The Truth
The Race to the Chase officially ended Saturday night with Kevin Harvick taking the checkers at Richmond International Raceway. This left me wondering, if the last ten races are the Chase for the Nextel Cup and the ten races before that are the Race to the Chase, the sixteen races before that need a name too. The Race to the Race to the Chase is too obvious, so it needs to be something special. So I have come up with this—the first five racetracks are called The Joints Using Last Year’s Points and the next eleven the Race to Determine Who Will Race to the Chase. Dumb, I know, but so are the others.
The Chasers are now set and it is the most competitive group of ten to compete for the Nextel Cup since its inception in 2004. There are no complete jokes like Jeremy Mayfield or Elliott Sadler to duke it out for 9th and 10th, and I think very few would be surprised if any of the ten drivers win the Cup save for Denny Hamlin, who I have singled out only because he is a rookie. For the first time since the Chase format began I believe there should be eleven drivers in the Chase, mainly because Tony Stewart in 11th trailed Matt Kenseth by 482 points, missed the Chase by 16 points, and leads 12th place Greg Biffle by 264 points. Clearly, the top 11 in points were by far the class of the field in the first 26 races, and to leave one of those drivers out seems wrong.
So the inevitable question pops up every year as to what needs to be done differently with the Chase format. The answer is easy, basically nothing. It creates for great drama and allows for fans of ten drivers to cross their fingers and pray for their driver to win the Cup instead of two or three. Without the Chase this year, Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson would be your main competitors over the last ten with Harvick and Kyle Busch having an outside shot at the title based on current hot streaks. Sorry Junior and Gordon fans, it would be an also-ran year for your guys without the Chase format, but with it, they can win the Cup. What could be changed is the overall points structure and award a minimum of 20 points over second place to the winner of each race. I also like the idea of larger point drop-offs between 5th and 6th, 9th and 10th, 14th and 15th, and 19th and 20th. This would make drivers less complacent and more likely to race for that extra position. Also, award 35th through 43rd the same points to eliminate the rolling shit heaps searching for three to six extra points every week after smashing up their cars. NASCAR could also toss in a clause stating that any driver within 25 points of 10th that holds at least a one race advantage (or 156 points) over the next lower driver is in the Chase as well, but I can live without it.
The Busch race on Friday night was a complete bore. They might as well have given Harvick the checkers before the race started and saved us from the incessant yellows, which flew 14 times for 64 laps, or better than one quarter of the race taking place at highway speeds. You can double that number if you do not allow Buschwhackers in the field.
For once, the Cup race was better than the Busch race, although for the first 300 laps you could argue. The Chase has ruined this race as drivers were content to not wreck and did not care to go for the win. Well, all except Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Kasey Kahne, who finished first, second, and third, respectively. If you were not jumping to your feet as Harvick made a move to pass Busch as they both took the white flag, you are not a NASCAR fan. Regardless of what you think of either driver, when two guys are going toe to toe with one lap to go driving their cars for all they are worth looking for the win and not knowing if a wreck would knock them out of the Chase, you have to get excited. I think Harvick won a few fans over, too, when he said, “I’d rather flip the car and finish 10th in the Chase than pass up an opportunity to win.” Do you think the guy who used to drive Harvick’s car would have been content to stay in second and move on to New Hampshire? At least one driver out there knows that no matter what NASCAR does, winning should be the #1 goal of every team out there.
The biggest issue during this race was NASCAR parking Jeff Green for coming down on Jimmie Johnson under caution as a “thank you” for spinning him out earlier in the race. To clarify, what Jeff Green was mad about was just a racing-related accident, not a bonehead move. Green was outside Robby Gordon’s right rear quarter-panel going into one and Gordon slid up the track. Green got out of the gas and was hit in the rear by Johnson, who had nowhere to go because Kurt Busch was inside him. Green had no reason to be mad specifically at Johnson and should not have done what he did. But good old inconsistent NASCAR parked him for it while Carl Edwards was only held one lap for paying back Tony Stewart at Pocono by spinning him out on pit road and was put on probation for slamming into Junior’s car under yellow during the Busch race at Michigan at near full speed, a hit that was much harder and much more damaging than the tap Green gave Johnson. The same Pocono race, Stewart was held a lap for slamming into Bowyer, wrecking Bowyer and Edwards, for what Tony called, “racing too hard, too early”. During the Daytona 500, Tony Stewart was given a TALL (Tail End of the Longest Line) penalty for sending Matt Kenseth flying through the infield in retaliation for something Tony did not like on the backstretch. Kenseth slammed into Tony’s car, again much harder than Green hit Johnson, and ultimately lost a lap for not answering the black flag. All were wrong, including Green’s, but the others were much more damaging and much more dangerous than Green’s hit on Johnson. Why was Green parked and the others were not? Because nobody cares if Jeff Green is parked. Everybody cares if a superstar is. All well and good, but NASCAR needs to leave the penalty as is and not add too it. The others were left on the track, so should this one.
There were five drivers to finish in the top 10 in both the Busch race and the Cup race this past weekend. If any of you threw Dave Blaney’s name in there before you read this sentence, I would be surprised (the others were Harvick, Kenseth, Biffle, and Riggs). What a great job this team did making the #22 car one of the most competitive cars out there. Quite a few times he was the fastest car on the track, and he may have finished better or even won if the other drivers out there gave him the same respect that Harvick, Busch, and Kahne were given. One has to wonder, though, if the other Chasers were in racing mode instead of damage control mode would he have finished this high? Kudos to Ken Schrader for finishing 7th as well.
A few other drivers deserve mentioning as well. Junior, who lost all of the brake fluid out of his rear master cylinder, drove the last 78 laps with front brakes only and finished 17th. How he kept from burning up his rotors is beyond me, but nobody can drive shit like Junior. J.J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin both were down a cylinder due to bad spark plug wires and finished 13th and 15th, respectively. Jimmie Johnson spun twice in turns one and two and somehow missed the wall both times a la Kurt Busch in 2004. Lucky bastard! The Chase in particular magnifies these accomplishments by Junior and Hamlin. If the old points system was still in effect, these two drivers are also-rans and nobody cares what two guys better than 400 points off of the lead did to salvage decent finishes.
To wrap it up this week, boring old BP gets put on the back burner for “The Chase Truth”. When the dust settles after Homestead, here is how it will look: 1) Harvick, 2) Kenseth, 3) Johnson, 4) Busch, 5) Martin, 6) Gordon, 7) Burton, 8) Hamlin, 9) Kahne, 10) Junior. Can’t handle it? Tough shit, it’s THE TRUTH!!!!