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RICHMOND, Va. -- The reality of the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Saturday night was that no one was chasing anyone for a Nextel Cup playoff spot.


Defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson starts the playoff on top after winning for the second consecutive weekend.


NASCAR's royal hero -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- never had a decent chance at earning that 12th and final position in the Chase field.


It was the first time since the Chase format started four years ago that a playoff position wasn't determined in the final qualifying event.

ESPN - Blount: What if? - Nascar

[Bob Tanner]

Time for NA$CAR to manipulate things again?

"New chase format a good idea .... but not this year" Talk about the epitome of hindsight! Enron and World Omni were good stocks to have in yo0ur portfolio, too. However, after the companies went Tango Uniform, they weren't such a good idea.

It has been proven over and over and over and ov... Anytime you have competition between supposed equals, sometimes you will have close finishes and sometimes there will be runaways. To try and manipulate the finishes (ala NA$CAR) only diminishes the credibility of the actual competition.

But then, that's just one guy's opinion.

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Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Time for NA$CAR to manipulate things again?

"New chase format a good idea .... but not this year" Talk about the epitome of hindsight! Enron and World Omni were good stocks to have in yo0ur portfolio, too. However, after the companies went Tango Uniform, they weren't such a good idea.

It has been proven over and over and over and ov... Anytime you have competition between supposed equals, sometimes you will have close finishes and sometimes there will be runaways. To try and manipulate the finishes (ala NA$CAR) only diminishes the credibility of the actual competition.

But then, that's just one guy's opinion.

The one extreme was one of the reasons the chase was instituted.

[PettyBlue]

Wonder how Nascar would spin it if Bowyer won the cup while never winning a race.

[Nevadastars]

Jeff Burton had a shot at it last year without winning a single race. It was possible to do under the old points system as well.
Tony Stewart made a mockery of the Chase last year by winning 3 (I believe) races, while on the outside looking in. A lot of folks claim Na$car went to 12 teams in it because of Jr. not making it, but I believe it was more because of Stewarts wins.
The whole thing is a joke in my opinion. No other sport has teams competing for a championship, while teams that arent in the playoffs..........are still competing.

[PettyBlue]

Burton has won before just not then,has Bowyer ever won a cup race?

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Originally Posted by PettyBlue

Wonder how Nascar would spin it if Bowyer won the cup while never winning a race.

I would hope that no negative spin would be put on it at all. After all they are the ones who have reset the point system so that they would all be basically starting equal. The past is the past and it all comes down to these 10 races for the dirty dozen.

[wingkey1]

"The reality of the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Saturday night was that no one was chasing anyone for a Nextel Cup playoff spot" - hard to argue with this. Got kick out of comment, think it was from/by Harvick, that he'd essentially just be riding around protecting and not going for the win. Points racing. Can't really argue with his logic. Does provide another example that there likely exists no approach to determining the championship that prevents this race strategy.


"Wonder how Nascar would spin it if Bowyer won the cup while never winning a race" - some idiot will want to make wins worth 3 gazillion points to prevent this travesty from ever occuring again.


"Tony Stewart made a mockery of the Chase last year" - always thought there existed the real possibility that "Chasers" could well have been of the mindset - "let the wreckmaster through. No sense us losing what he can't even hope to gain at this point". Again, can't really argue with the logic.


OK so here we are. Chase time. Over the first 26 races there was a runaway. The real Champion? Anti-climactic (sp?).