The Frontstretch: Top Ten Things That Will Happen If Kyle Busch Doesn't Make The Chase by Jeff Meyer -- Wednesday September 9, 2009

Considering Kyle is the only guy in the top 14 I have any allegiance to, I hope he makes it.

But that being said, I really would like to see Mark Martin (even though I have no ill feelings towards him) to fall out of the Chase and not make it along with Kyle. Maybe then this Chase format may be done away with.

Does anyone really doubt that Johnson/Knaus has the Chase figured out so well that he isn’t going to win again? 6 tracks that Johnson hasn’t won at and 5 aren’t in the Chase and the 6th being Homestead. That pretty much proves how they spend their time testing setups during the year. Not to mention that Johnson/Knaus, as Gordon/Everham used to be, is the best at taking an undrivable car at the beginning of a race and turning it around into a top 5 car by the end.

Ever wonder why Kyle Busch is sponsored by M&M’s… melts in your mouth, not in your hand.

Re: #5, if it wasnt for the Chase, Kyle Busch and the other 10 drivers wouldnt even be talked about right now. It would be the Tony Stewart vs Jimmie Johnson show. Is that what you really want? One or two drivers running away with the title at summer’s end? Yeah, that’s a good way to compete against the NFL, have the champion all but decided by the time football starts. At least with the Chase, its any one of 12 driver’s Cup to win or lose.

Uh, Jeff. If Kyle Busch doesn’t make the chase, he might just go on to win all races in the chase.

Biased though you are, you’ll have to admit he’s one of the very best (three) drivers in Cup.

The chase and parity are basically a France-inspired communistic system which keeps the best from winning the championship. The fix is easy — award 50 points for each win and do away with the idiotic “chase”.

My money says Busch’ll win a couple of more races than anyone this year. You can quote me on that.

Get it together, Jeff!!

The only thing wrong with the old system was that it didn’t award enough points for winning. Now, we have drivers just running good enough, not taking any chances or pushing their car to win, to make the chase. A championship should be determined for the entire season and not just ten races. Also, luck has something to do with it also. If you get caught up in someone’s wreck during the chase you are pretty much out of it. But, if this is averaged over the whole season you might be able to overcome the bad luck. Again, the name of the game is winning and Nascar needs to put that back in the racing instead of racing to get in the chase as so many drivers are doing. Make them race for the whole season instead of ten races.

I totally agree with Richard Racehorse,and this comes from a 72 yr. old ex-drag racer!!!

Kevin in SoCal, do you really believe the current standing would still be the same if the Chase didn’t exist?

Once these guys have a decent points margin to make the Chase, it gives them plenty of opportunities to test new setups. The 10 points you can gain by winning a pre-Chase race isn’t that big of a deal. I highly doubt Stewart would have the big lead he does if the Chase didn’t exist. He has spent the year making a name for himself by being a driver/owner. (Even though it is really just an extended Hendrick team, to the point that Stewart said that Hendrick even helped pick the guys to run everything for him.)

But my main point being, Johnson and Gordon would not have ever “wasted” a race testing a new setup. Montoya wouldn’t have just tried for top 10s all year, etc. So there is no way to tell what the current standing would be if the Chase didn’t exist.

And I also agree with those that said the main problem with the points system is that they don’t give enough points to the winner of a race.

My thoughts exactly Fred. It always seems the supporters of the Chase forget how different the points would be if the drivers were actually racing every race. And you can’t compare current standings using the old points system for the same reason.