In sport's Chase era, old standards no longer apply (cont'd)

"I think it's going to be a great lesson, a great test for those guys, to show us all what they're capable of doing," said Gordon, who knows firsthand the level of disappointment Busch is feeling this week. "You know, I still think there's no doubt in anybody's mind what kind of talent Kyle Busch is and will continue to be in our sport. And I know that it's probably been very frustrating for him, because two weeks in a row it's been something out of his hands. So all he can do is come back and do everything that he possibly can to get that team back into Victory Lane. He's going to be on full tilt, I know that for sure, which Kyle typically is. But he certainly will be trying to make up all the points that have been lost."

The Chase is five years old now, but so much about it still feels alien. The thought that a driver can come almost out of nowhere to win a Sprint Cup title, as Greg Biffle is attempting to do this season, would have been laughable under the old format. Many drivers, rooted in the belief that a NASCAR champion is identified over the grueling slog of a 10-month season, still seem to wrestle with the concept that they now have to be great only over 10 races, and not 36. For decades, fans held fast to the traditional credo that consistency is everything, honing an ability to see past the glitz of Victory Lane and to the bigger picture beyond.

All that has changed now. As much as we want to believe that some of the old standards still apply, everything is different. When one driver dominates the season but fails to win a championship, it can be dismissed as an aberration. But now that it's happening two years in a row, it's clear that this isn't a fluke, but the new reality. Just as a wild card entry can upend a 100-game winner in baseball, a dark horse can now wrest a championship from the season's most successful driver in Sprint Cup. In both cases, you wind up with fans arguing over who the real champion should be. The difference is, in pre-Chase NASCAR, that was rarely if ever up for debate.

So now Busch is all but out of the running, and one obstacle has been removed from Johnson's path to a potential third consecutive championship. It would be a spectacular accomplishment, given that only one other man has ever done it. But since Cale Yarborough's three titles (won from 1976-78) came under the old points system that demanded sustained excellence over an entire season, can the two feats even be compared? That's something even Gordon, Johnson's car owner and teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, wonders about.

"The one thing that I hesitate to really go into too much detail about is the history of our sport and comparing what's happened since the Sprint Cup has come along versus with the ... old points system," Gordon said. "There is no comparison. I think you can't really compare history. Even though there's been one three-time champion, that's Cale Yarborough, how he did it and where that put him in history versus Jimmie, this is new history. It's equally as challenging and substantial, but I don't think you can compare the two."

It's just another way the Chase has changed things, for better or worse. That doesn't mean the playoff system is necessarily bad for the sport. But things are different now. Don't believe it? Ask Jeff Gordon or Kyle Busch.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.