsports is where he got his start and in fact used to work with Alan Gustafson and that whole crew Chase has now so Busch would have no reason to just wreck them on purpose.

https://youtu.be/oW_Kiqfw_No

Brett Moffit is the 2018 NASCAR Truck series champion with tons of experience and talent but you can see he basically tried to go for a hole that wasn't there and took Riley Herbst out of the race. But does anyone hate on Moffit for making such a mistake? NO! People are just hating all over Herbst saying he is some talentless rich kid when HERBST IS THE ONE WHO GOT TAKEN OUT. And now I'm gonna go ahead and say it, we fans MUST TO DO BETTER! I mean seriously, the hypocrisy is real in this! Herbst got his race ruined none of his making and gets hated for it all over something he can't control. You can't control if your parents have a lot of money. This isn't even a NASCAR fanbase problem from hating somebody over either having a giant family paid sponsor or having family being well off in funds. In Formula 1 Lance Stroll STILL gets hate for being in that sport cause of his dad being a successful businessman. LANCE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT but here are the TOXIC fans saying he has no talent. Lance Stroll the 2017 Azerbaijan grand prix got a podium for Williams which was a midfield car. A MIDFIELD car, that is very hard to do and as a matter of fact Sergio Perez was know for a long time by getting podiums out of midfield equipment. The team Sergio raced for was Force India and with teammate Esteban Ocon they were at the top of the midfield in 2017 and while they had their collisions together nobody could deny they both had talent. In 2018 it was a down year for the team being lower than they were originally by the midpoint of the season let alone the fact the whole team had a financial crisis, in other words they were on the verge of possibly having to shut down before the season ending which would cost ALL the employees their jobs. Lawrence Stroll, father of Lance Stroll then buys the team taking ownership and saving everyone's career's. With the speculation though was everyone thought either Perez or Ocon would have to move to a different race team. That would prove to be true as Lance would fill Ocon's seat of the now known as rebranded "Racing Point" for 2019 and goodness gracious, PEOPLE borderline were ready to riot over this. First off, IT'S NOT LANCE STROLL'S FAULT HIS DAD IS A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN. Second off, if it wasn't for Lawrence THAT WHOLE TEAM MIGHT NOT EVEN BE IN F1! And finally, Just because you have money DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MAKE YOU A "TALENTLESS RICH KID" 🙄. Lance Stroll would go on and do his thing on track and while 2019 for Racing Point as a whole had an off season in performance in 2020 they made a fast car which Stroll and Perez took advantage of. Stroll would finally silence most of these toxic haters with claiming 2 podiums and even a pole position in Turkey🇹🇷...in the rain........Yes, Lance Stroll outqualified people like Lewis Hamilton who has more poles than ANYBODY in F1, Max Verstappen is excellent in the rain and Sebastian Vettel who was a rain master as well! Stroll isn't as bad as the toxic fans made him out to be right? Don't unfairly judge someone by their cover. Perez would even get his 1st F1 win at Sakhir before leaving Racing Point (now rebranded as Aston Martin). And a big part of this was Lawrence Stroll saving this team and allowing them to achieve these heights. Just toxic fans have to ruin everything. And the toxic fans in general are not just horrible for hating somebody for something COMPLETELY out of their control but for being hypocrites. ESPECIALLY in NASCAR. A friend of mine that I meet on Wattpad is JHD818 who published "Random Stuff and More" and in it even wrote a part known as "NASCAR's #1 Issue" implying about the fanbase. Now in it can be some opinionated things like I don't think the conversation about North Wilkesboro is as toxic anymore however the point made in their story, do these fans want their historic tracks back or not? Or even making the cars look more stock, BUT the 2 things that made my blood boil the most are the ones I'm gonna go into detail over. For 1 the 2021 Cup race at the Circuit of the Americas aka COTA for short. It's a popular F1 track and even the IndyCars had a race there in 2019 but in 2021 it was NASCAR making it's debut there. Rain played a huge factor in the race as the Cup stars would do a VERY rare feat in the sport, race in the rain. Now since it was a road course NASCAR could use the rain tires that don't work on ovals. So with the race nearing the one third mark a caution came for 2 separate crashes on the backstretch. 