New NASCAR format

[Blackadar]

I'm not a big follower of NASCAR, but I'm in the middle of NASCAR country. I live 3 miles away from the Dale Earnhardt Expressway, for cryin' out loud and 10 minutes from Lowes Motor Speedway.

But I'm really turned off by this artificial "Chase for the Cup" scoring manipulation. They raced 26 races, yet with 10 to go the top 10 drivers are all put on pretty much equal footing on the starting line again? Does this strike anyone else as being absurd? I can understand it when teams play directly against each other (basketball, football, baseball, hockey) but I don't get it in a group sport.

Imagine the Tour de France...they've raced 20 stages and Armstrong has a 8 minute lead. BUT WAIT A MINUTE! We're only going to give him a 5 second lead in the last 3 stages to make the event more exciting! It's the Kentucky Derby and Man O War has a huge lead coming into the final turn. STOP! Let's get the top 4 horses together and send them all off on the homestretch to make it more exciting!

Ug. This is dreadful. And this could have been a great year for NASCAR. Gordon #1. Johnson #2. Earnhardt #3. All within 61 points of each other - and the next closest challenger is 192 points behind. It would have been a 3 way contest through the final races with 3 of NASCAR's biggest stars. It was a set-up for one of the greatest Cup chases in history.

But instead, you have some dope like Elliot Sadler (no offense to Sadler, but he's not in the group above) who is 300 points behind who gets 275 free points to put him back in the thick of things. Why should Jeremey Mayfield, who only has 1 win, 4 top-5 finishes and 10 top 10 finishes (1-4-10) be within 45 Cup points of Gordon (5-11-18)?

This chase for the Cup is a joke.

[Dutch]

Agreed. But what did you expect from the North American Stock Choreographed Auto Rasslin league?

[SirFozzie]

*Kills Dutch for comparing Nascar (patooie) to Rasslin*

[spleen1015]

It's all NBC's fault.

[Buzzbee]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

I'm not a big follower of NASCAR, but I'm in the middle of NASCAR country. I live 3 miles away from the Dale Earnhardt Expressway, for cryin' out loud and 10 minutes from Lowes Motor Speedway.

But I'm really turned off by this artificial "Chase for the Cup" scoring manipulation. They raced 26 races, yet with 10 to go the top 10 drivers are all put on pretty much equal footing on the starting line again? Does this strike anyone else as being absurd? I can understand it when teams play directly against each other (basketball, football, baseball, hockey) but I don't get it in a group sport.

Imagine the Tour de France...they've raced 20 stages and Armstrong has a 8 minute lead. BUT WAIT A MINUTE! We're only going to give him a 5 second lead in the last 3 stages to make the event more exciting! It's the Kentucky Derby and Man O War has a huge lead coming into the final turn. STOP! Let's get the top 4 horses together and send them all off on the homestretch to make it more exciting!

Ug. This is dreadful. And this could have been a great year for NASCAR. Gordon #1. Johnson #2. Earnhardt #3. All within 61 points of each other - and the next closest challenger is 192 points behind. It would have been a 3 way contest through the final races with 3 of NASCAR's biggest stars. It was a set-up for one of the greatest Cup chases in history.

But instead, you have some dope like Elliot Sadler (no offense to Sadler, but he's not in the group above) who is 300 points behind who gets 275 free points to put him back in the thick of things. Why should Jeremey Mayfield, who only has 1 win, 4 top-5 finishes and 10 top 10 finishes (1-4-10) be within 45 Cup points of Gordon (5-11-18)?

This chase for the Cup is a joke.

Simple reason is $'s for NBC. The past few years the winner has walked away with the cup (Matt Kenseth last year, Tony Stewart the year before). So, with the winner pretty much decided for the last 3, 4, or even 5 races people quit watching. That hurts ratings for NBC. This is a way to keep people interested and watching. People watching means more ratings which means more advertising $'s.

Also, and this is a minor factor, last year Matt Kenseth won the cup but only won a single race. Ryan Newman won 8 or something ridiculous like that. With Newman it was feast or famine, while Kennsth was pretty much in the top 10 all year, even though he only won 1 race. Kennseth's consistency won him the cup while Newman's inconsistency landed him 6th or something. NASCAR hopes to reduce this effect by focusing on the last 10 races. Win one or two of those and you've got a much better shot at the championship.

