Under a system announced last October, the Supercars champion will be decided by a three-round knock-out Finals series that begins with 10 drivers after the Bathurst 1000.
The contenders will be whittled down to four for the Adelaide Grand Final, where they will fight out the title in amongst the remainder of the 24-car pack.
It’s a system implemented to guarantee a grandstand finish and is modelled off the controversial NASCAR Playoffs.
“It will definitely change it, for sure,” Morris told Speedcafe’s KTM Summer Grill of the impact of the Finals series.
“You’ll need to be at the top of your game at the end of the year, you’ll need to qualify up front and you’ll just need to drop the hammer.
“It probably should suit Broc [Feeney] a bit, he should be able to fire, those guys who can fire up.”
Dubbed the ‘Dirty Dangerous Dude’ for his roughhouse driving during his own career behind the wheel, Morris flagged the possibility of foul play impacting the outcome.
“The big thing for me will be what’s going to happen with interference with your teammate and how that will play out?” he continued.
“Your teammate and other teams can have a really big effect on the races at the end of the championship and the rules for engagement from race control on how you race each other.”
While team tactics will almost certainly be frowned upon, Morris warns the category’s strict driving standards could defeat the point of Finals.
“If you introduce a Finals system like that you’re going to have to let the guys race harder. You’re going to have to because if you don’t it doesn’t create the excitement,” he said
“If you’re going to just follow someone around and can’t get past them and park it on the bottom [of the track]… for me it’s got to be if you block for two corners and get moved out of the way, it’s your bad luck.
“You’ve got to open it up a bit. What’s the point in creating the drama if you can’t have the action?”
Incidents involving deliberate contact and team tactics occurred in the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs.
While NASCAR has traditionally refrained from punishing on-track incidents, it opted to remove Austin Dillon from the Playoffs after he’d deliberately spun two drivers to win a regular season race.
Unlike NASCAR, Supercars’ championship format does not have a ‘win and you’re in’ provision during its regular season.
However, the top points scorers across the Sprint and Enduro portions of the season will score Finals berths, while a race win during the Finals gives a driver automatic entry to the next round.
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