1st was when Ryan Blaney slowed not from an issue with his car but because there was so much standing water being kicked up by the cars it's like when your driving on the road, with hard enough rain and enough vehicles around you just plain couldn't see. Blaney slowed because he couldn't see where he was going so trying to be cautious and Christopher Bell had no idea and couldn't see himself. Blaney kept going but Bell was out of the race, while the two young guns got together Kevin Harvick further back also couldn't see a thing leaving the 2014 Cup champion to get wrecked by Bubba Wallace Jr. So basically both wrecks were caused cause one driver was being cautious not being able to see and the driver behind had no idea. Once that all got cleaned up racing resumed for half a lap. Martin Truex Jr the Cup champion of 2017 had hit the back of the Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell damaging severely the front of Truex's car than Cole Custer just like the caution previously poor Cole just couldn't see and in fact Truex couldn't even see McDowell. So it was clear that conditions were too bad causing NASCAR to red flag the race and even send the track dryers out to take some of the water off the track so everyone could see and even decided to go single file restarts fir the rest of the race. Ok I can understand some of the frustration people had with some big impacts to the driver's safety and ruining some of their races. Anyway the racing went on and as the closing stages approached the conditions got worse to where Kurt Busch aquaplained off the road in turn 11 and almost hit his brother Kyle in the process. Kurt showed amazing car control to dodge his brother and rejoined the race. NASCAR throws the caution out for the rain being too much and decides to red flag the race race in hopes conditions would improve to get the remaining laps in. But unfortunately it was not meant to be with there being no lights at COTA, and considering how much time it took to remove standing water on the backstretch the race would not be resumed so Chase Elliott the reigning champion would get his 1st win of the season and claim the 800th Cup win for Chevrolet. Being the most popular driver you'd think everyone would rejoice and be happy right? No, some folks had the audacity to say the race was rigged to help Elliott or say the conditions were fine, seriously people? So when conditions were too much you hate on NASCAR for being in denial and causing unnecessary wrecks but then when they play it safe you STILL bash on them? SMH.. And another one that JHD818 mentioned is seriously sickening. So in the 2020 Daytona 500 NASCAR'S season opener and the biggest race the Cup series has was in it's closing stages, after the final restart with 2 laps to go we have #11 of Denny Hamlin the defending 2 time winner aiming for his 3rd win in what is known as "The Great American Race" the #6 of Ryan Newman who hadn't won a Cup race since 2017 and hadn't won the 500 since 2008, and Ryan Blaney in the #12 was aiming to win the Daytona 500 for the 1st time and they were giving it their all in the draft to win in the last lap.

https://youtu.be/CZ96MaPceWI

While Denny Hamlin won his 3rd Daytona 500 and celebrated with his team it was turning clear that something was wrong. Newman still hasn't climbed out of the car. As time went on nobody knew nothing on the well being of Ryan Newman. And Blaney in his post race interview afterwards felt horrible, you could here it in his voice and see it on his face that he didn't want to race like that. Nobody wants to see anyone get hurt either and the mood turned serious cause there was still no word on how Newman was. Afterwards Hamlin and his boss Joe Gibbs would apologize later cause they didn't fully realize in their initial celebration how serious things turned which makes them look wrong. Everyone was scared or nervous cause as they either left Daytona or the broadcasts on radio and TV ended that Newman was taken to the hospital and still nobody had any information on him. But THANKFULLY when news broke that Newman had no critical injuries everyone was so relieved, I still remember when I even posted on Wattpad about that race and the people I interacted with were also hoping and praying for the best. At the end of the day these drivers would never want to see each other get hurt. Even though things get tense and emotions run high nobody would ever wish that on anyone they race against. Folks, some people were even fearing the worst for Newman after that crash. Yeah you read that right... some fans compared the fear and nerves waiting on Newman they compared to the 2001 Daytona 500 where we lost Dale Earnhardt a 7 time Cup champion. Thankfully Newman recovered to continue racing healed up and NASCAR has even added the "Newman bar" made to withstand impacts against the top of the drivers side door. Safety has come an extremely long way in NASCAR and motorsports altogether, but it's still a moving target that always must be improved. If we just sit on our morals about safety something bad will happen and it'll catch you off guard. Now here is a case where the Cup series champ of 2018 Joey Logono would make a point of a feature that needed to be looked at after his wreck in the 2021 Geico 500 at Talladega

https://youtu.be/y28eIrg7x3g

Once Logono was checked and released from the infield care center he'd say this in his interview.
