Ok, so now that I have everyone’s attention, there’s something that I want to talk about that has been on my mind for a while. Something that has drastically changed the core of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and that’s the COT… well, it’s no longer the car of tomorrow, it’s the car of today, but for this purpose, let’s call it the new car.
I applaud NASCAR for trying to make a safer car. We have had tragedies in racing that could have been averted should the proper safety measures been in place. I can start name dropping at this point about this guy and that guy and how horrible it was. But I won’t do that out of respect for these men. And the truth of the matter is that back in the day, these men were gladiators. They knew that every time they got into that big, heavy, power, nasty race car of theirs, they might not be getting out of it at the end of the day. What do you think Dale Earnhardt would have said if you told him that you had the balls to get in that 800HP car and go all out around the track with 40 other racers. He would have looked at you up and down and would have probably laughed it off. It took a special kind of person back then to be a race car driver. It took a lot more than just being a good driver. With the risk of being chastised, I will venture to say that part (big part…) of the appeal of racing is the danger factor. Watching someone do the almost impossible and getting out alive. Wow, that was a spectacle…..
Nowadays with all these safety improvements, I think NASCAR has lost a bit of its appeal. Don’t get me wrong, I would never wish anything bad to happen to anyone, but you can’t deny the feeling you get inside when something happens on the track. Already, this new car has saved the lives of a few drivers involved in horrible crashes. Crashes that could have had much worse consequences. And I think everyone is thankful for this, but you can’t deny that it’s changed the way you look at NASCAR.
You also can’t deny that although wanting to make the racing more competitive is a great and noble goal, it has had the side effect of creating long, boring stretches of racing. NASCAR’s attempt at resolving this with the double file restart was a great idea, and in its own rights works very well, it hasn’t changed the fact that the racing has suffered. Now I’m sure a lot of people will want to quote the stats of how many lead changes and different winners in a season and so on to show that the racing has gotten more competitive, in reality, only a small portion of the races are this way, therefore causing skewed stats. With the double file restarts, yes we’ll get more lead changes and last lap passes for the win, but the rest of the race was still a snoozer…
Now a lot of people have been complaining about how the new car looks. I’ll admit that I rather like the look. It looks more like a real car then the old car did, that’s for sure. But it still isn’t quite right. Now it would seem they have the right idea with the Nationwide COT. If you’ve seen any of the pictures, you’ll notice that they look much more like their production counter cart. Especially the challenger. I can’t wait to see it on the track for the first time. Will it affect the racing the way the Cup car has… I don’t know. I don’t think anyone can predict this. Let’s just hope that NASCAR gives the teams a bit more freedom with what they can actually do with the car.
I understand the concept of by not allowing people to change anything, you essentially get everyone in the same car. But what’s the point of having all these teams behind their driver. If we wanted an IROC race… we’d be watching IROC… and look at where that went. Might as well have NASCAR make all the cars and just ship them straight to the track and have the teams take possession of the cars when they get there. Save all that money on engineering, have NASCAR do it all and just pay them instead… Ok, I might be going a bit overboard here but you get the point. Giving the teams some flexibility would go a long way to making the racing better. I’m not saying to let them run wild, but sit down with the team engineers and look at what the possibilities might be, and then go from there. I think that on top of helping their on track product, this would also get a lot of angry fans off their backs.
