If NASCAR didn't die with Dale in 2001 like fans still suggest, plenty of fans will argue that it died in 2007 when Toyota came onto the scene at the Cup level, because heaven forbid the sport welcome a foreign manufacturer for the first time in half a century.
Naturally, nearly two decades later, a large contingent of fans still hasn't gotten over it, even though those same fans have been claiming for years that they're going to quit watching for a variety of other reasons that don't actually lead them to quit watching.
And they will continue to insist that the sport is rigged, ironically for the only manufacturer that hasn't won a Cup championship this decade.
NASCAR metric causes frustration (again) for no reason
The latest example boils down to an inability to solve a basic math equation, which has been a recurring problem for a larger percentage of the fanbase than you'd want to admit since NASCAR began using a qualifying metric in 2020.
We don't judge. Math isn't everybody's strongest subject. But that doesn't automatically mean it requires a tinfoil hat to understand why things are the way they are.
The metric was initially used to set the starting lineups for races, because apparently COVID-19 was only transmissible during qualifying and therefore we couldn't qualify despite the fact that we could race. But I digress.
Beginning in 2021, the metric began being used to determine qualifying orders, and it was based on four variables: the car's rank in the owner standings (35%), the driver's finish in the most recent race (25%), the car's finish in the most recent race (25%), and the rank of the driver's fastest lap in the most recent race (15%).
For full-time drivers in the same cars each week, it was effectively three categories: the car's rank in the owner standings (35%), the driver's finish in the most recent race (50%), and the rank of the driver's fastest lap in the most recent race (15%).
Sure, it was overcomplicated, not unlike most things in NASCAR these days.
NASCAR made things a lot easier to understand in 2025, as the metric is now based only on the car's rank in the owner standings (30%), and the car's finish in the most recent race (70%). Any arguments that it's "too complicated" went out the window a year ago, for those willing to take the 10 seconds they would have spent venting on Twitter about it to actually understand it.
We don't want to single anybody out here. We're just going to use the most recent example of Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass answering this question every week, whenever he shares the next race's qualifying order.
Seriously, how great would it be if he started replying with Amazon links to math textbooks or something, instead of offering the same exact explanation, week in and week out, of why and how NASCAR actually isn't rigging races for Toyota with a grade school-level math equation?
The formula was, is, and will continue to be the same for everybody. It doesn't change every week. No car make has an unfair advantage. It isn't used selectively. It is also literally only a qualifying order, not a predetermined finishing order, and it is something that anybody can figure out within minutes of the previous race concluding.
But no, it can't be that. Toyota bad. NASCAR rigged. Outrage.
We get it if some fans are unaware that the formula exists. That's one thing. But aside from the fact that it has been around for seven seasons now (two in its much simpler form, so again, genuine ignorance is understandable), fans' lack of understanding of something doesn't inherently mean "it's rigged". There isn't some massive coverup going on here.
Yet it's been the same thing every week for years. At this point, it's like asking "is there a race this week?" when NASCAR posts a graphic that says, "it's race week!"
It doesn't stop there, either. One fan even suggested that, in light of this week's qualifying order benefitting Denny Hamlin, that the 2026 season has "made obvious the undisclosed details of the lawsuit".
First of all, that lawsuit included both 23XI Racing (Toyota) and Front Row Motorsports (Ford), even if the media only conveniently talks about Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan.
Front Row's three drivers range from 23rd to 31st in the standings, and while NASCAR is now in the business of handing out 21st place trophies, we're pretty sure they're not rigging outcomes for a below-average race team just so that race team can finish – wait for it – below average.
And for what it's worth, why would the sanctioning body rig the sport for either one of the teams that humiliated them in court anyway?
That's a good point, though. Maybe NASCAR rigged the In-Season Challenge to set up an all-Ford championship round featuring Front Row's Todd Gilliland! But wait, wasn't it supposedly rigged for Chase Elliott, the sport's most popular driver, a week ago? The same way Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500, and the championship every single year he competed in Cup?
Everything is rigged!
Again, I digress.
Secondly, the only thing that's changed this year is the fact that Toyota has a vastly superior body compared to Chevrolet and Ford – two manufacturers that are, for what it's worth, actually less American-made than that big, bad, Japanese brand. Chevrolet has gotten nowhere with their new body, and Ford was already behind the eight-ball. Everybody knew this from 2025.
And finally, the metric certainly hasn't changed since last year, so the grasping at straws is hilarious. That's without even getting into the championship-altering controversial caution that did Toyota no favors...
Should the formula change?
Some objective fans have suggested that, to make things fairer and more balanced, the metric should be based 70% on the owner standings and 30% on the most recent race, rather than the other way around.
That's not a bad idea. Maybe there should be more weight placed on the full body of work, rather than just one race from a few days prior. We're not saying that the current formula is perfect.
Here's the problem: fans would still complain it's rigged for Toyota.
Toyota drivers occupy the top two and three of the top four spots in the standings, so even with disastrous results or DNFs in a single race, they'd likely still be among the best in terms of the qualifying metric every single week. At least under the current formula, things can change significantly from week to week.
Wasn't Ford's Ryan Blaney on pole at North Wilkesboro Speedway, by the way, courtesy of this exact metric (before his team made a steering rack change)?
Was that rigged too, or did NASCAR just forget to order one unlucky fan a customized FanDuel video from Bryce Harper after Blaney and Team Penske won for the Blue Oval in Atlanta?
The random draw suggestion makes sense on paper, but fans complained during that era as well, because why should Cody Ware have the same chance of a good qualifying spot as the points leader? Is it rigged for him too?
Seeing as how there are fans who continue to argue with the results of what amounts to a pre-coded weekly spreadsheet, it's obvious that as long as social media exists, those fans will simply complain and vent regardless, just like they do about anything else – trivial or not – in the sport.
Because math isn't just hard. Math is rigged.