"I guess I don't know exactly what to think, you know it's a product of this racing. On one hand I'm so proud to drive a Cup car that is SAFE, that I could go through a crash like that and get out and speak about it. One hand I'm mad about being in the crash, other hand I'm just happy I'm alive, on the other hand I think 'When are we gonna stop?' cause this is dangerous doing what we're doing. I got a roll bar to my head you know I mean that's not- that's not ok, I'm 1 hit away from the same situation Ryan Newman just went through. I don't feel like that's acceptable. A lot of us deal with these big spoilers and these big runs pushing and all that it's no one's fault right? I mean Denny's trying to go and the 47 is trying to go it's a product of this racing. we have to fix it though because someone, someone already got hurt and we're still doing it so that's not real smart. But, same time I'm appreciative of driving a car that's this safe and appreciate what Team Penske has done for the safety of these cars as well that I can live to talk about it and go again. I got lucky I didn't get hit while I was in the air. So, unfortunate for our Autotrader Mustang but we'll go on we'll go on it's not gonna be a good startingspot next week."
So Joey naturally is a little shaken up from that crash but is appreciative that safety came a long way in NASCAR but does point out that when he was upside down that he took a roll bar to the head and felt like he was about to get injured the way Newman did a year earlier. He also doesn't even blame anyone include his former teammate Denny Hamlin who have had an on/off rivalry. But you know what Logono got for this? Fans either making him out like he's stupid or just don't even pay attention like he's overreacting. The double standards are palpable and it's pathetic, one driver gets hurt and people join together as one for it cause it's common decency but NO as soon as another driver felt needed to speak out to improve safety to get disrespected. And to add some more facts proving how double standard this is Ryan Newman and Joey Logono are BOTH known as very aggressive drivers and don't back down in racing against ANYBODY! Yeah, just plain unbelievable....
    
                   Trigger warning ⚠️

I cant even believe I'd have to put a warning out cause of how toxic these "fans" have gotten. In the 2021 F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi located at Yas Marina circuit hosted by the United Arab Emirates🇸🇩.
Nicholas Latifi🇨🇦 crashed at turn 14 with 5 laps to go in the race. There was a world championship up for grabs in the race and Lewis Hamilton🇬🇧 looked like he was gonna be the 1st person to ever be an 8 time champion of the world. His only challenger was Max Verstappen🇳🇱 running 2nd in the race and in the points to Hamilton until the safety car came out for the aforementioned Latifi crash. Verstappen than pitted for a fresh set of tyres while Hamilton stayed out on a set of tyres that were over 40 laps old. When the race got restarted Verstappen used dove inside of Hamilton and successfully held him of to claim his 1st world championship. Then afterwards it was controversial, Hamilton and Verstappen pushed each other to the limit all season with one making the other step up his game. They had some collisions in Britian🇬🇧, Italy🇮🇹, and Saudi Arabia🇸🇦. There was some friction between the drivers and teams naturally cause they are fighting for the world championship. The main fighting which was going overboard at times was when both sides' fanbases were going at it. But this is hands down the most ATROCIOUS thing I've ever seen the toxic fans of Formula 1 period do, these people decided