And finally, there is one last thing that I think needs to be discussed, and please, leave me your comments on your thoughts about this below. There is no need to register to leave comments. You don’t even have to put your real name and email address if you don’t want to, so please take a minute and let me know what you think about all these cars going air born. There were safeties in place on the old cars to make sure they didn’t take off like a plane on a runway. So why do these new cars seem so susceptible to wanting to take off? I’m sure at this point NASCAR is taking a close look at this but I think this problem could cause major safety concerns and totally defeat the purpose of the safety improvements of this new car. If not for the fencing at Talladega, Carl Edwards’ car would have no doubt killed hundreds of people in the stands. Lots of people were injured even with the fence in place. NASCAR has said they would study what happened and make sure they had a resolution to make sure the fence held… fence? Are you kidding me… how about trying to fix the car.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Blind hits and head shots
The NHL GM’s met to discuss game issues. One of the topics covered, as we’ve been told, is hits to the head. From what I understand, the conversation turned to blind hits quickly. At this stage, the NHL GM’s have put together a committee of 9 to investigate the hits, get more data on what is happening, and report back at the next meeting with suggestions on what to do…
So this has been the topic of discussion on everyone’s mind. How can we change, tweak or add rules to prevent these hits and sometimes devastating injuries. Here’s the thing, the rules they have put in place have directly been responsible for the increase in these mortifying hits. If you don’t believe me, well let’s look at some of the rules that have been changed post lock-out that contribute to this.
1- No Red Line
So the league decided that since they couldn’t go to a bigger ice surface, that if they removed the red line, it would open up the game and create faster plays to the net. But with no red line, you have guys coming across full speed, head down, getting blown out of their socks. Now, I’m not saying we should put the Red Line back, it has in fact created a quick more exciting game, but it hasn’t helped the injury cause.
2- Goalie Trapezoid
Someone somewhere came up with the idea of not letting the Goalies play the puck in the corners. Why, I have no clue. But they did, and put in the trapezoid area. So now, you have players coming at each other at full steam while the Goalie stands back and watches someone get their skull cracked in 2. In the past, when the puck went in the corner, Goalies could get in there and get the puck out before these 200+ lbs beast came barreling in at 20+ miles per hour….
3- The Instigator Rule
When putting this rule in place, the league has in essence said, if one of your players gets killed, you can’t jump the guy who did it or you’ll get suspended. People cheered this rule on. The biggest rule change in a long time. This rule would reduce the amount of fights and injuries caused by fights radically…. Well maybe, but what it’s done is given license to kill to the leagues goons. Before this rule, you knew not to go to hard on guys because you would face the consequences if you did. Now, oh well, I’ll destroy this guy in the board and if I don’t get a penalty, the other team will for trying to start a fight… come on… this was the stupidest rule to make the NHL rule book to date.
Another part of the problem, actually I think this is a big part of the problem, has nothing to do with rules at all. It has everything to do with the equipment players wear today. The helmets are completely inadequate for this kind of a contact sport, and the shoulder pads have become weapons of mass destruction. So why has there been so little talk about the equipment?
Here is what I suggest. Before changing any rules of any kind, I think the equipment needs to be re-evaluated. Change the helmets and the shoulder pads these guys wear. Give them better head protection, and softer pads. Right then and there, I would bet money you would reduce the amounts of serious head injuries by more than 60%. Let this ride, see how it affects the players and how they change their style of play to adapt to this. Once that has been done, if you are still unhappy with the results, then and only then should you look at changing the rules.
Now when it comes to the rules, I think that you can’t put the red line back in. We got used to a quicker game, this would slow it down too much and lose many of the precious few fans the league has. The other 2 listed above, well… get rid of them. Don’t put guys in a situation where they can get hurt and they won’t. Let the players police themselves and they will. The other thing I would do is add no touch icing. Players are getting better at this, but we still see injuries caused by guys racing for the puck.
All in all, we don’t need to reinvent the game here to make it safer. A few tweaks to the equipment and taking out some rules that should have never been instated in the first place would go a long way….
Leave me your comments and let me know what you think about the head shots and the GM meetings from this week
So this has been the topic of discussion on everyone’s mind. How can we change, tweak or add rules to prevent these hits and sometimes devastating injuries. Here’s the thing, the rules they have put in place have directly been responsible for the increase in these mortifying hits. If you don’t believe me, well let’s look at some of the rules that have been changed post lock-out that contribute to this.
