What if...

What if the Chase for the Championship in NASCAR never happened and the points system went on as normal? Would the results be the same? Who benefited from the program?

Well, being the geek I am, I decided to look into it and figure out 'what if'. Here are the results

Chase for the Champ results as follows:

1 Busch
2 Johnson
3 Gordon
4 Martin
5 Earnhardt Jr.
6 Stewart
7 Newman
8 Kenseth
9 Sadler
10 Mayfield
11 McMurray
12 B.Labonte
13 Kahne
14 Harvick
15 Jarrett

Now, what if they would have left a good thing alone? Who would have won? Who lost?

What if...:

1 Gordon 5042 +2
2 Johnson 4995 -47
3 Earnhardt Jr. 4894 -148 +2
4 Busch 4795 -247 -3
5 Stewart 4726 -316 +1
6 Martin 4597 -445 -2
McMurray 4597 -445 +4
8 Kenseth 4376 -666
9 Newman 4361 -681 -2
10 Sadler 4315 -727 -1
11 B.Labonte 4277 -765 +1
12 Kahne 4274 -768 +1
13 Harvick 4228 -814 +1
14 Jarrett 4214 -828 +1
15 Mayfield 4183 -859 -5

Who came out better? Busch, Martin, Newman and Mayfield. Who came out on the short end? Gordon, Earnhardt Jr., Stewart, McMurray, B.Labonte, Kahne, Harvick and Jarrett. From 16 on did not change.

Just a note: Busch and Martin are team mates on the Roush team. Hmmmm, conspiracy? No, I think it just worked out that way.

Nascar would never say anything about this because they are hell-bent on convincing the fans that this is better or more exciting. Consider this, going into the last race, the points of the top 3 would have been as follows:

1 Gordon 4877
2 Johnson 4825 -52
3 Earnhardt Jr. 4800 -77 (including the 25 pts. that Nascar took)

As you can see, it would not have been as close, but it would have been just as exciting. I am not a fan of the Chase and I think that it is not fair to the top drivers because the leaders race well throughout the year and build up a lead just to have the points reset. After the 26th race, Gordon was ahead, Earnhardt Jr. was 2nd and Johnson was 60 pts. behind. Would some of the teams have done something different if this would have been a normal season? Maybe. Busch was 293 pts behind. The "Chase" basically gave 7th place Busch the equivalent of a win + approx. 100 pts. Does that sound fair?

Nascar and the 4 drivers that benefited from the "Chase" will no doubt sing it's praises and the rest will probably not comment. What would make the "Chase" fair? Well, if Nascar insist on doing this, then they need to preserve the lead. Lets say 2nd place is 25 pts. behind and 3rd is 30 pts. behind, then change the leader to 6000 pts, 2nd to 5975, 3rd to 5970 and so on. That would be fair. But don't hold your breath. They would argue that they could leave it alone and get the same result. Exactly.

Now, as far as Earnhardt losing 25 pts. I understand that others have done this and they received the same punishment. Does that make it fair? Well, fair in the sense that Nascar is consistent, but I feel that they are consistently wrong. They should make a rule that they only dock points when something happens during the race. After the checkered flag, they only fine up to half of the winnings. Don't hold your breath here either.

I have noticed that Nascar has done some good things, like the safer walls, and a lot of bad things, like the Chase. I noticed that most of these things happened after Earnhardt Sr. died. I wonder how many of these things would have happened if he were still alive? Man, I miss him.

Nascar needs to look at other sports and the problems they are experiencing, like the NBA fights and MLB steroids. Nascar has a good image, so they shouldn't mess with it too much. As a friend of mine says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."