A FAN'S STAND
by Jeannine Petriel
A Fan’s Stand: Why I Still Don’t Like the Chase
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Well the 2007 Chase field is three races in and I still am not thrilled with the way the chase is done. NASCAR is trying to be like the stick and ball sports and they haven’t figured out that it isn’t one. I am not sure why they can’t understand that the only sticks (bats) are used to pull a fender off the wheel and the only balls are the ones used to choose qualifying order (another bone of contention with me).
So here are my frustrations with the Chase format and my suggestions how to solve them.
JR wouldn’t have made the Chase even if his motor had survived Richmond.
I don’t say this because I am a JR fan, but because I believe that the penalty he got for the wing clamp issue was wrong. When Richard Petty and David Pearson drove, they also worked on the cars so penalizing them for technical infractions made sense. Today, I would be surprised if most drivers have a clue what is in the car outside of the driver’s compartment. I know that JR has experience with mechanics, but with all the things that go on with the cars these days, let alone JR’s lack of time due to his hectic schedule, I am sure that he had no clue what the specs were for the wing let alone the wing bracket. I know that JR wouldn’t have made the Chase anyway because of the blown engine, but he might have been able to keep the engine running because he wouldn’t have to push it so hard.
That said, I think the points lost by Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart were justified. A driver should lose driver points if he screws up. Kurt didn’t belong that close to Tony’s car on pit road. I personally think he should have sat out a race, but that’s my opinion. Tony should have lost 25 points because he knew the word he used was not allowed and he used it anyway.
My solution- Have team points and the team wins the championship. There is no way that a driver can compete without a large team backing him up so why not give the points to the team as opposed to just the driver? That would also keep drivers from driving hurt. Thankfully Ricky Rudd wasn’t in the Chase, not that I wouldn’t have liked to see him make the Chase. This is a man who taped his eyes open so he could race the week after a nasty crash. If he had made the chase, I am sure that he would have been hard pressed not to at least start all the Chase races in spite of his injuries and I just think that is crazy. So I advocate a team championship.
Clint Bowyer did make the Chase
I have nothing against Clint Bowyer and I am glad that all the RCR drivers made the chase, but I still don’t think that any non-winners should be in the Chase unless there are less different winners than there are Chase contenders. Casey Mears, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray all won races this year, yet they didn’t make the Chase. Tell me any other sport that has had a team in the finals that never won an event during the “regular season”. I am glad that Clint won his first race at NHIS
My solution- Give every driver 500 points for his first win in addition to the points that he would normally get. Does that mean that if you win Daytona in February that you will be in the Chase in September? No, but it does mean that if you don’t make the Chase it will not be because a non-winner did make it.
Jeff wasn’t leading the Chase into New Hampshire
While I do like Jeff Gordon, this has nothing to do with him personally. I think that if you are the points leader after 26 races, you should be the points leader at the beginning of the 27th race. All the other sports make sure that their top team is afforded some sort of advantage for winning the regular season. It doesn’t guarantee that the team is going to win the championship, but it does guarantee that team will be the team to beat in the post season.
My solution- Actually the credit for this idea goes to my husband and oldest son with a little tweaking from me. You give the 2 point per regular season win (they wanted 10 per win), but that is how many points you are ahead of the guy behind you. For example, if this system were in place the points going into NHIS would look like this.
1st Jeff Gordon 5042
2nd Tony Stewart 5034
3rd Denny Hamlin 5028
4th Jimmie Johnson 5026
5th Matt Kenseth 5014
6th Carl Edwards 5012
7th Jeff Burton 5010
8th Kyle Busch 5008
9th Clint Bowyer 5006
10th Kurt Busch 5006
11th Martin Truex Jr. 5002
12th Kevin Harvick 5000
Harvick doesn’t get any extra points for his win, but he made the chase so he can’t finish lower than 12th so he doesn’t need “extra” points so he is higher than the driver below him.
AND FINALLY:
A Chaser or two are mathematically eliminated by Kansas.
Because the Chasers continue to be on the same points system as the non-chasers, there is a very good chance that at least one Chaser will be mathematically eliminated from winning the championship early in the Chase and it will probably be through no fault of his own. Just ask Kurt Busch or Jeremy Mayfield. While that makes the early races a lot more exciting, it just isn’t fair to the guys in the Chase.
My Solution? Since the non-chase guys can’t get higher than 13th even if they win every race in the Chase, I think there should be a separate point system for the Chasers comparing them to each other, not the whole field. For example the Chaser that finishes highest in the race gets 12 points and the lowest finishing Chaser gets 1. I think that would keep the field tight and make it hard for Chasers to be out of the running early in the Chase.
These are my ideas about how to improve the Chase; I would love to hear yours.
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