Chase system wrecks drama for fans, drivers
It’s crunch time in NASCAR, and that’s not a reference to the hellacious crash during Monday’s Sprint Cup race.
Any pain Jeff Gordon felt from slamming into Sam Hornish Jr.’s car after Hornish bounced off a tire barrier is nowhere near the angst Kyle Busch will feel if he doesn’t get a chance to race for the Cup championship.
If Busch isn’t competing for gold and glory in the season finale, instead of blaming him I’ll blame the NASCAR points system.
In 2004 when NASCAR implemented the Chase for the Championship — they like to call it a “playoff” — the stated intent was to create more excitement for fans.
That was — and remains — hogwash. It was a contrived attempt to boost TV ratings.
But it’s backfiring.
We watch races to see excitement, action. The Chase and the points system have produced just the opposite.
Four races are left before the Chase field is finalized with the top 12 drivers. Points leader Tony Stewart can clinch a Chase berth Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. Though the five drivers directly behind him seem to be safely locked into the Chase, at least 10 others have chances to make the cut.
Only 141 points separate Ryan Newman in ninth place and Clint Bowyer in 15th. That’s not much when a driver can gain or lose up to 161 points in one race.
While 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch is comfortably in fourth, little brother Kyle is 13th and 58 points behind Matt Kenseth.
Kyle Busch began the year like gangbusters by winning three of the first nine races, including the March event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He still has three wins, and only Mark Martin (four) has more. But Busch’s go-for-broke style has cost him too many times.
Since winning May 2 at Richmond, Va., Busch has finished in the top 10 only three times in 12 races.
In the past couple of weeks, however, he has been playing it safe.
All the top contenders — including Busch starting with Monday’s race — admittedly are “points racing.” Rather than necessarily racing to win, their strategy is to hold on to a top-five or top-10 spot to produce a solid points-producing day.
Busch’s conservative conversion forced him to settle for fourth place Monday at Watkins Glen, N.Y., instead of keeping everybody on the edge of their seats wondering what derring-do he would attempt in the waning laps.
But there was no such maneuvering. Busch merely protected fourth place, enabling him to cut the points gap to 12th roughly in half.
“That’s what happens when you try to become a smart points racer,” Busch said recently. “You just got to do it, and to mentally do that isn’t necessarily the old Kyle Busch, but it has to be in the new (one).”
That’s not how anyone wants to race, but NASCAR wants its champion to exhibit consistency first, prowess second.
Who wants to watch conservative racing? Not me. That’s not racing. That’s not what fans want. But under the Cup system, a driver is foolish to race on the edge for wins.
Instead of the current gap of 10 to 25 points between race winners and runners-up, that margin should be at least 50 points, and 100 would be better.
As much as Busch wants to win — and fans either want to see him wreck or pull out a victory on the last lap — even he has finally realized the championship will pay at least a $7 million bonus and eternal prestige.
But racing isn’t racing unless you’re trying to win.
Fans don’t get a piece of the big bonus check. We just get shortchanged by the system.
Jeff Wolf’s motor sports column is published Friday. He can be reached at 383-0247 or jwolf@reviewjournal.com. Visit Wolf’s motor sports blog at lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal/ throughout the week.
