New NASCAR Format Has Big Stars, Sport in Danger

When NASCAR announced its new format for the Chase for the Championship playoff system in the Sprint Cup Series before the season I instantly felt it turned arguably the biggest motorsports championship into a joke.

Almost halfway through the Chase that feeling actually continues to grow.

After a wild race at Kansas Speedway for the fourth race of the 2014 Chase the standings were shaken up quite a bit and find some of the biggest names in the sport in desperation with only two races remaining in this segment to get into the top eight spots needed to reach the Chase’s third segment. The final race of this second segment is Talladega Superspeedway, which every NASCAR fan knows is simply a crapshoot. This must have these big names, and the sport depending on them for its success, on pins and needles.

After the Kansas race six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, 2013 champion Brad Keselowski and the sport’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. find themselves on the outside looking in, all more than 20 points outside of the eighth place bubble with only Charlotte and Talladega remaining in the segment.

Four-time champion Jeff Gordon is safe for now, but sits only eight spots ahead of Kasey Kahne for that coveted eighth spot in the standings.

Theoretically Gordon, Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski, arguably the four biggest names in the Chase, could all end up missing the next segment of the Chase and be eliminated from title contention. Another scenario has the only four champions currently in the Chase (Johnson, Gordon, Keselowski, and Matt Kenseth, also only eight points ahead of the cutoff, missing the next segment). If this were to happen I’d halfway expect NASCAR to say “oopsy and never mind” and revert immediately back to their old system. While in jest, we have seen the sport do unheard of and stranger things before. I’d almost guarantee a lack of big name stars over the sport’s last four races would lead to more changes in the offseason.  

These four stars, or even two or three of them, being eliminated from championship contention with four races remaining would be horrible for NASCAR’s fans, and more importantly to the sport, its television ratings.

If these drivers’ racing ability led to such horrible finishes at Kansas none of this would be a big deal, but things out of their doing like blown tires or getting the bad end of other people’s wrecks have them in holes that might not be possible to dig out.

The new Chase format was instituted by NASCAR hoping to add some spice to the playoff system in order to help compete with dominant NFL coverage on Sundays, to show the networks (NBC and Fox) in the new television package starting next season what’s to come and add a do-or-die flare to the playoffs, which would still often come down to just two drivers at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

After the first four races and knowing that Talladega is on the horizon that “do-or-die” flare has turned into the potential for a “crash-and-burn” scenario for NASCAR. Sure, it’s currently nothing more than a “what if,” but 20-plus points down for its superstars and the big one at ‘Dega looming kind of puts things in perspective.

A final foursome of Joey Logano, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin in a virtual winner take all championship bout might bring in the television viewers, but having a name like Johnson, Gordon, Keselowski or Earnhardt would bring in heckuva lot more.