One other point. - in regard to your comment about Gordon, Johnson, and Earnhardt being in a 3 way race for the cup, think about the NFL and MLB. Do the top two regular season teams play in the Super Bowl or World Series? Nope. You have wildcard teams that make it into the playoffs, and can even win it all (see Florida Marlins, twice). Yes a 3 way chase would have been great, but now you've got a 10 way race that still includes the 3 you mentioned. This isn't that different from the NFL or MLB. Is the NFL or MLB better for having more teams in the playoffs? I would argue no, but it makes money for teams, sponsors, networks, venues, so it is what it is.

Another factor that makes this a smart MARKETING move for NASCAR - sponsorships get more airtime. Leading up to the last 10 races, the 8th-15th place cars got more TV time than they EVER would have otherwise. That makes sponsors happy. Now that they are in the final 10 races, those that are in the chase will get a lot of TV time. That will make THOSE sponsors happy. Also, the 11th spot wins a million so you've got the teams in 11-15 or so racing for that prize as well.

So, net result for NASCAR? More sponsors that are happy. Increased ratings for the last 10-15 races and therefore increased revenues. Better attendance at the last few races = more revenues. Increased fan excitement as you have 10 drivers with a shot rather than 2 or 3, or maybe even only 1.

The downside? A favorite driver dominates and builds up a huge lead through 26 races. The last 10 come and he struggles resulting in someone else winning. That's one of the few scenarios I can think of that would be a negative for NASCAR.


Sorry for the long post.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Basically yeah. The more drivers/teams you get with a chance to win the more sponsors for NASCAR.

There are at least two other major sports that could learn some lessons from NASCAR marketing and strategy.

[Draft Dodger]

well, I like it.

I think it's been MUCH more exciting over the last few races (the final race to see who got in was the most exciting NASCAR race I've seen so far, and the final standings didn't get resolved until the final laps of the raps). I like the fact that instead of 1, 2 or 3 guys in the running, there's 10 guys with a legitimate shot - it's going to make each of the final 10 (now final 9) races to be extremely interesting. something like the Robby Gordon asshat move on Sunday, or Newman blowing an engine late in the race, means so much.

besides, is this any different than, say, football, with a regular season, and then standings resetting for the top teams in a playoff? the only difference I see is that the best football teams get more of an advantage (home field/bye) than the drivers get (5 points is nothing), and that in NASCAR there's a bunch of non-playoff drivers still around to play spoiler.

[cthomer5000]

Not much different than teams qualifying for the playoffs, and then records basically being erased, or olympic qualifying, etc. Still, I can understand being upset if I was a fan of the way things were.

Since I never, ever, ever, ever watch auto-racing, I don't personally care.

[Craptacular]

Go Matt Kenseth!

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Not much different than teams qualifying for the playoffs, and then records basically being erased, or olympic qualifying, etc. Still, I can understand being upset if I was a fan of the way things were.

Since I never, ever, ever, ever watch auto-racing, I don't personally care.

Yeah, what he said. Except I do watch it a little.

[RendeR]

Robbie Gordon should be taken out behind the track and beaten until his skin oozes blood. Stupid stupid ignorant useless self centered arrogant, not to mention LOUSY race driver.


God I hate that man.


I dislike the idea of the race for the chase, but I see exactly why (as others have noted) that NASCAR went with it.

I prefer the idea that they take all the cup and busch teams, split them evenly into 2 divisions, one division races on saturday, one on sunday (can be at the same track or at different ones, opening weekends to MORE racetracks in MORE cities) this gives all tracks the opportunity to host more or initial races.

Each divisions races to a champion, and the overall Cup winner is the racer with the best total points.

The next season the racers finishing in the odd posiotions race the saturday division,a nd the even finishers are in the sunday division, allowing for guys to race with entirely different groups from year to year and for many different rivalries to develop and be looked forward to in years to come.


just my nickel.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Brian France should take a que from College Football's BCS Format to decide a champion. More controversy that way.

[Ragone]

my only suggestion for their system would be to do it this way..

the people in the chase are given points according to how they finished amongst the other chasers..

say 1st is 150 points and 2nd is 125

Earnhardt jr finishs 3rd(tops among chasers) gets 150
Gordon finishes 6th(2nd among chasers) gets 125.

and so forth.. that way it prevents people's ass teammates doing a takeout manuever to basically eliminate someone from the chase in one race