1- No Red Line
So the league decided that since they couldn’t go to a bigger ice surface, that if they removed the red line, it would open up the game and create faster plays to the net. But with no red line, you have guys coming across full speed, head down, getting blown out of their socks. Now, I’m not saying we should put the Red Line back, it has in fact created a quick more exciting game, but it hasn’t helped the injury cause.
2- Goalie Trapezoid
Someone somewhere came up with the idea of not letting the Goalies play the puck in the corners. Why, I have no clue. But they did, and put in the trapezoid area. So now, you have players coming at each other at full steam while the Goalie stands back and watches someone get their skull cracked in 2. In the past, when the puck went in the corner, Goalies could get in there and get the puck out before these 200+ lbs beast came barreling in at 20+ miles per hour….
3- The Instigator Rule
When putting this rule in place, the league has in essence said, if one of your players gets killed, you can’t jump the guy who did it or you’ll get suspended. People cheered this rule on. The biggest rule change in a long time. This rule would reduce the amount of fights and injuries caused by fights radically…. Well maybe, but what it’s done is given license to kill to the leagues goons. Before this rule, you knew not to go to hard on guys because you would face the consequences if you did. Now, oh well, I’ll destroy this guy in the board and if I don’t get a penalty, the other team will for trying to start a fight… come on… this was the stupidest rule to make the NHL rule book to date.
Another part of the problem, actually I think this is a big part of the problem, has nothing to do with rules at all. It has everything to do with the equipment players wear today. The helmets are completely inadequate for this kind of a contact sport, and the shoulder pads have become weapons of mass destruction. So why has there been so little talk about the equipment?
Here is what I suggest. Before changing any rules of any kind, I think the equipment needs to be re-evaluated. Change the helmets and the shoulder pads these guys wear. Give them better head protection, and softer pads. Right then and there, I would bet money you would reduce the amounts of serious head injuries by more than 60%. Let this ride, see how it affects the players and how they change their style of play to adapt to this. Once that has been done, if you are still unhappy with the results, then and only then should you look at changing the rules.
Now when it comes to the rules, I think that you can’t put the red line back in. We got used to a quicker game, this would slow it down too much and lose many of the precious few fans the league has. The other 2 listed above, well… get rid of them. Don’t put guys in a situation where they can get hurt and they won’t. Let the players police themselves and they will. The other thing I would do is add no touch icing. Players are getting better at this, but we still see injuries caused by guys racing for the puck.
All in all, we don’t need to reinvent the game here to make it safer. A few tweaks to the equipment and taking out some rules that should have never been instated in the first place would go a long way….
Leave me your comments and let me know what you think about the head shots and the GM meetings from this week
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
NHL on the fritz…
There is something strange happening to the landscape of the NHL. Since the lock-out, things haven’t been the same, but right now, trouble is on the horizon.
First you have the fact that in the U.S.A., the NHL is currently only broadcast on VS. A channel currently exclusive to Direct TV who is in a legal battle with VS and is currently not broadcast them. Apart from a few games on NBC, the U.S. audience basically have no NHL coverage at this point. And who is to blame for this? Well who else than the great Gary Bettman of course. Bettman decided that it was a good idea to get a few extra bucks from a virtually unknown network over ESPN… great move Gary. But I won’t get on his case again, I think over the last few years, I’ve made it quite clear how I feel about him.
Second, you have the powerhouse that is the Detroit Red Wings… who can’t seem to put it together. Now, let’s keep in mind that they have been plagued with injuries, but you are going to tell me that the team that owns half of last year’s all-star team can’t overcome a few injuries? I think something is going on in Detroit that merits some looking into. Detroit being in the western conference for some reason doesn’t get a whole lot of coverage in the east, but I will keep an eye on them. If someone wants to give me their thoughts on what is happening in the motor city, please post your comments.