to go after Nicholas Latifi by harassing him and literally send him death threats...............These pathetic people went as low as to send a guy death threats for doing his dang job. This isn't Crashgate ok? (long story short for those who don't know Renault had ordered one of their drivers Nelson Piquet Jr🇧🇷 to crash on purpose to give teammate Fernando Alonso🇪🇸 a huge advantage in strategy to go on and win the race in the inaugural Singapore🇸🇬 grand prix) Latifi didn't wreck on purpose, he was racing to end his season on a high note and pushed too far. Heck even if it was is NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER TO HARASS AND SEND DEATH THREATS TO ANYONE! I don't care! It got so bad for Latifi to where he felt the need to deactivate his social media for a few days and respond to those monsters. All the power for you Nicholas! You shouldn't put up with any of that bull crap, NOBODY SHOULD PUT UP WITH THAT FOR A SINGLE SECOND! Stuff like this makes me embarrassed to even be a fan. And the toxic NASCAR "fans" at the 2021 Talladega fall weekend was the straw that broke the camel's back, in the YellaWood 500 Bubba Wallace Jr was able to complete a weekend to where drivers in their response series who didn't have the pace to regularly compete for wins all got their 1st win. You could call the theme 'David beats Goliath'. As a matter of fact Bubba became the first African American driver to win a NASCAR Cup race since Wendell Scott in 1963. This has gotten to a level of just dehumanizing, literally DEHUMANIZING people now! Haters are crying crocodile tears cause the race got rain shortened, by that logic let's take away Dale Earnhardt Jr's final Cup win which was rain shortened. Should we just take away his and even Joey Logono's 1st Cup win for being rain shortened or Jeff Gordon's 2012 Pocono 2 win? No, didn't think so. If I were to list everything these toxic monsters have done I'd legit be here forever. These people want to try to discredit Bubba's win ALL over a year ago, on June 22nd 2020 at Talladega it was known that a noose was found in the garage.  While later on it was confirmed that when the rope was unfortunately tied like that when the garage was built in 2019 but given some incidents that's happened outside of racing altogether months earlier people were just more aware to look out for suspicious stuff. Good news that it wasn't a racist crime months after this but moments like this show the real genuine people these NASCAR drivers, owners, and announcers are.

https://youtu.be/gbY8MckarDY

Everyone and I mean EVERYONE pushed his car to the front of pit road and were all by Wallace's side through pre-race ceremonies. While NASCAR would get a little bit of bad publicity I cannot stress this enough the MOST IMPORTANT THING through all of that was nobody did a racist attack against Bubba. Yet here we are with Wallace getting accused of trying to get attention..... LISTEN HERE AND LISTEN GOOD FOR 1 BUBBA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH FINDING THAT OUT. HIS TEAM FIRST ALERTED HIS BOSS WHO ALERTED NASCAR AND BUBBA ABOUT WHAT WAS HAPPENING. IT'S CALLED TRYING TO LOOK OUT FOR YOUR FAMILY! 2 NASCAR SHOWED AS A WHOLE THAT THEY AIN'T GONNA PUT UP WITH THIS! A COUPLE OF DAYS BEFORE THAT RACE THEY BANNED THE CONFEDERATE FLAG FOREVER!!(For years now you'd literally have to search through a needle in a haystack for it but it never got officially banned until June 20th 2020) SO NEWSFLASH TOXIC MONSTERS WE KNOW YOU'RE SALTY AND BUTTHURT THAT THE RACIST FLAG IS GONE FOREVER AND YOU JUST CAN'T EXCEPT IT! JUST GO AHEAD AND LEAVE, BYE, GOOD RIDDANCE👋👋! YOU'RE SELFISH PERSONALITY WILL NOT BE MISSED!!!

