HEMBREE: Need Chase Changes? Shop Here

Sprint Cup

HEMBREE: Need Chase Changes? Shop Here

Every race winner should be a Chaser as NASCAR considers changes for next season…

Mike Hembree | Posted December 10, 2010 Charlotte, NC

SPEED.com NASCAR Editor Mike Hembree is a veteran, award-winning motorsports journalist. (File Photo)

NASCAR is only a few weeks from announcing the changes it will make to the Chase for the Sprint Cup next season, and, amazingly, no one has called to consult me about these matters.

Perhaps there are a lot of dead phone cells between here and Daytona Beach. Yeah, that’s it.

Brian? Robin? Mike? Where are you guys?

The moment shouldn’t pass without this important input, however, so listen up.

If there are going to be changes in the Chase – and I’m not completely convinced there should be, these are the ones that should be implemented:

• Every driver who scores at least one win (and runs the full schedule) in the season’s first 26 races qualifies for the Chase, regardless of point totals.

• Institute some sort of elimination format so that four drivers will be left in the hunt for the championship going into the final race. Then, it’s winner – or highest finisher of the four – take all.

• Change the Chase schedule every year so that there’s at least one new race site in the 10 events.

The first change would add much more importance to winning each week, and that’s needed. The sport remains plagued by too much of a “points racing” mentality. Winning matters most. Let’s make it count more.

Three of this year’s Chase drivers didn’t win a race all season. Meanwhile, non-Chaser Jamie McMurray, who won three times, and other winners Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo Montoya and David Reutimann also missed the Chase. There’s something wrong with that dynamic.

Consistent performance across the length of the season is to be praised, but shouldn’t three wins mean more than a handful of top fives?

As for point two, this year’s final race proved what level of excitement can be created when several drivers have a realistic shot at the championship entering Homestead – or wherever the last race happens to be scheduled in future years. Ratchet the tension a little higher by making it winner-take-all.

There will be complaints that an individual’s seasonal “body of work” won’t count as much, but that’s OK. For better or worse, modern sport is about the excitement of the moment. Give drivers a decent chance to be in that final four, by succeeding throughout

Jimmie Johnson (Left), Denny Hamlin (Center) and Kevin Harvick (Right) each had a shot at the title entering the 2010 season finale at Homestead. (Photo: Getty Images)

the season, and they’ll make the rest of the year exciting, too.

Point three is one that many drivers have endorsed. Moving speedways in and out of the Chase schedule not only gives different parts of the country access to the most important stretch of the season but also keeps drivers and teams on their toes. A team shouldn’t have a track-by-track blueprint for Chase success every season.

If the ink isn’t dry on that new Chase draft, guys, go ahead and pencil these in. Have at it.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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