Now I think everyone is aware by now that the National Hockey League is the proud new owner of the Phoenix Coyotes… yes, even after reading it over again, it still says that the NHL now owns the Coyotes. Can you say conflict of interest?? I mean think about it for a second, because Bettman was too stubborn and didn’t want to lose face in front of the NHL Board of Governors, he did everything to bloke the legitimate sale of the team to Jim Balsillie (RIM CEO) saying they didn’t want him to move the team to southern Ontario… funny that Bill Daly, Bettman’s lap dog, said publically today that a new team in southern Ontario is a very real possibility… Well get your stories straight guys cause this is starting to sound very fishy to me. Not that it didn’t in the first place. Everybody knew that there were many under the table business reasons why people wanted to keep the team in Glendale. Lots of people that wouldn’t get their pay-off if they moved… well someone isn’t getting his pay-off regardless.
Wayne Gretzky, the great one, part owner of the Coyotes who invested $8M in the team is going to get back a big fat nothing from the sale of the team to the league. So the league says they should be allowed to dictate who the franchises are being sold to… but they have no problem buying them out themselves. I don’t know. Give me your thoughts on this but I find this very strange and don’t like where this is heading. With all these backdoor deals, no wonder the NHL is having so many problems…
Last but not least, let’s talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs for a quick minute. So after an abysmal start… the worst start in the history of the franchise, the leafs have won 2 games in a row and are starting to click. Now, let’s not jinx them, but it looks like they are turning a corner. Really, anyone that has been following the leafs can’t argue that they have been playing very well, even dominating most opponents just to get into penalty troubles or let in weak goals. Well that time seems to be over. The leafs are now playing a simpler, more solid penalty kill then they have all year, and Gustavsson seems to be making the difference in net with his size and key saves. Now I don’t want to get on Toskala’s case because I happen to think he’s a good goalie. I just think that the pressure plus the injury and surgery got to him. But regardless, it looks like the leafs are getting it together. It will be interesting to see how they do tonight and in the coming weeks…
First you have the fact that in the U.S.A., the NHL is currently only broadcast on VS. A channel currently exclusive to Direct TV who is in a legal battle with VS and is currently not broadcast them. Apart from a few games on NBC, the U.S. audience basically have no NHL coverage at this point. And who is to blame for this? Well who else than the great Gary Bettman of course. Bettman decided that it was a good idea to get a few extra bucks from a virtually unknown network over ESPN… great move Gary. But I won’t get on his case again, I think over the last few years, I’ve made it quite clear how I feel about him.
Second, you have the powerhouse that is the Detroit Red Wings… who can’t seem to put it together. Now, let’s keep in mind that they have been plagued with injuries, but you are going to tell me that the team that owns half of last year’s all-star team can’t overcome a few injuries? I think something is going on in Detroit that merits some looking into. Detroit being in the western conference for some reason doesn’t get a whole lot of coverage in the east, but I will keep an eye on them. If someone wants to give me their thoughts on what is happening in the motor city, please post your comments.
Now I think everyone is aware by now that the National Hockey League is the proud new owner of the Phoenix Coyotes… yes, even after reading it over again, it still says that the NHL now owns the Coyotes. Can you say conflict of interest?? I mean think about it for a second, because Bettman was too stubborn and didn’t want to lose face in front of the NHL Board of Governors, he did everything to bloke the legitimate sale of the team to Jim Balsillie (RIM CEO) saying they didn’t want him to move the team to southern Ontario… funny that Bill Daly, Bettman’s lap dog, said publically today that a new team in southern Ontario is a very real possibility… Well get your stories straight guys cause this is starting to sound very fishy to me. Not that it didn’t in the first place. Everybody knew that there were many under the table business reasons why people wanted to keep the team in Glendale. Lots of people that wouldn’t get their pay-off if they moved… well someone isn’t getting his pay-off regardless.