Trigger warning OVER

No, NASCAR isn't as popular as it was before and it's people like this who are the reason for it and as this stuff updates I now get more fury and more reasons why the toxic fans are the #1 issue. Poor Xfinity series regular Brandon Brown and his family ran race team are now having an even harder time getting sponsorship. They already have a hard enough time getting sponsors to keep their team afloat and now cause no other sponsor is willing to partner with Brandon Built Motorsports have no choice but to take a sponsor that could possibly be a scam...... and not only that but at the time of writing this might not even get approved by NASCAR, plus this specific sponsor is there simply because of a dumb phrase that was said by fans in the grandstands at the 2021 Sparks 300. I'm not gonna say the phrase cause I don't want that anywhere on my account or stories I write so if you know it than you know what I'm talking about but DON'T say it here, Brandon Brown's achievement of getting his team that his dad had started from the ground and even posted an add posing as a car salesman to get sponsors to build the team and to beat the odds of winning their 1st Xfinity race is now tainted by immature TOXIC MONSTERS in the grandstands, AND NOT ONLY THAT THEY POSSIBLY HAVE JUST DESTROYED A MAN'S CAREER AND IF THEY CAN'T GET THE MONEY TO RACE THEY SINGLEHANDEDLY COST SEVERAL PEOPLE THEIR JOBS!!!😡😡 Now let's talk about IndyCar, oh boy I bet you if NASCAR had ANYTHING like the splits that IndyCar had the toxicity would be even worse. Something in my first season of watching the IndyCar series last year has very good, VERY few toxic fans. It's an inclusive environment which is cool to be around and the drivers all have different backgrounds. Jimmie Johnson who is a 7 time NASCAR Cup champion is going full time in IndyCars for 2022, former Formula 1 drivers Romain Grosjean Marcus Ericsson Takuma Sato and even Alexander Rossi originally at some point raced in F1. Plus Felix Rosenqvist raced in Formula E and other motor in Europe. Scott Mcglaughlin raced V8 supercars, Helio Castroneves spent some time in IROC and Weathertech Sportscars
Max Chilton was in F1, Oliver Askew was part time in IMSA Weathertech Sportscars, Alex Palou the reigning IndyCar champion was in Europe racing before jumping over,Sebastien Bourdais even went to F1 for a year and a half and several others. It's just so diverse in the drivers plus the fans there just make it very welcoming with so many different backgrounds. Definitely unified after all the splits they had. The toxic NASCAR fans want to go try to discover championships now imagine all the dumb drama they'd cause if that happened in NASCAR. IndyCar had not one but 2 civil wars splitting itself in half having 2 different series. From 1979-1984 1996-2007 there were 2 different national champions. So I ask if there is only 1 true champion than should we take away 1979 from Rick Mears or AJ Foyt? One of them has to suffer right? Should Sebastien Bourdais have almost all his accomplishments taken away?? Should Sam Hornish Jr and several others lose their achievements? No, that's what I thought. Once IndyCar unified in 2008 ALL the drivers are considered winners and champions. Dang the toxic NASCAR fans expect them to be perfect, guarantee that if NASCAR had a split and unified the toxicity would be twice as horrible. Now it's time to talk able some more NASCAR champions in how they all have done it differently, like Tony Stewart who won his 1st of 3 Cup titles in 2002 with a 12.6 average finish. It's actually one of the worse average finishes of a Cup champion but nobody complains about it yet as soon as Tyler Reddick wins the first of his 2 Xfinity championships in 2018 with an average finish of a 12.9 he all of a sudden didn't deserve it. I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time these keyboard warriors tried to throw shade.🙄 There is something technically true about the Winston Cup points that are true but I KNOW if I said it I'd never heat the end of it. Long story short some despise on how nowadays the Coca Cola 600 and the Daytona Qualifying races have points on offer deeming it "unfair" but if you pay attention on how the Winston Cup points value change for each position for the top 12, midfield and back of the pack. Plus different motorsports use DIFFERENT points systems yet they don't want to complain about those but whatever😒. Something else, when Brett Moffit won the Truck championship in 2018 nobody cared. Nobody shouldn't right? He had a great season with 6 wins, 13 top 5s 13 top 10s, and an average finish of 8.9. But Johnny Sauter on the other hand also had 6 wins, 14 top 5s, 17 top 10s and an average finish of 6.4 but nobody is saying Moffit's championship was bogus or undeserved. Some of these people were saying that Hamlin's average finish in 2010 was appalling