[DeTomaso] NPC: NASCAR turns series into lottery.

Thu Jan 30 18:22:54 EST 2014

You mean NASCAR isn't already someones idea of a bad joke?

Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:35:46 -0600
From: panteradon at gmail.com
CC: detomaso at poca.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPC: NASCAR turns series into lottery.

I could not agree more.  This is degrading to all of NASCAR.  They are turning themselves into a joke.

On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Sean Korb <spkorb at gmail.com> wrote:

I had this image of a hundred cars put in a giant plexiglass ball with the wind tossing them around for a few minutes until one came out of the hopper.  Occasionally they would set one of the drivers on fire and push him off a cliff to keep viewership.

I wasn't far off.
sean

On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 3:57 PM, michael at michaelshortt.com <michael at michaelshortt.com> wrote:

What a load of crap.

NASCAR confirms overhaul of Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship format

The format has undergone many changes since its introduction 10 years ago

By: Al Pearce on January 30, 2014

LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC - Under the new system Brad Keselowski would have made the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup last season.

NASCAR has confirmed what many in the stock-car industry have strongly suspected for about 10 days: A new format will whittle a 16-driver Chase for the Championship field to four contenders at the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 16. The best finisher among those four is your 2014 Sprint Cup champion.

“Our new championship format puts a greater emphasis on winning. It's simpler to understand, and it expands the number of drivers who can run for the championship,” NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said during a Thursday press conference in Charlotte. “This appeals to everybody and checks all the boxes. It makes winning the most important thing, the thing everybody will be focused on, because nobody likes points racing.”

“We're extremely pleased that NASCAR has chosen to implement this format. We have long felt that there was a greater opportunity within the Chase and are in favor of an elimination format, which has been most effective in American sports. We look forward to bringing the Chase to NASCAR fans this fall,” said Julie Sobieski, ESPN vice president of league sports programming.

The new format was leaked -- intentionally, almost everyone agrees – in the middle of this month. When France and NASCAR president Mike Helton unveiled the new system and discussed them in their annual “State of the Sport” message, the changes were virtually identical to the leaked version.

It works like this:

-- Sixteen drivers start the 10-race playoff. The field is set after the Sept. 6 race at Richmond, and drivers must have won a race to qualify. If 16 drivers haven't won by then (very likely), the highest-ranked winless drivers also advance. A driver must have run all 26 regular-season races to qualify for the Chase.

-- The lowest-ranked four Chase drivers after Chicagoland, Loudon and Dover (the Challenger Round) are eliminated. The lowest-ranked four after Kansas City, Charlotte and Talladega (the Contender Round) also are eliminated. Four more are eliminated after Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix (the Elimination Round), leaving four contenders for the Championship Round at Homestead. Points are reset equally for the advancing drivers after each three-race round.

-- In something of a surprise, a Chase driver winning during any three-race round automatically advances to the next round, regardless of his points position. If he doesn't win in that subsequent round, he must fall back on his standings to advance to the next round. A win assures advancement into the next round only, not the remainder of the Chase.

-- The Fast Final Four start the Ford 400 at Homestead with equal points, with no lap-leader bonus points for them -- not that it matters. What matters is this: The driver who beats his three rivals is the Sprint Cup champion. NASCAR did that because it's possible for a lower-finishing driver with lap-leader bonus points to outpoint a higher-finishing driver with no bonus points.

France said he and his staff spent three years working on a championship plan that put more importance on winning and eliminated drivers as the playoffs progressed. “We worked with [series sponsor] Sprint, the three manufacturers and our business partners,” he said. “The vast majority of the people we talked with really love this idea. They like and understand the winner-take-all aspect of the final race.

“We had many options, one of which was do nothing at all. We like consistency, but we also like risk-taking. With winning so important, and so much on the line, teams will have to take more risks. They'll gamble more and do different strategies and take more chances. And if it's late in a race and you've got the faster car, expect some contact. Sure, this might bring more contact.”

Thursday's announcement was the latest in a series of changes NASCAR has made to its championship-deciding format in 10 years.

-- The 2004-2006 Chases featured the 10 highest-ranked drivers after Richmond, plus anyone within 400 points of the leader. The Chase drivers' points were readjusted to bring them closer together for the playoff and separate them further from the non-Chase drivers.

-- After several big-name drivers missed some Chases, NASCAR expanded the 2007-2010 playoffs to include the top 12 drivers (the 400-point provision was dropped). Points were again readjusted to make them closer for the final 10 races.

-- The 2011-2012 Chases featured the top 10 in “regular-season” points, plus the two winningest “wild-card” drivers between 11th and 20th in points. As always, points were readjusted to bring the field closer together.

-- Last year's Chase featured an unprecedented 13 drivers, but only after NASCAR took into account the shenanigans of Michael Waltrip Racing and its finish-fixing scandal at Richmond. MWR driver Martin Truex Jr. was kicked out of the Chase, and Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon were added.

France was asked whether the Chase changes might be confusing to fans who were just getting accustomed to one system only to have another come along. Or, it went without saying, old-time fans who liked the full-season system that crowned a champion based on the 36 scheduled races without any gimmicks.

“I don't think so, but things evolve,” he said. “I think, if you look at the other leagues, you look at how the [college football] Bowl Championship Series has evolved. They'll be having their own championship format this year. So these kinds of things probably shouldn't go from one place to the next.

“They should evolve. Because evolving means you're getting the best ideas at the moment, and if they're not good enough to make a change, then you don't. It's not surprising that something this important has evolved versus us just getting to the right place. The greatest risk for us was to not do anything at all.”

Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140130/nascar/140139985#ixzz2ruw88F1E 

Follow us: @AutoweekUSA on Twitter | AutoweekUSA on Facebook

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Michael L. Shortt
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www.michaelshortt.com
michael at michaelshortt.com

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