Wayne Gretzky, the great one, part owner of the Coyotes who invested $8M in the team is going to get back a big fat nothing from the sale of the team to the league. So the league says they should be allowed to dictate who the franchises are being sold to… but they have no problem buying them out themselves. I don’t know. Give me your thoughts on this but I find this very strange and don’t like where this is heading. With all these backdoor deals, no wonder the NHL is having so many problems…
Last but not least, let’s talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs for a quick minute. So after an abysmal start… the worst start in the history of the franchise, the leafs have won 2 games in a row and are starting to click. Now, let’s not jinx them, but it looks like they are turning a corner. Really, anyone that has been following the leafs can’t argue that they have been playing very well, even dominating most opponents just to get into penalty troubles or let in weak goals. Well that time seems to be over. The leafs are now playing a simpler, more solid penalty kill then they have all year, and Gustavsson seems to be making the difference in net with his size and key saves. Now I don’t want to get on Toskala’s case because I happen to think he’s a good goalie. I just think that the pressure plus the injury and surgery got to him. But regardless, it looks like the leafs are getting it together. It will be interesting to see how they do tonight and in the coming weeks…
Jimmie Johnson on ABC
Here is a copy of my last post for 4wide.com
Folks, let’s try and understand what happened this Sunday at Texas. On lap 3, David Reutimann hits Sam Hornish Jr who (big surprise) loses control and clips Jimmie Johnson and sends him into the wall. Now, for the rest of the broadcast, this is all the folks at ESPN talked about… Now, I’ll agree that this is quite a turn of events but do we have to hear it over and over again every 10 mins? This is no longer NASCAR on ABC but the Jimmie Johnson show featuring the rest of NASCAR on ABC.
In any case, at this point I’m thinking, “YES! This is what I’ve been waiting for. Now Gordon and Martin can make up some ground and be right back in the chase! Ok, really I was hoping for Gordon to get back into it, especially since he was in the front at this point… well, as history would have it, once again, the 24 team had a complete meltdown and were only able to salvage a top 15. What could have been so drastically off that they would win the pole yet couldn’t keep up with the track? This is the team that is known for being one of the best at keeping up with changing track conditions, yet as the day went on, Gordon fell further and further back. Mark Martin on the other hand had a great finish coming home with a 4th place. If Jimmie has any issues at all in the next 2 races, misses a setup, gets caught up in someone else’s mess, drops a lug-nut, gets a penalty for speeding on pit road, anything really, and Mark is right there to rip that “history making” moment out of JJ’s hands and possibly win his first, well deserved championship. Wouldn’t that be a sight?
One thing that I also had a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around was the fact that the crews of the 24 AND the 5 were helping the 48 team put their car back together. I mean, I understand they are all one team, but isn’t this a bit of a conflict of interest? Why weren’t the 24 guys out trying to make the 24 better while it was falling back? I don’t want to start any rumors or sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it’s a funny coincidence that the day Jimmie is in trouble, Jeff can’t get it going…
Kurt Busch is the man. After having lots of ups and downs in his career, not much unlike his little brother, Kurt seems to be getting his stuff back together. Kurt and Kyle dominated the race on Sunday and anyone that says that it didn’t take skill to stay and front yet conserve enough gas to finish the race wasn’t watching the race. And if I’m not mistaken, everyone actually finished a lap down as Kurt was the only one to not pit at the end of the race (please correct me if I’m wrong). All in all, that was a great job by Kurt and the whole 2 team.
To get back to Sam Hornish Jr, I hope I didn’t piss off anyone with my comment above. To be fair, he did get run into and the crash was not his fault… well the first one anyway. Sam seems to have issues keeping him car off the walls and in one piece. It would be an interesting stat to find out how many actual race cars he’s destroyed this year. I don’t have anything against him personally. That being said, you would think that he would start showing some signs of improvement out there. Instead, it just seems like all we hear every week is “Hornish spins out in turn 2!”
Now I was watching Dave Despain last night. I love Dave. I love his no holds barred yet always logical views of what is happening in motorsports. As always, it seems that the one thing on most people’s mind is how they don’t like the chase format.. if at all. Personally, I think I haven’t hidden the fact that I think the chase needs some tweaks… ok, maybe some major changes, but I do think that a play-off system is great. How you make the play-offs and how it’s executed could use some overhauling. Here is how I think this should work.
