Catchfence

NASCAR has been holding some more Town Hall meetings with drivers and crew chiefs about improving the sport, and one of the subjects has been about the Chase and how to improve the format. It has come as we’ve now gotten a call for a Nationwide Series Chase format There have been three ideas for improving the Chase but the fact that still more tweaks are being debated shows that no one has learned anything.

There is only one solution for improving the Chase -

END IT, DON’T MEND IT.

There is no case for a playoff format in racing, period.

Extending the format to the Nationwide Series ignores that the format at the Sprint Cup level has been a failure. To see how much of a failure the format has been, one must look at the points races under the format and see what has not happened -

* There has been no sudden rally to a title by a dark horse.

* There has been no intensity in the racing; on the contrary the bulk of the field has effectively quit in the final ten races.

* There have been several drivers (notably Jamie McMurray in 2004) artificially locked out of the format who outpointed Chase drivers in the playoff run and went ignored.

* The one close finish (2004 by Kurt Busch) was entirely artificial – Kurt Busch’s point lead entering the season finale was too high to be overcome, and all Busch had to do was finish – he realistically clinched the title by winning the pole at Miami.

* Virtually no attention is paid to anyone outside of the top three during the Chase by the media; no sponsor has been persuaded by the format into jumping on board the sport; upsets in Chase races have been all but nonexistent.

The Chase format has accomplished nothing of consequence in the first six seasons it has been used, and extending it to any other touring series cannot possibly work.

What the sport continues to miss is the one solution that will make the points race a real race -

* Maintain the basic Latford Point System.
* Increase race-winner points to 300.
* Increase the bonus for most laps led to 100.

This is a format that makes it mathematically impossible to win the championship without winning the most races and leading the most laps. With this being at stake, there becomes no alternative to going for the win no matter what lap it is, and the sport is presented with the scenario of the entire field determined to stop any one driver from pulling away in either the race or in points. This opens the twin advantages of increasing the battle for the win and also opens more avenues for points upsets as one month’s point leader is likely to meet so much resistance that a dark horse bolts to the fore.

This, ultimately, is the goal of the points race. It is a goal that the points structure has not reflected since 1975 and which it needs to reflect for the sport’s competitive betterment.