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Larry McReynolds Fires Shot at Fans, Elton Sawyer and NASCAR

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kyle Dalton | Last updated Nov 13, 2024 11:03 AM ET

Larry McReynolds is known as "America's Crew Chief." In that role, he regularly shares his opinion on what's happening in the NASCAR landscape during his daily show on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

On Tuesday, he and show co-host Danielle Trotta recapped the Championship 4 weekend in Phoenix. In that discussion, the pair talked about the hot topic of conversation – playoff format. And Larry Mac didn't hesitate to share what he thought about it.

"Well, be careful because I'm about ready to be tarred and feathered because of comparing our sport to stick and ball sports," McReynolds began. "Here is one thing I'm going to conclude, and I'm not trying to offend anyone. I respect people's opinion. I really do. I may challenge them and I may lay things out there you don't want to hear, but I do respect people's opinion.

"But my conclusion, Danielle, now that we're almost two full days removed from this championship being decided at Phoenix, based on people I've talked to, based on our callers for the last two days — if we are chasing a tweak for people that don't like it, we are chasing a small, small, small, itsy bitsy percentage of our fans. That's my conclusion."

McReynolds minimizing the number of fans unhappy with the current postseason system understandably won't sit well with those fans. But the two-time Daytona 500-winning crew chief didn't stop there. A few minutes later, he took aim at the sanctioning body.

@LarryMac28 didn't sugarcoat what he thought about the number of fans criticizing the playoff format and if NASCAR decides to implement tweaks in the future. pic.twitter.com/mktDUkDQtu
— Kyle Dalton (@kdsportswriter) November 13, 2024

"But the warning shot I fire, and I would even fire this shot toward Elton Sawyer and NASCAR — tweak it if you want, tweak it if you may, but I'm telling you the cream is still going to rise to the top," he said. "The good solid teams that win races and wins championships, they're going to adjust. They're going to adjust to what you change."

Various reports indicate NASCAR is considering potential changes to the playoffs in 2025. If officials do eventually decide to implement any new tweaks, they can't say they weren't warned.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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