February 1, 2010
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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Imagine a Chase for the Championship consisting of just four races: Bristol, Watkins Glen, Texas Motor Speedway, and the final race of the year at Talladega. A Chase with these four tracks would most likely be wide open for any driver to win.
NASCAR recently made a series of sweeping changes that were well overdue in order to improve their racing product. Changes have been made to the Chase since its institution in 2004 and it needs to be modified again. A ten race chase is simply too long.
Quite often, a driver that has just one bad race falls so far behind in the points that it becomes next to impossible to challenge for the Championship. Likewise, a driver that reels off two or three wins builds an almost insurmountable lead and can only be caught by suffering a little bad luck of his own.
NASCAR likes to call the Chase its "playoff format," but for all intents and purposes, a ten race Chase has become a miniature season, which defeats the purpose. Changing the number of races in the Chase from ten to four would allow a lot more drivers a shot at the Championship at the final race of the year.
Why four races to decide the Championship? There are four different kinds of race tracks on the NASCAR schedule. Short tracks, which are defined as oval tracks less than one mile; Intermediate tracks, which are between one and two miles in length; Superspeedways, tracks greater than two miles; and road courses.
A driver would have to excel at all types of tracks in order to win the Championship instead of just two types. In the current ten race format, there are five intermediate tracks, three short tracks, and two Superspeedways, and not any road courses at all.
So, a driver that is good at intermediate and short tracks pretty much has the Championship wrapped up. There are many people who point to this as the reason for Jimmie Johnson's four consecutive Championships, not to take anything away from his historic achievement.
The interest that was created when the Chase was instituted has fallen flat lately, with many fans coming to dislike it, especially the more traditional fans that NASCAR has moved away from recently in their attempt to attract a new market.
It would seem this plan has backfired, resulting in sagging ratings and ticket sales, thus the recent changes to the COT and rules that NASCAR has made in its attempt to get back to basics. It's time for officials to go one step further and turn the Chase for the Championship into what it is billed to be, a true playoff format.
How much would ratings skyrocket if all twelve drivers in the Chase had a legitimate chance at winning the Championship instead of just two or three with a mathematical chance going into the final race of the season, especially with that race being at Talladega, a track that's already famous for anything happening?
If you would like to learn more about Matthew, please check out his web site at matthew-pizzolato.com.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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