Change "The Chase"

Change The Chase? Sure, why not? Here’s how I’d do it.

1) You win, you’re in.
Simple and easy to understand. People say they want more exciting racing. Well, imagine the excitement of the finish of every race, the winning of which guarantees entry into The Chase. Even rain delay strategies take on new importance.

Fine, but how to keep ‘em wantin’ to win after they’re in?

2) Change the amount of bonus points awarded for each win.
For win #1, a driver gets 10 bonus points and Chase entry. For win #2, driver awarded 20 bonus points. Win #3 = 30, win #4 = 40, etc. In my opinion, if you’re dominating the regular season enough to have multiple wins you deserve a reward for that dominance with more than 10 points per win. As it now stands one DNF in The Chase and those bonus points are wiped out. (Reference: Busch Blowup 2008) By building the value of each regular season win, excellence is more highly rewarded.

3) Keep what’s right with the current Chase.
Consistency should count. Continue to have the top points earners as Chase entrants. I’m not particular as to whether that’s the top 10 or top 12 in points standings. Tweak as appropriate. Call it the Earnhardt Clause if you want but every driver has fans so I’d keep 12. The more drivers included in The Chase, the more fans still with a vested interest in it.

As I write this, 7 of the 12 current Chase contenders have no wins. I have no argument that they should be excluded. Imagine the 2010 Chase without Jeff Gordan or Tony Stewart. No, thank you. The Chase can only be improved by the inclusion of these perennial favorites. Let’s improve it further by adding in this year’s winning drivers who have not garnered enough points to make the current list. Is the Championship race tainted by including Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman & David Reutimann? Absolutely not! Take a poll of the most popular, feel-good wins of the season and those 3 names most likely top the list.


So under this system, were The Chase to begin tomorrow, there would be 15 drivers (and their fans) into the Championship. Here is the list with adjusted bonus points...

Denny Hamlin - 150
Jimmie Johnson - 150
Kevin Harvick - 30
Kurt Busch - 30
Kyle Busch - 30
Jamie McMurray - 30
Ryan Newman - 10
David Reutimann - 10
Jeff Gordon - 0
Jeff Burton - 0
Matt Kenseth - 0
Tony Stewart - 0
Carl Edwards - 0
Greg Biffle - 0
Clint Bowyer - 0

Seems equitable to me... unless you’re a Dale Jr. fan. Sorry ‘bout that but I refuse to include a fan vote for this one.

A Horse and a Goat...

Is there anything else regarding this past weekend's race(s) that you would like to share with us?

So asked the survey posted for the NASCAR Fan Council members...

Really? Are you kidding? Anything else? There's a rather large elephant here in the survey room with us, don't you think? When "Carl Edwards" is the Top Trending item on Twitter 30 minutes following the conclusion of Saturday's Nationwide race, there's definitely something on NASCAR fandom's mind.

Up front I must admit to my personal biases regarding Edwards & Keselowski.

When I first became a NASCAR fan my daughter told me I should really pick a favorite driver as that would make my television viewing that much more exciting. I told her I had no idea who to select. I said I didn’t want a driver that everybody else had. I didn’t want the favorite. I didn’t want most popular. BUT, I also didn’t want a back marker kind of guy – one who had virtually no hope of winning. So with my field of contenders narrowed, I watched the next couple of broadcasts and eventually decided I’d go with the one who’d done a rain-delay fill piece on his motor coach driver’s rally beard and his search for coins with a metal detector. (I don’t pretend it was a logical choice, but my daughter assured me this driver fit within my qualification parameters.) And so, I ended up with Carl Edwards as “my” driver.

That lasted from late summer ’07 through about March ’08. The oil cover ‘mistake’ of Las Vegas and the vibe of snake-oil salesman during his interviews began to sway my feelings. I needed a different driver; one who seemed less packaged, less perfected, and less plastic. Those qualities, wrapped in raw talent, were abundant in my new driver, Kyle Busch. Kyle, displaying the Busch family penchant for malapropism, once referred to Edwards as Mr. Ed. He’d meant to call him Eddie Haskell in reference to his smarmy public persona, but mixed up his 60’s metaphors. So Edwards, with his toothy, Captain America smile morphed into Mr. Ed. Yes, as we all have seen, he can certainly be part of a horse’s anatomy at times.

Brad Keselowski first crossed my radar on the evening of the first NASCAR Sprint (at the time Nextel) Cup race I ever attended in person. I was so unbelievably excited to be going to a race. My budget at the time couldn’t justify purchasing a ticket but a friend had complimentary ones from her GM dealership and was taking me as her guest. To prep beforehand I carefully watched the Nationwide (then Busch) series race that Saturday evening. Remember, I was still a new initiate at this point. “OH MY GOSH! HE’S CRASHED & HIS CAR IS ON FIRE!” were the first words I ever uttered in regards to Brad Keselowski. I recall feeling so sorry for the poor, young kid who was making one of his first ever starts in the big leagues. (I have no idea if that was true regarding his rookie status, but that’s how I viewed it.) What a tough break I thought. I was prepared to root for the newbie.

