Chase B!tch Thread

[dpkimmel2001]

So..... It seems that many out there are upset with a non winning driver having the chance to win the title. What makes the difference this year? Every year since the beginning of the chase a driver or drivers have had the opportunity to do the same with the exception of 2004. Heck, before the chase ever started, a driver could win the title without ever wining a race. I don't know if it ever happened but it was close a few times.

So..... Kyle didn't make the chase with 4 wins. How can that be? Lack of consistency. 8 points away from sharing the chase lead going into New Hampshire. Sucks to be Kyle today!

So..... Fontana. Not chase worthy! Nuff said.

So..... Johnson. You have to beat the man to be the man, right?

 

[Snoozer]

First off, I don't like the chase but I'll deal with it. Its here and it's not going away.

As for non winners being in the chase? I have no problem with it. Under the old system you could have someone without a win contending for the title in the fall as well. So far no one has managed to win a title without winning. Also, even though the chase has 12 people in it if you really think about itonly 6 or so drivers are really running well enough to win. So meh....

I'm a big Kyle Busch fan and would have loved to see him in the chase but he didn't make it. It wasn't consistant enough to make it in with the rules the way they are.

I agree Fontana sucks.

Yup you have to beat the man to be the man. I'm HOPING someone can do it this year. ANYONE but the 48 team this year!

 

[semipenguin]

I have never liked the chasem but I can deal with it. It's nothing more than a way to manufacture excitement.

You're right dp. 2004 was the only year that every driver in the chase had a win after the first 26. Mayfield had to win Richmond to make the chase. Has McMurray made the chase, he would have done so without a win.

I said in another thread that the 0-16 Lions should have been in the playoffs (playoffs? :shock last year. That's basically what they are doing by allowing the 16, 39, 42, & the 99 in the chase without having wins.

Well they were more consistent (sp?) than Kyle Busch. But they seed the drivers by wins :scratch:

You can't have it both ways.

I'm not going to say how I'd fix it because I would get ride of the chase. It has nothing to do with the cars or the tracks either. The drivers or teams can do nothing about it.

Football is here now. This will be the first year that I will put football ahead of racing if given a choice, although I am still going to Martinsville, my XMP3 will allow me to listen to the NFL while watching the race
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[dpkimmel2001]

I have never liked the chasem but I can deal with it. It's nothing more than a way to manufacture excitement

I said in another thread that the 0-16 Lions should have been in the playoffs (playoffs? :shock last year. That's basically what they are doing by allowing the 16, 39, 42, & the 99 in the chase without having wins.

Will they were more consistent (sp?) than Kyle Busch. But they seed the drivers by wins :scratch:

Football is here now. This will be the first year that I will put football ahead of racing if given a choice, although I am still going to Martinsville, my XMP3 will allow me to listen to the NFL while watching the race
Posted via Mobile Device

Yes, absolutely, manufactured excitement. Without it though, what would you have at this point? Not much at all IMO. Who would care at all about what is going on? Not many. Tony would be cruising on to his next championship with little doubt. The chase produces potential for many stories. Who would have cared at all the other night about where Vickers or Busch finished. They were 600+ points out of the lead and with 10 races to go. Nobody would even be talking about them today.

I find the NFL/NASCAR playoff comparison not to be really all that close. In the NFL you have something like 16 chances a year against a single opponent each week. NASCAR, 26 chances against 42 opponents. Not even close.

I get what you are saying about the seeding. I don't like how Mark gets to move ahead of Tony but thems the rules. I guess they all know that going in. Still sucks though.

You'd better have a good set of headphones for that MP3 player to cut out that noise. :yesshake: If I get my way this year, maybe I'll be at Martinsville as well. Best track on the circuit IMO.

 

[mghtx]

I'm not a fan of the chase, and I know it's here to stay.....but I don't know what else could be done. It can be tweaked, sure.

If we didn't have the chase, my guess would be that the points going into Richmond wouldn't have been that close because all the teams would have handled things differently.

It still bothers me that now all the drivers NOT in the chase are still racing in the last 10 races. So is there a big incentive for them to go all-out for a win? Or is it better to treat each race as testing? Sure there is money for the win, etc. But if I'm an owner I'd treat each race as a test session.

