This year ? the Chase works

Chase contenders Denny Hamlin, Jimmy Johnson and Kevin Harvick during a Champions press conference on Friday. (Photo: Getty Images)

 

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Let the best man win. Let the fastest car win. Here’s hoping they’re the same.

Grant the serenity not to have to muddy the Sprint Cup waters with leaking oil or litter them with debris. Here’s hoping no one’s title hopes run out of gas … literally.

Even though “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” is but a memory, it would be nostalgic to have the Ford 400 decided amid “the human drama of athletic competition.” What’s more important than who wins is how he wins it.

In an incredible development, given the slings and arrows of the Chase format, the three drivers who are still in contention – at Homestead-Miami Speedway, in the final race, with a 46-point blanket over them – are the three who deserve to be there.

If there were no Chase – and the points awarded in each race the same as now – Kevin Harvick would lead by 295 points. Of course, there is a Chase.

The driver with the most victories is Denny Hamlin.

The driver with four straight championships is Jimmie Johnson.

Chase or no Chase, they would be the top three now, though in different order. If the true goal of the Chase is to tighten, but not otherwise alter, the course of the season, then this Chase is the one that exemplifies the format. Even those who dislike the Chase – they’re out there – should be willing to concede that this is just about as good as the format, however flawed, gets.

If everything works out perfectly today, NASCAR will have a difficult time justifying further changes, even though NASCAR chairman Brian France has been floating trial balloons on the subject since July.

They’ll probably “tweak it” a little – France and his minions love that word – just to save face.

France was still pumping hot air – perhaps not quite as hot as before – into the balloon as recently as Friday.

The results of the current season, he said, demonstrate that “the more we can do, to have incentives ? an incentive basis -- to decide this championship, that puts it all on the line more often. That's what we need to be thinking about.”

Oh, yeah. “Take paradise and … put up a parking lot.”

Source: http://nascar.rbma.com/on-track/general-motorsports/33362-this-year--the-chase-works

Kenny Wallace Federated Auto Parts Chevrolet Jason Keller TriStar Motorsports Chevrolet