Head2Head: Add a road course race to the Chase?

The Chase for the Sprint Cup should be the ultimate test. If the 12 participants are truly the best in the business, the final 10 races should challenge them across all disciplines.

The season-ending schedule features intermediate tracks, short tracks and superspeedways. Alas, a road course is nowhere to be found. What's even more disturbing is that four of the 10 Chase events are on 1.5-mile tracks. There's plenty of room for right turns. Riverside used to determine the champion when it hosted the season finale from 1981 to 1987; there's no reason road courses can't have a small say nowadays.

Before anybody says NASCAR's roots are in ovals, I offer this: when bootleggers were running "shine" from the 5-0 back in the day, you can bet they made right turns. Furthermore, NASCAR's first races were run on the Daytona Beach Road Course.

Both drivers who run well at road courses (see: Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart) and those who don't (see: Elliott Sadler and Jeff Burton) have hinted there should be one in the Chase. It speaks volumes when, even though it's not your forte, you still recognize the importance of it deciding who hoists the hardware at Homestead.

A Chase road course race ups the ante on running well at that type of track and validates the Sprint Cup champion as the true king of the road.

I love road courses. Every year I look forward to electrifying races at Infineon and Watkins Glen. But do I want to see a road race help decide the next Cup champion? No way!

Road courses are fun. Twice a year, throw some uphills and downhills at the drivers -- some right turns and left turns. It's good for them; it breaks up the monotony of going left all the time. But right turns shouldn't be in the Chase.

First off, we don't need guys like Boris Said, Ron Fellows and Scott Pruitt driving in Cup races in October and November. Championships are being decided and those guys should not play a factor in the race. I have a real issue with letting rookies make their debut in Chase races, but that's for another Head2Head. Point is, if you haven't been racing all year, you shouldn't be in a Chase race and that's exactly what would happen if a road course event was run in the final 10.

Second, as much as some (read: Jason) would like to differ, NASCAR is left turns. Sure, the road course races break that up a couple times a year, but for 34 of 36 events, it's all left turns baby. The championship should be decided on those tracks.

If you want right turns to help decide the champion, go watch Formula One or the IRL. This is NASCAR. This is stock-car racing. And stock cars were meant to beat and bang while turnin' left.