I've said it before....probably my single biggest dislike of the chase is the actual tracks they race at. I mean, Fontana? C'mon! I want the chase tracks to be as exciting and challenging as possible. As few mile and a halfs as possible. And I now subscribe to putting in a road course. And I don't CARE that it wouldn't reflect the percentage of tracks during the regular season. What the flip difference does that make? The chase is it's own intity.

So that might bring up the subject of weather at certain track location given the time of the year. To that I would go back to what Jr. says, which I agree...the season is too long anyway.

Well, that's it for NOW...

 

[dpkimmel2001]

+1 to adding a road course. :bigclap:

 

[mghtx]

"One driver won four races and missed the Chase. Four drivers failed to win a race but made the Chase. Symmetry or stupidity?"

"Under the legitimate (traditional) points system, Tony Stewart would now be leading Jeff Gordon by 179 points. With Stewart fading as Gordon ascends, we’d have us an interesting little title fight between now and Thanksgiving."

"Listening to drivers like Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, and Jeff Gordon admitting they’d throw a race under team orders to allow their teammates to make the Chase made me physically ill."

"Call it high-speed corporate welfare or what have you, but Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Greg Biffle are all in championship contention without having won a single race. Is there any other sport where you can make the playoffs without winning a single event? They’ll each start the playoffs 40 points behind the leader."

"Nine of this year’s 26 points-paying races have been won by drivers who failed to make the Chase. Kyle Busch (four wins) and Matt Kenseth (two) are the only multiple race winners to miss the playoffs, but even the simple expediency of a further 25-point bonus for winning a race would have landed them both solidly inside the top 12."

"The all-singing, all-dancing, Chase kicks off with a Sunday afternoon race in New Hampshire. Starting off the Chase at NHIS is sort of like staging the Super Bowl in Des Moines on Arbor Day, leading me to believe the folks in charge really are as stupid as they come across. "

The Frontstretch: Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Richmond Fall Race Recap by Matt McLaughlin -- Monday September 14, 2009

 

[mghtx]

"a quick look at the stats shows Busch still beats Montoya in the categories that should count the most: Wins (4 to 0), Top 5s (7 to 2), races led (14 to 6). In fact, if you take the Brickyard 400 out of the equation, Montoya’s led just 48 laps all year … an average of a little less than two per race. It’s not exactly the type of dominating performance that won him a title in Champ Car and made him the international superstar capable of running competitively in Formula One.

But where Busch fell apart, Montoya made an extra effort to succeed this year. He found that mixing it up with the sport’s top contenders wasn’t as successful as sitting back, playing the game, and scoring a 10th place finish instead of nearly wrecking while battling for 9th. “Points racing,” he called it, to the chagrin of fans used to him mixing it up but forced to watch him mesh seamlessly with his peers — an overriding trend of conservatism in a sport preaching better safe than sorry.

“I think I learned that actually in Formula 1, that you have to be aggressive when you have to be aggressive and you have to be smart when you’ve got to be smart,” he explained. “When it’s restart and it’s time to go, you have to go and when it’s time to save the car, you have to save the car. Saving the car and the brakes and the tires [ in NASCAR races]… I’m not used to that. I was like flat [out] all the time and here, you have to look… a lot of people are giving you advice, don’t use the car so hard; try to go as fast as you can without abusing the car. It’s really weird.”"

The Frontstretch: Kyle's Chase Crumbles Around "Points Racing" ... Will He Be Next? by Thomas Bowles -- Monday September 14, 2009

 

[dpkimmel2001]

Montoya made an extra effort to succeed this year. He found that mixing it up with the sport’s top contenders wasn’t as successful as sitting back, playing the game, and scoring a 10th place finish instead of nearly wrecking while battling for 9th. “Points racing,†he called it, to the chagrin of fans used to him mixing it up but forced to watch him mesh seamlessly with his peers — an overriding trend of conservatism in a sport preaching better safe than sorry.

You can't find fault in Montoya doing only what is necessary in order to make the chase. That's the box that they're all placed in and he seems to have figured it out. Points racing and execution of points racing is all that is necessary to get in there but now is when it has to be turned up a notch. He can't win the championship doing only what he as been doing, not as far as history plays out. Points racing gets you in to the chase but domination in the final 10 gets you the Cup.

 

[Snoozer]

You can't find fault in Montoya doing only what is necessary in order to make the chase. That's the box that they're all placed in and he seems to have figured it out. Points racing and execution of points racing is all that is necessary to get in there but now is when it has to be turned up a notch. He can't win the championship doing only what he as been doing, not as far as history plays out. Points racing gets you in to the chase but domination in the final 10 gets you the Cup.

