The Problem(s) with a 16 car Chase

So, if you’ve been living under a rock (Bravo, that is a pretty hard thing to do from a logistics side of things), you may not of heard about NASCAR’s new play-off system. Basically, it calls for a 16 car Chase field, wins getting you in, and point resets during the Chase, culminating in a four car Chase at Homestead, where whomever earns the most points at Homestead alone wins the championship.

Now, I think we can all understand why it would be a 16 car Chase field. At the end of the day, money is a huge part of making the Chase. Sponsors love it; it gives your car a huge platform and featured regularly, etc. Overall, a Chase spot is worth I’d estimate at least a million dollars, and who knows how much more if you finish in the top 10 and go to Vegas for a week. This is why Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) did what they did at Richmond, even though the end result was losing the biggest sponsor they had, $300,000 in fines, and losing almost all of their momentum they had picked up over the last two years. So more Chase drivers means more money for the team owners. I really doubt many of the owners or the drivers (Remember, more money for the owners means more money for the drivers) argued against this.

We can also all understand why it’s “win and in”. NASCAR wants drivers to go for victories, the last thing they want is for a Matt Kenseth type to take four tires in every race and finish in the top ten every week rather than contend for most victories. The problem with this is that, unlike the NFL for instance, there is no incentive after you’ve won a race and basically clinched yourself into the play-offs. Just look at the Chase field from last season if this system had happened (Assuming if there are less than 16 winners the remaining field is determined by points, and also without Tony Stewart, as he would have been unable to compete):

1- Jamie McMurray
5- Kasey Kahne
15- Clint Bowyer
16- Greg Biffle
18- Kyle Busch
20- Matt Kenseth
22- Joey Logano
24- Jeff Gordon
29- Kevin Harvick
34- David Ragan
39- Ryan Newman
48- Jimmie Johnson
56- Martin Truex Jr.
78- Kurt Busch
88- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
99- Carl Edwards

Now, doesn’t somebody kinda stick out amongst those 16 drivers? Yes, that’s one David Ragan right there, who finished 28th in points (Yes, worse than Danica Patrick), whose win and his two top-10s of the season happened at one Talladega Superspeedway. If you don’t know, ‘Dega is the biggest crap-shoot in all of racing. Lake Speed even won a race there! So getting a lucky run on the final lap at Talladega will automatically put you in the Chase? Yes, it will.

And because of that, after you win, why try again until the Chase? Imagine if teammates are running 1-2, and the leading one drops back because the leading driver already has a victory and 2nd doesn’t. It would make MWR look like a fat kid smuggling candy out of a candy store.

Now, I’m not going to rag on Ragan very much, because he’s just one of quite a few over the Chase years who had completely unremarkable seasons, save for a fuel mileage, rain, or lucky ‘Dega win in the first 26 races.

2004: Rusty Wallace (Okay this one is a bit tough to put on here, but come on! When you finish 16th in the final point standings with only three top fives, you don’t deserve to be in the Chase)

2005: Kyle Busch (20th in final standings), Kevin Harvick (14th in final standings- but remember the cut-off was 10th back then), Kasey Kahne (23rd in final standings), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (19th in final standings).

2006: Nobody, as all winners actually made the Chase. However, if we take the probable points rule into effect, 15th place Casey Mears and 16th ranked Clint Bowyer get the nod.

2007: Casey Mears (15th in points), Juan Pablo Montoya (20th in points), Jamie McMurray (16th in points)

2008: Kurt Busch (19th in points), Ryan Newman (16th in points). Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne would of gotten in on wins, but Bowyer finished 12th and while Kahne finished 14th he did have two victories.

2009: David Reutimann (16th in points), Joey Logano (20th in points), Brad Keselowski (This was before you could earn points in one series, so he would of been in, even though he drove in 15 total races and finished 38th in points)

2010: David Reutimann (18th in points), Juan Pablo Montoya (17th in points)

2011: Ragan Smith (26th in points), David Ragan (23rd in points), Marcus Ambrose (19th in points), Paul Menard (17th in points)

2012: Marcus Ambrose (18th in points), Joey Logano (17th in points)

There’s also a lot of misleading on the media’s part.

“Only 27.9 percent of NASCAR’s teams make the Chase (12 of 43). Both the NBA and NHL have more than half their teams (16 of 30) make the playoffs. The NFL has 37.5 percent of its teams make the playoffs and 33.3 percent of Major League Baseball’s teams advance to the postseason. Even with putting 16 teams in NASCAR’s Chase, that means 37.8 percent of the teams can contend for the title. That puts NASCAR in line with other major pro sports. Doesn’t mean it’s right, just that NASCAR’s system is not out of whack compared to other sports.” – Dustin Long

The problem with this is that NASCAR is more a business than a sport. Want to debate this? Just look at how little turnaround there is here rather than in other sports. The Kansas City Chiefs went from 2-14 in 2012 to 11-5 and in the play-offs just a year later. The Indianapolis Colts went 2-14 in 2011 and has gone 11-5 in the last two seasons. Sure, the NFL has 32 teams and NASCAR has 43. But the reality is that only 20-25 cars have a legitimate shot at making the Chase as it stands now. I can guarantee you right now that Go FAS Racing (The No. 32 Ford) isn’t making the Chase anytime soon, even if the 16 car Chase goes into effect. BK Racing (The No .23 and No. 83 Toyota’s) had a horrible season last year, so bad they sprung like the Colts and fired the players (Or drivers) and replaced them with new, young guns. They aren’t winning this year. The only two teams to have turned the corner over the past five seasons have been Stewart Haas Racing (Thanks entirely to Stewart becoming involved) and Michael Waltrip Racing.

