The Chase for the Nextel Cup

The Chase
Lots of questions, and complainin about the chase lately.Here is my two cents on the chase.First how it works. After 26 races, the top 12 in points are locked into the chase for the nextel cup. To seperate those 12 from the rest of the field, nascar resetsall their points to 5000. Then, each of the 12 get 10 bonus points foreach race they won during the first 26 races. So if a driver won 3 races, he will have 5030 points going into the first chase race. It's simplereally. Don't know where all the confusion is coming from.
Many people have said it is unfair. Why not give everyone a chance to winthe championship they say. Well, no one outside the top 12 could possiblywin it anyway, so that isn't an issue. Were it not for the chase, the guys in 5th thru 12th would have no chanceto win it either. So all the chase has done has made the season endingrun much more competitive, and much more interesting. Using this season as an example, under the old format, we could just goahead and hand the championship to Jeff Gordon. So the last 10 raceswould be a bore fest. No drama at all leading to the final race. Asit is, we will most likely have a 5 man championship race going intothe final race at Homestead. How can that possibly be a bad thing.The only part of it I would change is give the points leader after 26 races a 20 point bonus. One need only look at the chase field to see if how well it is working.You have Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart in the top 3 spots.Thats 3 of the 4 best drivers on the circuit. They are seperated by 30points. The top 12 in fact is seperated by a mere 60 points. 60 points !!How could it get any better than that ?Under the old system, Jeff Gordon would have over a 300 point lead on second place. It'd be like a race with the leader 4 laps ahead of therest of the field. Does that sound fun to you ? Thats a race to see whocomes in second. This chase is gonna be the most exciting battle in the history of Nascar.So sit back, and enjoy. Then when it's over, come back and say "you wereright Lefty."
The chase is the playoffs for nascar. Whats the most exciting part of the NFL season ? The Playoffs. Whats the most exciting part of CollegeBasketball ? The Tournament. What's everyone always complain aboutmissing form College Football ? Playoffs.Just like in all those other leagues, the slate is wiped nearly clean goinginto the playoffs. A football team can be 15 and 1 going into the playoffsand lose in round 2. No Super Bowl for them. Don't tell me this aint football. "lefty, you can't compare nascar to football."No one has a problem comparing them when others say racers aren't athletes.Nascar now has a playoffs. And it is a good one.
And that's all I got to say about that.