A couple weeks ago I think after Brickyard he said something to the effect of "People won't remember who wins a race. They'll remember who made the chase."

Unfourtnate but very true.

 

[k9feces]

I like the chase lineup this year, the only way it would be better is if Johnson wasn't there.

 

[mghtx]

No, I don't fault Montoya one bit. It's what has to be done under nascar's system. And when he talked about it nascar jumped on him. But go back and look, Jimmie's said the same thing as have other drivers. Actually, Jimmie has said a LOT...it's just that most of the time news outlets don't cover that part to much.

Maybe this will be the year where other teams FINALLY learn from Jimmie's team. I can't figure out why it's taken so long.

 

[yippeekyaa]

I think it will be an exciting chase simply due the the numerous story lines that are taking place.

1. Gordon going for 5th
2. Johnson going for 4th consecutive
3. Vickers going for Toyota's first chase win
4. Martin going for first
5. Montoya coming from F1 and going for his first.
6. The higher than usual chance that a champion could be crowned that is winless.
7. Stewart going for first as an owner and possibly 1 of every type of Cup (winston, Nextel and Sprint)

Lots of drama here to keep people watching. :ter:

 

[dpkimmel2001]

I think it will be an exciting chase simply due the the numerous story lines that are taking place.

1. Gordon going for 5th
2. Johnson going for 4th consecutive
3. Vickers going for Toyota's first chase win
4. Martin going for first
5. Montoya coming from F1 and going for his first.
6. The higher than usual chance that a champion could be crowned that is winless.
7. Stewart going for first as an owner and possibly 1 of every type of Cup (winston, Nextel and Sprint)

Lots of drama here to keep people watching. :ter:

All great stories.

What do you think best way for 2009 to play out?

How do you think it actually will play out?

Some quick case facts.....

2009 - 4 drivers without a win going into the chase. (12 drivers in chase)
2008 - 5 drivers without a win. (12 drivers in chase)
2007 - 1 driver without a win. (12 drivers in chase)
2006 - 2 drivers without a win. (10 drivers in chase)
2005 - 3 drivers without a win. (10 drivers in chase)
2004 - No drivers without a win. (10 drivers in chase)

 

[DexterMorgan]

I dont like the chase because it takes emphasis over winning and puts it on "all points, all year every race every year" POINTS POINTS POINTS POINTS POINTS POINTS all the time. The single event and the hype around it is a thing of the past.

This sport grew to its highest peak without the chase. It helped define legendary drivers when they won their titles by 300 points or more. Nothing like a good old fashioned ass kicking to show the fans whose boss. And the thing that I liked, was when the championship was out of reach, more emphasis was put on the single race. But when the championship was close, it was a thing of beauty because it was exciting and rare. Nowadays they manufacturer it to make it exciting and expected.

 

[Snoozer]

I dont like the chase because it takes emphasis over winning and puts it on "all points, all year every race every year" POINTS POINTS POINTS POINTS POINTS POINTS all the time. The single event and the hype around it is a thing of the past.

This sport grew to its highest peak without the chase. It helped define legendary drivers when they won their titles by 300 points or more. Nothing like a good old fashioned ass kicking to show the fans whose boss. And the thing that I liked, was when the championship was out of reach, more emphasis was put on the single race. But when the championship was close, it was a thing of beauty because it was exciting and rare. Nowadays they manufacturer it to make it exciting and expected.

:ter::ter: :buttrock:

 

[dpkimmel2001]

The only thing that I don't like about the chase is that it ruins the comparison to years gone by. Starting in 2004, there is no way to compare a champion today to a pre 04 champion.

 

[mghtx]

This sport grew to its highest peak without the chase.

That says a lot right there.

 

[dpkimmel2001]

I'd say that had more to do with the move to national television & the death of Dale Earnhardt than anything else.

 

[Calypso]

I think its funny how people think that the chase should only be race winners but that Brad Keselowski making the chase is not fair.. Wow how can that be said all in the same sentence he did win a race.... So if it should only be race winners in the chase then he would be up right now in the top 12 instead of in 40th and only have run a small hand full of races. Hey if that is the case anyone could go out there and win one race and not race a car again until the chase starts and be in the chase... Very dumb to even think that way..