Chase drivers weigh in on fairness of sport's playoff

Some think Chase is just fine, others want to see changes

By NASCAR.COM
November 1, 2008
12:06 PM EDT

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Jimmie Johnson's Chase-era record 183-point lead has fans buzzing over the five-year-old playoff format.

On Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, drivers weighed in with their thoughts and the frenzy surrounding Johnson's trek toward a third consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship.

Mockery of system

It was bound to happen eventually -- a driver runs away with the title in the Chase era. Duane Cross offers up an alternative that would tighten things back up.

Heading into Sunday's race, Johnson's lead on second-place Carl Edwards is more than a one-race point total (161 points). Third-place Biffle trails by 185 points while fourth-place Jeff Burton is 218 points behind.

"We've worked very hard," Johnson said, "and I know everybody has listened to me over the last 34 weekends talking about how hard we've worked this year. At the end of the day, we all know we didn't get off to a good start. And we had to work very hard to be in this position. We're here and we're proud of it."

One driver who did get off to a good start, Kyle Busch, basically said the current Chase point system is what it is, and that Johnson is the runaway winner in 2008 -- with three races remaining.

"Realistically and historically, he's the champion," Busch said. "I guess you would have more drama than with the old points system with Jimmie being able to battle all the way back and catch up and surpass myself and Carl. Whatever [NASCAR] wants to do -- it's their sand box."

Burton said the Chase addressed longtime complaints associated with the previous point system. "It rewards winning," he said of the Chase. "It rewards running up front, it rewards leading laps, it does everything that you guys [the media] all thought was really cool. When somebody does it better than everybody else, don't talk about how the point system is messed up, talk about how good they're doing. That's what the focus ought to be."

Biffle spoke out against a thought that his car owner proposed last week, when Jack Roush suggested Chase teams should be able to discard their worst finish during the 10-race Chase. "You can't make a rule to keep one guy from winning the championship," Biffle said. "That's never worked in our sport and this is an equal opportunity right here."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, agreed: "In my opinion, the Chase does what it's supposed to do. There's no real true formula that anybody in this room could come up with to make the perfect Chase every time. I think that you've just got to give Jimmie and those guys credit for whatever they've been able to accomplish up to this point. They're a dominant team in this sport at this time. You can't handicap an individual for being great."

However, Denny Hamlin, Busch's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, said, "It's a shame for that [No. 18] race team and for Kyle. They're going to be struggling to make it to New York [as a top-10 driver, which makes the trip to New York for Champions Week].

"After the season that they've had, they deserve something -- I truly believe that. I don't know if you have a regular-season champion or what you have. I definitely think they deserve to have something for all the effort and all the wins they've had this year. This format is tough.

"To us," Hamlin added, "we didn't worry about having bad weeks as long as we made the Chase and that's three-quarters of the season. Why is it not more important to go out there and perform well on a weekly basis than it is? To reward nothing but wins, that's kind of tough. I jumped ahead of guys like Jeff Burton that have been consistent through the three-quarters of the season just because I had one win and he didn't have any [when the points were reset before the Chase began at New Hampshire].

"If it's flawed in any way ... I like the way that it was back a few years ago when you kept your position. Whatever you entered the Chase in the point's position but there was a gap between you and the guy in front of you. I believe that's the best way to do it."