The Frontstretch: What's the Call? Is the Chase Unfair to Kahne? by Beth Lunkenheimer and Mike Neff -- Wednesday September 6, 2006

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What's the Call? Is the Chase Unfair to Kahne?

Beth Lunkenheimer and Mike Neff · Wednesday September 6, 2006

 

Welcome to this week’s edition of What’s the Call? Each week, two of your favorite Frontstretch writers will duke it out in a debate concerning one of NASCAR’s big controversies. Don’t let us be the only ones to speak our minds, though…be sure to read both sides and let us know what you think about the situation in the comment section below!

This Week’s Question: If Kasey Kahne and his series-leading 5 wins were to fail to make the Chase, should the system be revised? (In other words, is that fair?)

Points…Leave It Alone!
Beth Lunkenheimer

Having won five races this season, Kasey Kahne should be a shoe-in to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup, right? Wrong. Kahne currently sits in the 11th position, 30 points out of the coveted 10th place spot. With just one race until the Top 10 are locked in for the “Chase,” anything can happen. Kahne and the number 9 team need a flawless run in Richmond to have a chance to make it into the Top 10. What if he struggles and doesn’t make the Chase? Should NASCAR change the points system? Absolutely not.

Kasey Kahne may have five wins this season, but what about the other 20 races? He has three DNFs and only eight Top 5 finishes. Add to that the fact that Kahne has finished outside the Top 20 ten different times, and you can see why he currently sits on the outside looking in. The same thing happened with Jeff Gordon during the 2005 season. He started off the season strong with three wins in the first ten races, but the team just couldn’t manage any consistency.

Before you tell me that I’m just proving the point that NASCAR does need to change the points, take a look at the statistics of the 2005 champion. It took over half the year for Tony Stewart to grab the points lead, taking it on the heels of a red hot summer where he strung together five wins in seven weeks; he then had no problem making the Chase. Why? Because he ran consistently before that stretch, even in those races he wasn’t winning. If Kahne were running as consistently this season as Stewart did last season, he would be in great shape going into race 26 at Richmond.

In 2003, Ryan Newman had eight wins and finished sixth in points, coming nowhere near Matt Kenseth to challenge him for the championship. Although Newman had 8 wins, he also had 11 DNFs that season. Back then, Newman said it best, “The champion should be a champion in all respects, and consistency is a big part of being a Cup champion.”

It’s that consistency that has failed Kahne this season, even with his series leading five wins. So, NASCAR leave the points system alone…even if Kasey Kahne doesn’t make it into the chase.

Kasey Getting Robbed?
Mike Neff

Love it or hate it, the Chase for the Championship has delivered on what NASCAR promised. There is much more excitement generated at the end of the racing season because multiple teams have a shot at the title, not just two or three. One fly in the ointment, however, is that there is a distinct possibility that the series leader in victories could always be left out of the title battle. Such is the case this year…Kasey Kahne's five victories are the most in Nextel Cup, but coming into Richmond, Kahne is on the outside looking in at the Top 10. Can a competition to crown the champion of a series possibly exclude the driver who wins the most races in a season? I think not.

There is precedent in the series where the leader in victories has not won the championship. However, that leader was still in contention for the title until very late in the season. In 2003, Ryan Newman lead the series in wins with eight, but came home sixth in the points. In 2002, Matt Kenseth led the series with five wins but came home eighth in points. In 1993 and 1994, Rusty Wallace led the series with ten and eight wins respectively, but came home second and third in points. One important point to be made here: all drivers listed were solidly in the Top 10 in points, which would have made them very easily Chase eligible.

If NASCAR wants to make sure there is excitement in their sport, they need to reward going for the win. The current point system, which only guarantees a difference of five points between first and second, does not offer enough incentive to drivers to push their cars to the limit and go for the checkered flag. There needs to be more credit given to the teams who are good enough or smart enough to put their car in Victory Lane on any given weekend.

Rusty Wallace proposed the idea that a driver be given 500 points for their first win of the season. That bonus would all but assure that the 10 drivers in the Chase would have a victory. This year, we have Jeff Burton and Mark Martin both in the Top 10 in points without a single win, yet Kasey Kahne has five wins and is stuck in 11th.

Granted, Kahne has had some 10 finishes outside of the Top 20 this year, while Burton and Martin have only suffered five and four such finishes, respectively. There should still be more reward for drivers going for the win or bettering their position, though, rather than riding around and getting Top 15 finishes. Certainly, consistency should be encouraged, but there needs to be added incentive for winning races.

NASCAR has said they are considering changes to the Chase format for next year. Here's to hoping they seriously look at rewarding drivers who win races instead of logging solid finishes all year long. In the meantime, Kasey Kahne may have to simply come to terms with the fact that he may get robbed of a title opportunity in what should be a career year for him.