and he shouldn't have been able to compete for the championship so here is a part on the champion's average finish. So it is common that the average finish can represent how well they did in a year but Boffit did well in 2018 right? But his average finish is so far off from Johnny Sauter and he would have finished 6th in the Winston Cup format yet when Jimmie Johnson wins his 7th championship in the Cup series he somehow doesn't deserve it. If the Winston Cup format was used in 2018 in the Truck Series Moffit would have finished 6th however as I said nobody has said a word about it being wrong but when Johnson in the Cup Series wins his 7th championship technically does the same thing by finishing 6th if the chase never existed it's apparently wrong! They finished in the SAME position with the SAME SCENARIO but by the logic of some haters Moffit shouldn't be champion but nobody is saying that yet Johnson did it 2 years earlier and they be like "Johnson isn't a true champion" Hypocritical especially when Chase Elliott won the Cup championship in 2020. A race before the finale everyone was says that the champion wasn't deserving since Kevin Harvick but then when Elliott became a champion NOBODY dares discredit his achievement but will do EVERYTHING they can to discredit legends and future hall of famers like Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart in 2011, Kyle Busch and Joey Logono plus the previously mentioned Jimmie Johnson. Acting like Johnson is a 'has been' yet as soon as Mr popular wins it like Johnson did they turn their blinders on worshipping Elliott and hating everyone else. I'm so sorry to the GOOD Elliott fans I know on here and in general that you have to be overshadow by toxic fans of Elliott. Some GOOD Dale Earnhardt Jr fans were overshadowed by the toxic ones as well, shame on you toxic fans. SHAME 👏ON👏 YOU👏 TOXIC👏 FANS👏! When Daniel Suarez🇲🇽 won the Xfinity title in 2016 he became the first foreign born driver to win a championship in NASCAR history. His year was nothing to sneeze at with 3 trips to victory lane, 19 top 5s, 27 top 10s, 3 poles and an average finish of 8th. Elliot Sadler would have been the champion if it was ran in the " Winston" format with 3 victories, 14 top 5s, 29 top 10s, no poles, and an average finish of 6.8. No one thinks the Mexican native is a so called "fake" champion. In fact the 2018 Cup rookie of the year William Byron won the Xfinity title with 4 wins 12 top 5s, 22 top 10s, 2 poles and an average of 10.4 finish. But Elliot Sadler won 0 races 12 top 5s, 25 top 10s, 1 pole and an average finish of 9.4. So this is kind of funny to look at. When a guy that wins about 2 or 3 races in a year like Kurt Busch did and becomes champion verses a driver that lit the year on fire like Jeff Gordon in 2004 it's apparently wrong, Jeff Gordon is the "real" champion without the chase. But when Carl Edwards missed out on a Cup championship in a TIE to Tony Stewart in 2011 who won 5 races or when and when Carl won only once.... Plus some people are saying that ratings are going to go up without the chase or playoffs system in place. Look I'm not going to lie NASCAR has had a decrease in ratings but you wanna know when NASCAR was at it's PEAK? From 2004-2006! 2005 was the highest point of the peak when the chase was first created! So the chase can't be THAT BAD! If so than ratings would have decreased massively immediately! In fact the ratings today are levels of the 1990s! And the 90s of NASCAR was awesome so this system CAN'T BE THAT BAD! And besides how about you do your dream right? How about you go and work your whole life to be successful in your dream and you do it and I show up and say you didn't deserve it?! If YOU won a championship in NASCAR now matter what format it is you wouldn't care correct?! How about I go to a sports tournament of whatever and a champion gets crowded in MLB, basketball, football, etc and say that they aren't a "true" champion? Nobody would say that they didn't deserve it huh WOULD YOU?! And guess what??? Matt Crafton in 2019 became the 3rd driver in the Truck series to win 3 championships with 7 top 5s and 18 top 10s in the 23 races of the season. Pretty consistent right? And these haters are going on about how CONSISTENCY doesn't matter anymore RIGHT? NOPE, APPARENTLY A GUY THAT QUIETLY DOES THE JOB MAXIMIZING CONSISTENCY DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE THE CHAMPION ACCORDING TO THESE PEOPLE!! CRAFTON LITERALLY DID WHAT AUSTIN DILLON DID IN THE XFINITY SERIES IN 2013, WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP WITHOUT WINNING A SINGLE RACE BUT BEING CONSISTENT. TECHNICALLY HIS RIVAL SAM HORNISH JR HAD BETTER STATS, HE HAS MORE WINS, TOP 5S AND TOP 10S BUT NOBODY IS WHINING ABOUT DILLON'S TITLE TRIUMPH! AND IN 2003 THE CUP CHAMPION WAS MATT KENSETH BY USING CONSISTENCY YET NOBODY TALKS SMACK ABOUT HIM! In