The Backstretch Blog: That was easy?

September 01, 2011|By HEATHER WILLIAMS | Eyewitness Sports

Before I jump into this blog let me check my email and the wires real quick and make sure no one else has clinched a spot in the Chase for the Championship...nope all good for now.

As I watched the news that first Kevin Harvick and then Jeff Gordon had clinched a spot in the Chase, I couldn't help but giggle. So this is it? This is the easier points system that's going to change the way we watch races? It's so easy that it takes NASCAR four days after the race to figure out who has already clinched a spot? What are we using here an abacus?

All joking aside, I do feel like we as fans have been sold a little bit of a bill of goods. This is what NASCAR CEO Brian France told us back in January.

"Many of our most loyal fans don't fully understand the points system we have used to date," said France. "So, we are simplifying the points system to one that is much easier to understand. Conceptually, it is comparable to our previous system, but it is easier to follow."

Maybe the fans didn't understand it. That's a point I'm not completely buying. But the media and NASCAR workers did understand the system that had been in place since 1975. It made it easier to avoid this...wait another driver is in and oh yeah another is in that has been going on this week.

Hold on I just got another email, let me just make sure...nope. They are serving ice cream in the break room tomorrow. No new drivers have clinched.

Back to how much better this new system was supposed to be.

Look I like the fact that winning is important, but it also bothers me a little bit that a Paul Menard could still make the Chase. Does winning two races really make him a better Chase competitor than Tony Stewart or Denny Hamlin. Menard is 20th in the points for a reason. Hamlin has battled through lots of parts failures and still manages to sit 13th in the points, while Stewart has scrapped his way to 10th.

But I digress.

Easier or better, we could debate that points forever. But everyone from NASCAR, to the media to the fans need to do a better job of understanding the new system if it's really going to work. That means checking and double checking the playoff scenarios.

I'd hate to find out the Saturday before Chicago that someone was left out of the chase that was supposed to be in it.

|

|

|