gNA$hCAR Notes
Sunday, July 25, 2004
Changing The Rules
Granted, Nascar's new rule providing a green-white-checker finish is a good one, but I'm getting a bit tired of all these mid-season rule changes. Did the NFL add instant replay in the middle of a season? Did they add a three point line in the NBA in mid-season? I don't think so! NASCAR should just let the whole season play out as it was drawn up at the beginning of the year. Make the rule changes in the offseason, and while your at it, get rid of this horrid playoff format!
Granted, Nascar's new rule providing a green-white-checker finish is a good one, but I'm getting a bit tired of all these mid-season rule changes. Did the NFL add instant replay in the middle of a season? Did they add a three point line in the NBA in mid-season? I don't think so! NASCAR should just let the whole season play out as it was drawn up at the beginning of the year. Make the rule changes in the offseason, and while your at it, get rid of this horrid playoff format!
Comments:
There is a school of thought that says all these changes are actually watering down the fans' interest in the sport. I would venture to say that gNA$hCAR is one of the few sports where there is so latitude to change things midseason. But I think that is only because it is still a growing sport, and once it achieves the monolithic stature of the NawFuL, the policy wonks will have a much tougher time justifying midseason rule changes.
That said, I'm not sure that as a fan I like the new green-yellow-checker rule. I suppose I would like it if it allowed my guy to come from behind and win, but it seems that so long as they had the rule in place about the last red-flag lap and everyone knew what it was, there shouldn't be any reason to restart things and give the drivers yet another change to pile up and still have to finish under caution.
The Championship Chase, in its current form, is simply a sham. It has changed the strategies of the drivers who are headed there and those who aren't. You listen to Dale Earnhardt Jr. yesterday, for example, and he isn't even the least bit concerned about missing seat time with his burn injury. Heck, he's already pretty much guaranteed a spot in the Chase so why bother showing up each week? Jeff Gordon says he treated the New Hampshire race as a test date for the next race there in September, which will be part of the Chase series, and he won't test at Indy because he'd rather save the test day for one of the Chase tracks. Would Bobby Labonte's crew chief been dumped now if not for the need to get a new chief up to speed before the final 10 races? You see my point. Sort of makes the races between now and Richmond meaningless for the top five or six guys. Now each week we'll have to listen to Allen and Benny and Wally jabbering about the intense battle between Kasey Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield and Dale Jarrett for that 10th and final transfer spot... YAWN!
I say, if these guys want to make the Chase concept interesting, you just run the season as before, but don't keep track of points. Then, at the November banquet, they can do a lottery-style drawing where they pull out the names of 10 races, and the results from those 10 determine the champion. What fun! Imagine... Jimmie Johnson wins the final six races, but all the races that get pulled are the ones where he suffered engine failure or wrecks or something, dropping him from the championship spot to 15th or something. And your champ might end up being Kasey Kahne, because all the races in which he finished second get factored in. Better yet, invite 10 lucky fans to the banquet and have them draw out the races. Maybe we could base the results on a Cingular wireless poll instead... Aw, heck.. just give Junior the championship. We all know it's rightfully his anyhow.
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That said, I'm not sure that as a fan I like the new green-yellow-checker rule. I suppose I would like it if it allowed my guy to come from behind and win, but it seems that so long as they had the rule in place about the last red-flag lap and everyone knew what it was, there shouldn't be any reason to restart things and give the drivers yet another change to pile up and still have to finish under caution.
The Championship Chase, in its current form, is simply a sham. It has changed the strategies of the drivers who are headed there and those who aren't. You listen to Dale Earnhardt Jr. yesterday, for example, and he isn't even the least bit concerned about missing seat time with his burn injury. Heck, he's already pretty much guaranteed a spot in the Chase so why bother showing up each week? Jeff Gordon says he treated the New Hampshire race as a test date for the next race there in September, which will be part of the Chase series, and he won't test at Indy because he'd rather save the test day for one of the Chase tracks. Would Bobby Labonte's crew chief been dumped now if not for the need to get a new chief up to speed before the final 10 races? You see my point. Sort of makes the races between now and Richmond meaningless for the top five or six guys. Now each week we'll have to listen to Allen and Benny and Wally jabbering about the intense battle between Kasey Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield and Dale Jarrett for that 10th and final transfer spot... YAWN!
I say, if these guys want to make the Chase concept interesting, you just run the season as before, but don't keep track of points. Then, at the November banquet, they can do a lottery-style drawing where they pull out the names of 10 races, and the results from those 10 determine the champion. What fun! Imagine... Jimmie Johnson wins the final six races, but all the races that get pulled are the ones where he suffered engine failure or wrecks or something, dropping him from the championship spot to 15th or something. And your champ might end up being Kasey Kahne, because all the races in which he finished second get factored in. Better yet, invite 10 lucky fans to the banquet and have them draw out the races. Maybe we could base the results on a Cingular wireless poll instead... Aw, heck.. just give Junior the championship. We all know it's rightfully his anyhow.