That newbie though was not the earnest innocent I originally pegged him to be. As his seat time increased, so too did his abundantly apparent ego. The cock-of-the-walk swagger paired with a Napoleonic complex he exhibited set my teeth on edge. I began to dislike Keselowski with a special zeal. As his confidence swelled, the ego on public display was typified by the scraggly goatee he began to sport. Plus, he crashed people!! It seemed that whenever talent failed – and that was far too often – Keselowski would spin out whoever happened to be nearby. Frequently in my eyes at least, those hapless cars belonged to a driver from the Joe Gibbs Racing stable. Unfailingly unapologetic for his actions Keselowski prompted the hash tag of #BlameGoatboy which adorned many of my Twitter rants following whichever crash/spin he’d most recently caused. If Edwards was Mr. Ed, Keselowski became Goatboy.

So you see I don’t care for either driver involved in the #1 NASCAR water cooler topic of the day. I don’t have a pony in that show. If anything, I root more for either to lose than to win.

All of that background brings me to Saturday night’s final lap incident at Gateway.

There are two matters that I believe NASCAR must address.

First, of course, is the obvious, on-going feud between Edwards & Keselowski and its consequences and repercussions.

Second, is the topic of parental interference/injection into unfolding track matters.

Let’s talk parents first. Before going any further let me state unequivocally that I believe every parent should stand up for their child. They should be upset when they perceive that something has somehow wronged or hurt their offspring. Just how they respond to the apparent injustice is NASCAR’s concern. Here I feel an imbalance on NASCAR’s part.

Last year Tom Logano became so exasperated with the way he viewed Greg Biffle’s racing of his son Joey at California that he flipped off Biffle as he was making his way to Joey’s car. For that infraction, Mr. Logano had his hard card pulled for the duration of the season. An inconvenience at worst but it made the point of non-interaction by a parent while in the pits. To the best of my knowledge, this action by Mr. Logano was not aired live during the national broadcast.

On Saturday night, while waiting for his son to be released from the infield care center, Bob Keselowski stated live, on the national television broadcast, “I'm sick and tired of this. I'll get my uniform back on and take care of this. He ain't gonna kill my boy.” Remember, I wholeheartedly agree that Mr. Keselowski had every reason to be upset. Those words echoed the emotions any parent would have felt. He expressed them forcefully. I have yet to read of any sanctions against him. (Tuesdays are for that I know and today’s Monday, so there’s still time.)

Comparing the two instances though, which threat/interference is the more ominous? Flipping someone off as they drive by? (I live in California remember. That’s pretty much an everyday occurrence here.) Or threatening to don a firesuit, return to the track and ‘take care of this’? To maintain a semblance of consistency NASCAR must at least acknowledge that such intimidation by parents against drivers, though understandable, will not be tolerated anywhere in the infield/garage/pits area. (I think the hard card pulling was over-reaching at Cali, but if it was done then, something similar should be done now.)

Now, to the meat of the matter -- What to do with the Edwards/Keselowski situation?

In the immediate aftermath of the incident I posted on Twitter the following:

Well boys this is 1 fine mess you've gotten us into. You've both got 2 find a way 2 stop this cuz some1 maybe 3rd driver is gonna get killed.

The fact that the two of them can’t seem to find a way to race together isn’t really the most salient matter. Whether or not they want to wale on each other in their tit-for-tat grudge doesn’t really concern me. What DOES is the fact that this feud isn’t confined to a vacuum. There are ALWAYS other cars that are affected. In those other cars are other drivers, one or more of whom are eventually going to get hurt or killed based on the actions of these two bozos. They simply must STOP IT! They haven’t managed to do so within the confines of the past probations handed out by NASCAR.

Stronger penalties must be imposed.

Suggestions for penalties:

NNS points penalties for both. More for Edwards. (He DID admit complete culpability in his Victory Lane interview after all.)

NASCAR-wide probation for both. Longer duration than before.

Edwards fined $. Roush-Fenway to be billed for replacement of all cars involved in crash.

Possibly parking Edwards from NNS race. (I’m still on the fence on this one. Another Twitter poster wrote: TDF (Tour de France) rider makes move that could have taken out multiple riders = ejection. Mr. Ed actually does it and cashes the check. Hmm. Just saying.)

I DO know that now is the time to say, “Enough is Enough!” These two? They’ve “Had at It” a race too long. Time to step in and rein these brutes back to the barnyard NASCAR. (Even Denny Hamlin, who lavishes absolutely NO love on Keselowski weighed in this morning with his opinion. It was, “dirty.. Just dirty”. I don’t think he was commenting on the state of his laundry upon his return from Panama either.)