If it ain't broke, fix it anyway: NASCAR 2017 Thread

Still a month away from the Daytona 500, but figured it's a good time to start a season thread since NASCAR has once again decided to muck with its points format.
Oh, wait, not just its points format but the entire structure of the sport.
This doesn't sound complicated at all:

NASCAR unveils major changes to races, points

Why can't these numbnuts just pick one system and stick with it for more than three years? The Chase format seemed to work pretty well. This is like something out of the early 1970s. Every time I seem to figure it out as a fan, they go all Roddy Piper on me and change the questions.

 

The only thing that might save the sport is if Rick Hendrick, Bruton Smith and Dale Jr. lead a coup against the France family. Like an actual armed with machine guns coup.

 

In other words, they're turning NASCAR races into hockey games. Will they use a Zamboni to sweep the track?

 

I believe the proper term is competition yellow.

 

I dunno, they haven't had a lot of luck with that sort of thing in the past.

 

Good Lord, the plate races are going to be crazy. None of this riding-around b.s. ... When I go to Talladega I usually get a little siesta in after 40 or so laps. No more.

 

More like the old Continental Basketball Association. One point in the standings for winning a quarter!

 

It'd probably work better (and faster) than that Air Titan contraption ...

 

Makes it a lot more interesting for degenerate gamblers.

 

A fading sport. Nothing with that much backing will go away, but I think it's interesting that their decline continues.

 

This is like your one legitimate chance to rip on the Confederate flag and you passed. Got the flu or something?

 

Look back at 2001 and in the very first race of the new national package on FOX, the sport's biggest star, Dale Earnhardt Sr., died at the end of the 500. That was a tough blow for NASCAR.

Also hasn't helped that other stars like Gordon and Stewart retired and Dale Jr. was out of competition. Jimmie Johnson is of course an all-time great, but he doesn't move the star needle much.