2010 NASCAR running thread

As long as they're going to stick to two races apiece at tracks like New Hampshire, Michigan, Pocono and Dover, they're hemmed in on the schedule. It'd be nice to rotate the Chase races to a degree (at least swap out some of the cookie cutter tracks), but you can't sell out a race in New Hampshire in November. Same with Michigan.

 

Sponsorship dollars.
It might work for longtime sponsors like Budweiser, and some one-shot deals could be made to work in old schemes with Mountain Dew or Hawaiian Punch logos. You could do it with a handful of cars at the All-Star race and pull it off, but I doubt you could get all 43 on board.
Do you think Lowe's would skip a race as Jimmie Johnson's sponsor so he can pay tribute to Cale Yarborough? Or Pepsi/Dupont wants Jeff Gordon driving a car dressed up like a can of Skoal?

 

I don't think its a coincedence that the closest Chase was the first one - now top teams strategize for The Chase and everything else is just pre-season.

 

They couldn't have any of the old tobacco sponsors involved anyway because of federal law ...

 

I was against the Chase from the start and really against NHRA adopting the Coutdown.

Brian France said he wanted to get more drivers in with a shot going into the final race. Why not just designate a race as the championship race, and if you win it, you're the champ.

Or better yet, with the way NASCAR has shit its bed, lets just make all races three-lap shootouts and randomly draw a champion after last one and give everybody a shot at being champ whether you won anything or not.

 

Somebody should have reminded Brian France that, in 1992, six drivers went into the final race with a shot at the championship. Which is about five more drivers than will go into this year's final race with a chance.

Alan Kulwicki won the Cup by leading one more lap in the last race than did Bill Elliott, who won the race but ended up second in the Cup standings, 10 points back.

No Chase necessary for some of the biggest and best drama the sport has ever seen.

 

Even if you did a weekly elimination of the bottom team - that really only helps the front runners because if they finished say 12th among the original Chasers the next week they would get credit for finishing 11th among the Chasers and not lose as many points as they would have otherwise.
One thing I'd definitely change is the finishing track. Miami has so much room it makes it easy for the leader to stay out of trouble and focus on protecting a points lead.

 

Single worse day of my racing fan life.

The title that year was Davey Allison's on a friggin platter. If he hadn't (got) crashed at Pocono it would have been a rout. He was still the man going into Atlanta and Swervin Irvan took him out on the front stretch, handing the title to Kulwicki and his Underbird with a better finish that Elliott.

As we know, five months later Kulwicki was killed. I said at the time "That's OK he won the championship. Davey will win more." Three months later that dream ended - and so did me truly loving racing - with a small helicopter, a chain link fence and the Talladega infield.

 

And in 2004, the second year of the Chase, four drivers went into Homestead with 72 points separating them. The top three were 21 points apart. Kurt Busch ended up winning by eight points over Jimmie Johnson, and 16 over Jeff Gordon -- all three of whom were in the top five at Homestead. IIRC, the championship was decided in the last 10 laps.
2005, when Tony Stewart won his second championship, wasn't bad either. There were several wild swings leading into the Chase and during it, and Stewart needed a solid run at Homestead to hold off Carl Edwards.

Bottom line, there are going to be exciting championship races and snoozers no matter the format.

 

I was 7 during that Atlanta race and probably the biggest Davey Allison fan in Idaho. After Kulwicki and Davey died, even as young as I was, I couldn't get as into NASCAR racing again. That's despite multiple attempts.