2010 NASCAR running thread

Unfortunately, negotiating traffic is kind of a primal driving skill in NASCAR, and a race with 12 cars would get pretty dull pretty quickly.

 

When is the last time the Sprint Cup Champion needed a top 10 finish in Homestead to win? Not a big NASCAR fan but three drivers with a shot at the thing might actually make things interesting instead of drivers just avoiding traffic.

 

2004, Kurt Busch won by 8 points over Jimmie Johnson.

 

Jimmie wins his fifth straight Charity Championship.

Can we please blow up the Chase now?

 

Egads.

 

Seriously, why bother with NAPSCAR any more?

JJ's a snore, Denny's on the verge of becoming a snore. Harvick—at least he seems to have a little bit of fire in him.

5 in a row's impressive, no doubt. HMS not having a DNF till today because of a blown engine is very impressive, as well. But I'm ready for NASCAR to go back the days where they change the rules and specs by the week to favor one manufacturer over another.

 

That would mean changing the positioning of the manufacturer decal on the snout because that's as close as it is to manufacturers now.

 

Congrats to Jimmie and his team, but to me winning the Chase five straight times (or seven straight, for that matter) doesn't come close to winning seven Cup championships. Cale winning three straight Cup titles remains an unmatched record to me.
That's not meant as a dig at Jimmie. He might very well go down as one of the best drivers in NASCAR history, maybe even THE best by the time he's done. It's not his fault NASCAR came up with the playoff system which, to many, lowers the significance of winning the season title. It takes a totally different strategy and mindset to win a 10-race playoff vs. a 36-race complete season. Johnson and Knaus have mastered the former and have done what was needed to accomplish that.
It would be interesting to see how they would fare running in a system in which being 300 points back with 10 races to go almost (not totally, remembering Kulwicki's remarkable 1992 comeback) guarantees no chance at the title. Conversely, it would be interesting to see what guys like Petty, Cale, DW or Earnhardt (the real one, not that one running these days) would have done under the current system.

 

The problem with the Chase is the points reset.
After Atlanta, Johnson was seventh in the standings, and Hamlin was 10th. Harvick had a commanding lead. It ended up with Johnson and Hamlin 1-2 and the best driver of the 2010 race season came in third.

 

Because the racing's as good as it's been in years? Because Denny's not a snore, and his crew chief sure as shit is not (or wasn't...he might get reeled in after his yapping backfired)? Because the NFL sucks worse?

I don't know...plenty of reasons.

 

Does anyone know how many of the last 5 years would Johnson have won under the pre-Chase format? Gotta think he would have been 1 or 2 most every year.