1 - More points need to be given to race winners.
It’s no secret that most people think that race winners should be in the chase. Others say that you also need consistency. Ok, so let’s compromise. Give the race winners an extra 20 points for the win. That way you would see race winners going to the top of the standings.
2 - No more bonus points.
Ok, some people may be confused here. Right now, if you win a race, you get 10 bonus points for every win, ONCE THE CHASE STARTS. I have no clue what so ever how NASCAR came up with this. When they decided to change the chase, the problem was that you had guys like Kasey Khane, who had 6 wins that year, would have not made the chase would he have come in 1 position back in the last race. Well, this system wouldn’t have helped him anyway! Look at Mark Martin, he started the chase in the lead but almost didn’t make the chase to begin with. How does this make any sense?
3 - Regular season points leader should start the chase on top.
To me, this is very important. When Tony Stewart won the regular season this year, he should have automatically started the chase in the lead. What’s the point of trying your hardest all season long if you’re not gaining anything from finishing first? In every other sport, the team that wins the regular season gets home field advantage. Well since there is no home field in NASCAR, this only makes sense.
4 - Position chasers by points as it was originally.
So when the chase started, the chasers would all be in the same position they finished the regular season but straddled 5 points for every position down. So for example, the first place and regular season winner would have 5050, second place would have 5045, third 5040 and so on. If we remember the fact that race winners are getting more points as my first point (1- More points need to be given to race winners.) then we know that the race winners are being taken care of already and should be near the top anyway.
5 - Have the chasers run their own point system.
Ok, so this is something someone suggested which I think could work out nicely, but may alienate the rest of the field. Here’s how it goes, have the chaser point respective to each other, not the whole field. Here’s an example. We are at Texas and we have a chaser finish in 12th position and the next chaser only finishes in 20th. Well there will be a huge difference in the points earned. A 35 point difference if my math is right. This suggestion says that because the chasers are racing a race within the race, there should only be a 5 point difference between the finishes. So you have the overall finish, but the chase points are given depending on where you finish relative to the other chaser. Again, I am a bit unsure of this but would be interesting to investigate this more.
So all in all, what I’m saying is bring the chase back to what it was originally, but give more points to the race winners… on the spot… not when the chase “resets”. Let me know what you all think in the comments below. If you have other ideas on how the chase should be, don’t hesitate to post it.
Folks, let’s try and understand what happened this Sunday at Texas. On lap 3, David Reutimann hits Sam Hornish Jr who (big surprise) loses control and clips Jimmie Johnson and sends him into the wall. Now, for the rest of the broadcast, this is all the folks at ESPN talked about… Now, I’ll agree that this is quite a turn of events but do we have to hear it over and over again every 10 mins? This is no longer NASCAR on ABC but the Jimmie Johnson show featuring the rest of NASCAR on ABC.
In any case, at this point I’m thinking, “YES! This is what I’ve been waiting for. Now Gordon and Martin can make up some ground and be right back in the chase! Ok, really I was hoping for Gordon to get back into it, especially since he was in the front at this point… well, as history would have it, once again, the 24 team had a complete meltdown and were only able to salvage a top 15. What could have been so drastically off that they would win the pole yet couldn’t keep up with the track? This is the team that is known for being one of the best at keeping up with changing track conditions, yet as the day went on, Gordon fell further and further back. Mark Martin on the other hand had a great finish coming home with a 4th place. If Jimmie has any issues at all in the next 2 races, misses a setup, gets caught up in someone else’s mess, drops a lug-nut, gets a penalty for speeding on pit road, anything really, and Mark is right there to rip that “history making” moment out of JJ’s hands and possibly win his first, well deserved championship. Wouldn’t that be a sight?
