As the latest change to Nascar’s ever-evolving Playoff (formerly Chase) format, the organization has announced that the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway has officially been renamed from the Ford EcoBoost 400 to simply Game 7.
“We’re proud of all our corporate partners, from Toyota to Ford to Toyota”, said Nascar chairman Brian France, “but we really feel that by renaming the race to Game 7, we’re communicating to the public just how much of a ‘Game 7’ experience it will be.”
The move is just the latest change in an attempt to bring a so-called “Game 7” feel to the final race of the season, in which four eligible drivers will have equal chances to both win the race AND the season-long championship…for some reason.
“No race is more important than any other”, France explained, “but Game 7 is roughly seven-times more important than any other race. And the nine other playoff races are also more important than any other races, except for the 600 which is worth roughly 33 percent more than other regular season races due to it having a fourth stage. What I’m trying to say is, simplicity is the key.”
Several other names were rumored to be part of the change, with preliminary logos for an “Avco Cup 400” race and “The Million Dollar Game 400” floating around online.
“People may wonder where games one through six went”, France said, “well, that’s our whole rest of the season. Other sports only have game sevens once in a while—well, we’re having ours every single year. Because nothing makes something more special than doing it year after year—just like night racing.”
The move is believed to be the final of many changes that have happened to Nascar in this year, with any further changes focusing on the forthcoming 2018 season, including a reported radical change to the All-Star Race format that would see the unprecedented removal of all stages from the race.