By Rebecca Gladden

November 19, 2004

19th century minister and educator Lyman Beecher wrote, "Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death."

If this is true, perhaps there is still hope for those who have not embraced NASCAR's Chase for the Championship points system.

Maybe "lie" is too strong a word for the Chase, newly implemented this year to determine the first Nextel Cup champion.

Maybe not.

The new points system certainly has it's supporters, particularly among NASCAR officials, TV executives, and sportswriters. Heading into Homestead, the season's final race, just 82 points separate the top five drivers. Chase advocates are breathless with enthusiasm, anticipating the most exciting finale ever held. You can't argue with success, they say.

But let's not forget the serpentine path it took to get here. This closeness in points, after all, was manufactured.

After the season's 26th race at Richmond, the points totals for the top ten drivers were "reset" (altered, manipulated) in order to narrow the gap between drivers.

Jeff Gordon led all drivers with 3602 points after Richmond. He was 60 points ahead of 2nd place driver Jimmie Johnson and 416 points ahead of 10th place driver Ryan Newman.

When NASCAR changed the points after Richmond, Gordon's lead was reduced to just 5 points over Johnson and 45 points over Newman.

After Talladega, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. was penalized 25 points for using a swear word on TV, fans cried foul. It simply wasn't fair, they argued, for points earned on the track to be taken away.

What about Gordon's 371 points - his lead over Newman after 26 races - which evaporated because of the Chase format?

Further, the ten Chase drivers' overall points totals were artificially elevated far above the rest of the Cup drivers. Gordon, for example, had earned 3602 points after Richmond, but his points total was raised by NASCAR to 5050, with the rest of the Chase drivers separated by just five points.

That adjustment was necessary to ensure that none of the other Cup drivers could catch the Chase drivers in the final ten races, no matter how well the former group raced.

Theoretically, any of the Chase drivers could have scored a DNF for each of the last ten races and still finished no lower than 10th in the overall standings. Likewise, a non-Chase driver could have won each of the last ten races and finished no higher than 11th. This is completely counterintuitive.

The non-Chase drivers are doomed to life beneath a glass ceiling from which there is no escape. Under the old points system, two non-Chase drivers, Jamie McMurray and Dale Jarrett, would be in the top ten heading to Homestead, while Chase drivers Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield would be out. As the points stand, McMurray will finish the season in 11th and Jarrett below that.

McMurray, who has had seven top-ten finishes in the nine Chase races, clearly has not been justly rewarded for his performance. Understandably, he is not a fan of the new system: "I think if they were to ask us (drivers) all right now, that we would all say, 'Let's just go back to the old way.' But they didn't do it for the drivers. They did it for the fans and for the TV, and I think it has done what Nascar wanted to do."

Dr. Phil has a saying about families: "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." In Chase terms, one could say, "If the drivers ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

And a majority of the drivers ain't happy. Not even the ones in the Chase.

Racing is supposed to be about one thing: winning. While on the surface the new points system appears to have created an exciting season finale, it still does not put the overall emphasis on winning. We have heard crew chiefs advising Chase drivers throughout the past nine weeks to "focus on the big picture." Big picture racing - also known as points racing - forces drivers to worry more about accumulating points than about winning races. We have seen Chase drivers asking their non-Chase teammates to slow down (this is racing?) and let them pass in order to gain five additional points for leading a lap. And we have seen points taken away from the series' top drivers in order to create an artificial points parity.

As Ryan Newman said in a September interview, "I've always said that I don't like the points system from a competitor's standpoint, which is what I am." Because to the competitors - and to many fans - the new points system is illogical at best, and destructive at worst.

Unfortunately, the Chase won't be "running itself to death" any time soon. NASCAR CEO Brian France has made it clear that the format will be around for at least another year. "It's created interest and a scenario that was unthinkable under the old system," France said this week.

Unthinkable. What an apt description.

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. Although we may not always agree with what is said, we do feel it's our duty to give a voice to those who have something relevant to say about the sport of auto racing.