One thing that I also had a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around was the fact that the crews of the 24 AND the 5 were helping the 48 team put their car back together. I mean, I understand they are all one team, but isn’t this a bit of a conflict of interest? Why weren’t the 24 guys out trying to make the 24 better while it was falling back? I don’t want to start any rumors or sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it’s a funny coincidence that the day Jimmie is in trouble, Jeff can’t get it going…
Kurt Busch is the man. After having lots of ups and downs in his career, not much unlike his little brother, Kurt seems to be getting his stuff back together. Kurt and Kyle dominated the race on Sunday and anyone that says that it didn’t take skill to stay and front yet conserve enough gas to finish the race wasn’t watching the race. And if I’m not mistaken, everyone actually finished a lap down as Kurt was the only one to not pit at the end of the race (please correct me if I’m wrong). All in all, that was a great job by Kurt and the whole 2 team.
To get back to Sam Hornish Jr, I hope I didn’t piss off anyone with my comment above. To be fair, he did get run into and the crash was not his fault… well the first one anyway. Sam seems to have issues keeping him car off the walls and in one piece. It would be an interesting stat to find out how many actual race cars he’s destroyed this year. I don’t have anything against him personally. That being said, you would think that he would start showing some signs of improvement out there. Instead, it just seems like all we hear every week is “Hornish spins out in turn 2!”
Now I was watching Dave Despain last night. I love Dave. I love his no holds barred yet always logical views of what is happening in motorsports. As always, it seems that the one thing on most people’s mind is how they don’t like the chase format.. if at all. Personally, I think I haven’t hidden the fact that I think the chase needs some tweaks… ok, maybe some major changes, but I do think that a play-off system is great. How you make the play-offs and how it’s executed could use some overhauling. Here is how I think this should work.
1 - More points need to be given to race winners.
It’s no secret that most people think that race winners should be in the chase. Others say that you also need consistency. Ok, so let’s compromise. Give the race winners an extra 20 points for the win. That way you would see race winners going to the top of the standings.
2 - No more bonus points.
Ok, some people may be confused here. Right now, if you win a race, you get 10 bonus points for every win, ONCE THE CHASE STARTS. I have no clue what so ever how NASCAR came up with this. When they decided to change the chase, the problem was that you had guys like Kasey Khane, who had 6 wins that year, would have not made the chase would he have come in 1 position back in the last race. Well, this system wouldn’t have helped him anyway! Look at Mark Martin, he started the chase in the lead but almost didn’t make the chase to begin with. How does this make any sense?
3 - Regular season points leader should start the chase on top.
To me, this is very important. When Tony Stewart won the regular season this year, he should have automatically started the chase in the lead. What’s the point of trying your hardest all season long if you’re not gaining anything from finishing first? In every other sport, the team that wins the regular season gets home field advantage. Well since there is no home field in NASCAR, this only makes sense.
4 - Position chasers by points as it was originally.
So when the chase started, the chasers would all be in the same position they finished the regular season but straddled 5 points for every position down. So for example, the first place and regular season winner would have 5050, second place would have 5045, third 5040 and so on. If we remember the fact that race winners are getting more points as my first point (1- More points need to be given to race winners.) then we know that the race winners are being taken care of already and should be near the top anyway.
5 - Have the chasers run their own point system.
Ok, so this is something someone suggested which I think could work out nicely, but may alienate the rest of the field. Here’s how it goes, have the chaser point respective to each other, not the whole field. Here’s an example. We are at Texas and we have a chaser finish in 12th position and the next chaser only finishes in 20th. Well there will be a huge difference in the points earned. A 35 point difference if my math is right. This suggestion says that because the chasers are racing a race within the race, there should only be a 5 point difference between the finishes. So you have the overall finish, but the chase points are given depending on where you finish relative to the other chaser. Again, I am a bit unsure of this but would be interesting to investigate this more.
So all in all, what I’m saying is bring the chase back to what it was originally, but give more points to the race winners… on the spot… not when the chase “resets”. Let me know what you all think in the comments below. If you have other ideas on how the chase should be, don’t hesitate to post it.
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