In fact, if you look over the past ten years, those two teams are the only ones that come to mind. Even in RCR’s worst season, they’ve always had a car finish in the top-15 or 20 in the final points. In Penske’s worst season (2008), they finished 1-2 in the Daytona 500 and had two cars in the top-20 in final standings.

This seems like a poor attempt in order to create excitement. Sure, last season’s points battle wasn’t really exciting at Homestead. But some championships end in Game 3.  Some Super Bowls end 24-7. That makes those Game 7 moments, those gigantic Super Bowl moments that much sweeter.  You cannot force good racing. This is a fact NASCAR hasn’t understood in a while. Stewart versus Edwards would not have been exciting or remembered as fondly if the same battle had happened in 2010 and 2012. Sure, every year it would be nice to have it come down to that, but then you make one race as this mecca of motorsport and short sight every other race on the schedule. What is this, NASCAR or IndyCar?

Then again, at least IndyCar has a championship where a driver can win every race of the season except the last and hoist the title. Oh well.

And the sad thing is no matter what NASCAR does, Homestead and the rest of the Chase will always finish second to the NFL in ratings. Always.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

18 COMMENTS

  1. 12 out of 43 (or 16 out of 43 with the new format) isn’t really accurate since some drivers only race in a few races a season and are not racing for the Championship (in some cases not even eligible to receive points), in reality there are no more than 35 full-time teams (which now in reality is only around 32 teams).

  2. Has anyone else noticed they have no stories, no comment sections, absolutely nothing about this on Na$car.com? They dont want to hear what the fans say. That makes me think they might really be going through with this stupidity!!!

  3. NO CHANGES TO THE CHASE PLEASE!!! JEFF GORDON SAID IT RIGHT “I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL” THE CHASE IS PERFECT THE WAY IT IS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NO MORE FN CHANGES. I LOVE NASCAR AND IM DIE HARD TO THE BONE WAS AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY FROM 8A TILL MIDNIGHT THE FIRST RACE OF THE CHASE… IT WAS AMAZING IM A 32M A YOUNGER FAN BEEN A FAN SINCE 2004 SO THE CHASE IS WHAT IM ABOUT AND I ASK BRIAN PLEASE BRO ( AND I LOVE BRIAN UNLIKE MOST ) DONT CHANGE THE CHASE PLEASE

  4. Nick…. even if Boris Said would win a road course race, he would not be eligible for the SHAMpionship 10 race Do-Over, due to the fact that I’m pretty sure drivers have to declare at the start of the year whether or not they are running for the SHAMpionship.

  5. The real problem is nascar should only have points against who is in the chase this way you can recover and actually have a chance and make the trophy spot with a single screw up.

    • He did. Sorry about that, I always confuse the one race winners. But you can replace him with such names as Richard Brickhouse, Bobby Hillin Jr., Lonnie Pond, Ron Bouchard, and Phil Parsons. The point still stands.

    • Yeah, he did. Sorry about that. But you can replace him with such names as Richard Brickhouse, Bobby Hillin Jr., Lonnie Pond, Ron Bouchard, and Phil Parsons. The point still stands.

  6. Right on, Sue. If the title hinges on the winner of just one race, why on earth would I bother to watch any of the other 35? They are barely ‘qualifiers’ for the ‘finals’. This just keeps getting more bizarre. Make the racing better, let the crew chief’s have some leeway, then maybe it will get more interesting. Too much emphasis on the championship just drains importance…and interest, in the rest of the season. Ill advised idea…but we know BZF doesn’t take advice.

  7. The whole idea of “playoffs” and “eliminations” is bogus if everybody is still competing. Either stop with the Chase nonsense, or just have the Chase contenders in the last 10 races. None of the major sports does it this way. And there is a reason why they dont -its lame.

  8. My concern is a manufactured game 7 moment in the final race. Better to elimite five or six drivers after chase races 3 & 6 and let the final four races play out and let a game 7 moment occur naturally if it does at all; instead of having a video game finish (video games get boring too with time). The excitement of a game 7 is that they do not occur every year and are exciting to watch develop.

  9. I have two reservations with an elimination format. Once a team wins one race why worry about the rest. Just work on the cars so they excel at the elimination races. What kind of 7th game moment will there be if there is an accident at Homestead and the 4 cars are involved?
    There is a final question, Why watch any of the other 35 races if your main interest is, who wins the championship?

  10. Finally, someone said exactly what I’ve been thinking since this Chase scenario came out. You can guarantee that if teammates are running 1-2, and the 2nd place hasn’t won yet, he’s going to win that race. Exactly as you said, once you’ve won, you can take the rest of the regular season off.

    How about this scenario?….We know Danica is not half bad at Daytona, imagine Stewart, Harvick & Busch all lined up behind Danica on the final lap where tandem drafting is now illegal. They cross the line to take the white flag when Jimmie Johnson makes another ill-advised restrictor plate track move, knocks Jeff Gordon into the grass coming across the line for the white flag, he comes back across the track and collects half the field. Just like with Junior waiting to make his move on the last lap at Talladega last year, the yellow comes out before they get to turn one and Tony never gets his chance to make a move. Danica Patrick is now in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship!!!

    Or one more scenario….Hired gun Boris Said uses a two stop strategy at Sonoma and holds off the rest of the field to steal a win. Boris Said is now in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship!!

    Long shots? Yes. Impossible? Absolutely not!!!

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