NASCAR has received a wide variety of criticism over the past week following the story posted by Jim Utter from the Charlotte Observer reporting that NASCAR was considering changing the Chase for the Sprint Cup. When the Chase debuted back in 2004, the first 10 in points along with anyone else within 400 points of the leader was eligible to win the championship. This changed in 2007, where the top 12 were entered in the Chase & 10 point bonuses were awarded for a race win. In 2011 NASCAR introduced the "wild card" where Chase positions 11 & 12 were awarded to the drivers who won the most races, but could not place in the top 10 in points. In 2013 NASCAR had to alter the Chase as a result of the actions of Michael Waltrip Racing, Penske Racing & Front Row Motorsports. These alterations removed Martin Truex Jr and added Ryan Newman along with a 13th driver Jeff Gordon.
Fast forward to today & NASCAR is evaluating new Chase scenarios. This will be the 5th chase revision in its 10 years in existence. While I do applaud NASCAR for trying to create the most exciting season finale every year, it is becoming a little ridiculous. NASCAR is the only major Motorsport that uses a "playoff" format to determine their champion. I think that they should just race all year with the same points, no resets or seeding by race wins or wildcard entries, as it had been done until 2004. If NASCAR does reset the points, do so for the whole field, that allows for a very wide variety of possible Sprint Cup Champions. If NASCAR wants to provide excitement to draw in fans, create exciting racing, the Gen-6 car is a great thing... keep developing it so that every single lap provides excitement.
NASCAR stated on 1/18/2014 that they are discussing possible changes with industry stakeholders & an announcement on the changes & their decision on the future of the Chase will occur following the discussions.
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