 

©2000 - 2008 Beth Lunkenheimer and Mike Neff and Frontstetch.com. Thanks for visiting the Frontstretch!

sal
09/07/2006 04:59 AM
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The only thing the ‘chase’ has done is guarantee that, if Kasey isn’t in the top 10 after Richmond, he has no shot of finishing better than 11th. Consistancy matters, and he hasn’t managed to find it this year. I might not be so bad if a stfong run over the final 10 races could get him a top 10 finish for NYC. The old system would have been able to give him a more deserving finish than this does.

Tim Claus
09/07/2006 05:03 AM
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top 10 plus 2 or more wins gets in, seeded according to their position in the points after 26 races.

Charlie D.
09/07/2006 05:37 AM
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The Chase is what it is…. Everybody plays by those rules and knows it before hand.

Kasey is over aggressive most of the time and is why he gets some of the bad finishes he does…

Maybe he’ll learn… then again, maybe not…

24
09/07/2006 06:03 AM
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Maybe Jeff Gordon can straighten out the whole chase mess.

JC
09/07/2006 08:52 AM
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Kasey has made some stupid mistakes lately (Indy and the Glen), but I have to wonder how much the turmoil over at EMS was effecting the whole organization. Kasey’s downward spiral started when Jeremy Mayfield mouthed off at Chicago. And, his spiral ended when Elliott Sadler settled in at EMS. I think the chaos surrounding everyone may have taken its toll.

Randall Butler
09/07/2006 09:07 AM
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I do not understand the big deal about Kasey Kahn having 5 wins and possibly not making the chase. He is 11th in points. Before there was a Chase, how many times did a driver 11th in points at this point in the season win the Championship?

mycroftt
09/07/2006 09:52 AM
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Rather than change the championship, I would institute a new award for the driver with the most wins. Go to second place finishes, third place, etc. for tie-breakers.

Luke
09/07/2006 10:29 AM
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Under the “theory” of the team with the most wins in a season, that isn’t in the chase, gets in, that’s absolutely ridiculous.

Why? Because I could win 5 races, finish 43rd in the other 21, and be racing for the title come race 27.

Would I be “worthy” to be in the hunt over someone that say, has 1 win, 1 DNF, and finished outside of the top 15 only twice in the first 26 races? Who’s been more consistent?

How quickly people forget the past.

In the modern era, there has never been a driver make up more than 400 points over the last 10 races to win the title.

Right now, only 5th place Kyle Busch is within 400 points of the top spot held by Matt Kenseth.

Let’s say that there is a 50 point swing at Richmond, in terms of where the leader ends up. That would put 3 more drivers within that 400 point margin. In the end, you would still only be looking at 3 or 4 drivers possibly in the hunt.

Enter the Chase.

Now, 10 drivers minimum have a shot at it with 10 races to go, and any driver not in the top 10 that is within 400 points. That number wasn’t pulled out of thin air.

The only real problem is that let’s say this season Kahne misses the cut by 5 points.

Now, over the last 10 races let’s say Kahne and Greg Biffle are more consistent than whomever starts the chase in positions 8 through 10, and if you had kept scoring the same, they would have ended up in 8th and 9th at the end of the season respectively.

Not a title, but more prestigeous than finishing 11th and 12th, that’s for sure.

But then again that’s the breaks of any playoff type format, and what builds the hype heading towards the Chase.

While it isn’t perfect, anything rarely is. However, with 10 to go, there’s more driver’s in the hunt for the title than there would be under the old system. In the end, it’s a win overall.

The name of the game is still consistancy. It always has been. It still is even during the Chase. Let’s say someone has top 5’s in 8 of the last 10. and the other two are top 20 finishes. Pretty consistent, and that could very well land them the title. Even over the Chaser with two wins in the Chase, 6 top 10’s, and 1 DNF.

Race for the win, but if you can’t get it, don’t trash your car trying to. Take what you can get, and try again next week.

Sunny
09/08/2006 08:48 AM
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Kasey hasn’t been consistent this year and that’s why he’s 11th right now…period. Kasey has even said he agrees that consistency has been the issue for his team this year. The points system has always rewarded consistency with or without the Chase.

I’ve been undecided about potential changes to the Chase. However, as the first 26 races of this season come to a close…I’m moving closer to thinking “leave it alone”. Rewarding consistency is really a good thing imho.

Howard Baumann
09/08/2006 01:22 PM
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The whole problem with the Chase is the “Chase”. We need to get this made for television and their ratings out of our heads. What the Chase has done is close the doors on some of the most talented drivers out there. The way that it works is if a new driver can not come in and win for his/her sponser right away there is no room. NASCAR has tried to bring in women, and other minorities but if they could not preform right away they were dropped. In the smaller world of IRL they have found value for their sponsers with Danaka Patrick, a good new driver who also happens to be a woman.

Tim
09/08/2006 04:00 PM
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The only thing the chase for the NEXTEL Cup has done, is ruin some of the best Winston Cup points finishes the past 3 years.

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