2014 NASCAR running thread - Brian France idiot edition

If Brian France - along with Helton and Pemberton - hasn't already done enough to destroy NASCAR, the new championship format is hopefully the death knell.

I guess because he couldn't land an NFL franchise, he just wants to making racing more like football.

Since the advent of the Chase, the NASCAR championship has been laughable. Now, it will be a downright joke. They should do away with the championship all together and just have weekly races.

For those not up to speed, Spanky and the Gang decided to increase the Chase field to 16, because, well, you know, somebody in 16th place 2/3's of the way through the season tries just as hard as those guys up front and deserves a trophy, too. Then, they are going to eliminate drivers just like stick and ball playoffs, setting up a final showdown between the top four drivers in the last race. The guy that finishes first is the champion.

 

What a joke. I'm just glad I gave up on NASCAR long before Brain France took over. The Chase always seemed contrived to me and ran against what racing is about: being the best over the course of an entire year. I never understood why NASCAR didn't just give winners more points and call it good. For example, in the old days the second-place driver scored the same points as the winner if he led the most laps. Easy solution: give a 20 point bonus for winning.
This latest change is all about creating those Game 7-type moments, right? I think many familiar with NASCAR history would say the 1992 season finale was the best day in the sport's history. Six drivers eligible for the title, Richard Petty's last race, Jeff Gordon's first race. Plenty of plot twists throughout the day, with Alan Kulwicki knowing exactly how many laps he needed to lead to get those bonus points over Bill Elliott.

 

Once a sport senses it's on the decline, the resulting changes always make things worse.

 

I'm not far behind you.
Reading the story .., It's winner-take-all format.
Except that under the new format Dale Jr. would have won last year's championship. And he didn't win a race.

The idea of big picture racing all year just thrills me (YAWN) to death.

 

I agree on missing Poole and Monte. Hinton works for ESPN.com and writes something about once a month. As much as I like all the ESPN guys, I don't see any of them making waves.

I also agree with just giving the winner a big bump in points over the rest. I've always said adopt the F1 format where maybe only the top 20 get points with a sizable drop for 1-2-3-etc.

Murphyc, the 92 finale was great ... unless you were a hard core Davey Allison fan. :'(

 

Some of the old NASCAR beat writers ended up at RacinToday.com. They might have some opinions. And doesn't Mike Mulhern still have his own website? Mega quotes aside, I seem to recall he usually told it like it was.
I wasn't a Davey fan, but I respected the hell out of him. Never more than when he faced the cameras after that heartbreaking loss in Atlanta. I remember after Kulwicki was killed, I was glad he won the title because Davey would still have a chance to battle Earnhardt, Wallace, Martin etc. for his title.
Sigh.

 

If you can make sense of his writing.

 

The expansion of the field is ridiculous, but the new elimination rounds are just silly.

I grew up an IndyCar fan, drifted to NASCAR during the split, but find myself increasingly more interested in Indy and less in NASCAR. I just can't get on board with these gimmicks.

 

Racintoday started out really well with some of the older types (Woody, Minter, Harris, etc.), but it seems to have pulled back in the last year or so. I guess somebody figured out you can't run a media outlet for free.

When Kulwicki was killed, I was in the same boat as you. I actually told a friend of mine who was a big Kulwicki fan, "I'm glad he won that title last year. Davey will plenty of chances in the future." Little did we know, three months later he would meet the same fate.

 

It's not "37 percent of the field." It's the top-16 drivers at a certain point, almost all of whom, if not all, will have won a race. You're not going to see Joe Nemechek and David Gilliland in the top-16.