fact, you know why the chase/playoffs was made? BECAUSE THE FANS HATED ON MATT KENSETH FOR WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP BY WINNING ONLY ONE RACE SO NASCAR CREATED THE CHASE! So technically this ENTIRE THING IS YOUR FAULT!!! Look, it's one thing to have a preference of a different points format, it's one thing to dislike a driver or cheer for another one. That's all ok, but to say that a driver doesn't deserve to be a champion is another. It doesn't matter what format NASCAR makes every single driver that is a champion deserves it. They will forever be known as champions and that's that. And LAST BIT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST. There has to be accountability for ALL PARTIES INVOLVED in this sport! From the top of NASCAR to the fans itself if we'd ALL TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY I know we'd be more popular. I know I'm not alone in saying the #1 problem for NASCAR is the fanbase as a whole, there is an EXTREMELY TOXIC side which makes the AWESOME GENUINE fans look bad and sometimes we just plain don't know what we want. Where do I even start with this? And i feel horrible for the great fans, I know a lot of people online who have hearts of gold and are so kind, nice, and funny that we get overshadowed by the toxic fans. Like for instance some people were claiming that the 2021 Goodyear 400 at Darlington was boring cause Truex completely dominated the race. The Cup cars used the 750 horsepower package which they really wanted Now keep in mind these folks were making it out like high horsepower and low downforce was the way to go but all of a sudden the second they get it back at one of the fan favorite racetracks they complain about it. Say that the high downforce and low horsepower is the worst thing ever but then complain about getting the high horsepower low downforce. I wonder why the high horsepower stuff, now in 2022 there will be the 670 HP package lobbied for by drivers and fans to. All I have to say now is the fans better be grateful they have this rules package, if they complain about it and if NASCAR sees it and changes it back to the 550 setup they have nobody to blame but themselves. I mean seriously, even if you don't watch NASCAR'S imagine being in their shoes where it's borderline nonstop complaining when you make a change people are screaming for but then as SOON AS YOU LISTEN they whine and complain more making you out to be the bad guy. Last little thing I'm gonna mention cause again if I listed EVERY thing that toxic fans said or did I'd be here forever. I don't know how to feel about this dude, he's had enough of toxic fans as well but I don't think he realizes that he can be toxic to. I saw him on YouTube complaining about races with a lot of cautious calling them "demo derbies" and making it out like the drivers suck, do you think you can do a better job? I guarantee that if we go out there on track even with practice and qualifying that these drivers would kick your butt out there on track. Plus I also saw this same guy say a race with few cautions was boring.. You see how hypocritical that sounds? One minute you're ranting about a race with little green flag racing but when there was a LOT of green flag racing earlier you hate on it. I'm not saying you have to adore races with cautions but check yourself before you wreck yourself. With ALL that being said I want to say this, I am aware that some cases it's good fans just trying to make suggestions to make the sport better. There is no such thing as a perfect fan, I'm not gonna pretend that I'm perfect because nobody is. Sometimes there are cases where something isn't appreciated until it's gone, after the 2021 Cup playoff race at Bristol people absolutely loved the racing and say that there shouldn't be a dirt race there anymore and that Bristol was perfect the way it was. But to Jeff Burton's point on NBC's TV show Motor Mouths it took NASCAR having to get Bristol hosting a dirt race to get people to return to the grandstands. Now this is a case where as fans we as a whole have to do our part and show NASCAR management that if they are gonna run 2 normal Bristol races that it's a great decision. Cause like I said earlier, if it gets suggested so much don't come crying to them about something you brought up so heavily in the first place. Being a hypocrite in solves nothing, if something just wasn't as good as you thought or if some disagrees don't make them out like the scum of the earth cause they're not. And all the achievements are fully deserved, I mean imagine something just getting salty causing a big fuss cause you didn't achieve it a certain way. Ridiculous right? So as fans regards of being in NASCAR or motorsports altogether we ALL must do our part, so as a new year begins why don't we all take accountability for our actions. We can do this everyone, we CAN do this.