August 8, 2008
By Rebecca Gladden
Perhaps you don't know it, but NASCAR is celebrating an important anniversary this season.
In fact, I am sure you'll want to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne when you realize that this September will be the start of the fifth Chase for the Championship.
It was back in 2004 when NASCAR competitors and fans got their first taste of a brand new points system, consisting of 26 regular season races and a 10-race playoff style stretch known as The Chase.
Prior to 2004, points had been accumulated by drivers over the course of the entire 36-race season. Whoever had the most points after the final race won the NASCAR Cup.
Under the new system, only the top 10 drivers after 26 races would compete for the championship, though 43 cars still race each week.
NASCAR took a lot of heat for the Chase system, especially in the beginning. Many fans and even some competitors considered it too contrived, particularly since the contenders' points totals were reset after 26 races in order to level the playing field and generate greater drama heading into the Chase. Critics likened it to arbitrarily tying the score of a football game at the start of the fourth quarter to make the end of the game more exciting.
But the points system accomplished its apparent goal - to generate increased interest in the latter third of the season, when NASCAR must compete head-to-head with the NFL for fans and TV viewers.
Despite the anger it generated, the points system survived with minor adjustments made along the way.
One of the ongoing complaints about the Chase in the first few years was that it rewarded points racing - teams settling for a decent finish that would help them accumulate points - rather than driving aggressively for a win and risking a bad finish.
In 2007, NASCAR addressed that concern by offering 10 bonus points per regular season victory to Chase competitors. The intent was to further incentivize drivers to win races. Also in 2007, the Chase field was expanded from 10 to 12 drivers.
Back in 2004, the first year of the Chase, there were 10 drivers who made the inaugural field vying for the title under the new points system. All 10 of those drivers had won at least one race during the regular season, including Jeremy Mayfield, whose victory came at Richmond in the final regular season race.
In 2005, three Chase contenders - Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, and Rusty Wallace - had not been to Victory Lane during the regular season. Newman and Martin both won during the Chase, though Wallace went winless for the year.
In 2006, Mark Martin again made the Chase without a regular season victory, as did Jeff Burton. Burton posted a win during the Chase, though Martin did not.
Last year, with the field expanded to 12 drivers and the new 10-point victory bonus in place, just one driver - Clint Bowyer - made the Chase without a regular season win, though he won the first Chase race at Loudon.
So in the past four years, the maximum number of drivers to compete for the title without a regular season win was three, which occurred during the 2005 season.
That number stands a good chance of rising this year.
With two drivers - Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards - combining to win over half the races so far this season, several competitive teams are scrambling to put a checkmark in the "W" column before the Chase starts in just five weeks.
If the Chase began today, for example, four drivers - Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick - would all compete for the title based on their present point standings. None of them has won a race yet in 2008. Gordon, sixth in points, is the highest ranked driver without a victory this year.
Matt Kenseth and David Ragan, currently 13th and 14th in points, still stand a reasonable chance to make the Chase as well. They, too, are winless.
One of the ironies of this NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow, running in it's first full-time season, was supposed to increase parity in the sport and make it possible for more teams including the less well-funded ones to be competitive.
Currently four drivers - Busch and Edwards, along with Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson - have won 70% of the races.
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