All about the Chase, when it should be about the race (cont'd)

But all those quibbles are fixable with a few tweaks to the format, should NASCAR deign them necessary. Yet there's nothing that anyone can do about the fact that the Chase has become such a monster, such the end-all and be-all of the Sprint Cup tour, that it can make even race victories seem insignificant by comparison.

Last week at Michigan brought a breakthrough victory for both a team and a driver, but Vickers' long-awaited first win for Red Bull Racing -- big enough to get him that contract extension that was well overdue -- was soon drowned out by the omnipresent bigger picture, and his standing in relation to other drivers vying for spots in the Chase.

The same will be true Saturday night, which given the somewhat desperate situations faced by those on the outside looking in, will ultimately be about who made a big move and who didn't. The race winner will have further secured his position or climbed off the bubble. And the 160,000 people who packed themselves into the Tennessee short track couldn't care less.

Clearly, under this championship format, there's a degree of points racing that needs to be done. At a certain point, most of the hopefuls are going to have to play prevent defense and just stay out of trouble, particularly at a place like Bristol.

But let's never forget what the paying spectators are there to see, what the television viewers are tuning in to watch, what was the most important thing in NASCAR long before the Chase was implemented -- winning the race. Martin, faced with the usual deluge of championship questions after his June victory at Michigan, summed it up best: "This whole sport has forgot," he said, "that it's about the race, you know?"

In the Chase era, race wins often seem like nothing more than individual puzzle pieces, rather than the life-changing, career-affirming events they really are. Do you think Vickers and his Red Bull teammates would have celebrated their success any less last Sunday had the Chase not been a part of the picture? Do you think race wins mean any less to Joey Logano and David Reutimann and Brad Keselowski because they won't be advancing to the postseason?

Winning races is the reason that drivers slide into cars to begin with. It's the reason sponsors write big checks. It's the reason car owners hire hundreds of people and install tons of equipment. Winning races is the building block for everything else. In a sport like NASCAR, there's nothing more fundamental than a driver celebrating in Victory Lane.

So why, at this time of the season, do the race winners seem almost secondary to the championship drama unfolding around them? That's an unfortunate byproduct of the Chase, which allows more people into the title hunt and prolongs it for much more of the season, but in the process dwarfs almost everything else.

Busch, given his impressive track record on the high-banked, concrete-paved facility, may very well win Saturday night in Bristol. But it wouldn't be just a victory, it would be a step toward getting back in the top 12. And guess which of those feats would take precedence over the other?

But these days, that's the way it is. The focus on the bigger picture is so overwhelming, that with a few exceptions the weekly race winners almost seem to run together. And yet, when Saturday night's event ends, there will be a driver hugging crewmen and wearing a firesuit that's been soaked by champagne. There will be fans pressing themselves tight against the restraining fence to scream and cheer. For that one moment, priorities will be in the correct order.

But soon enough, that instant of glory will fade, and it will be all about the championship once again. After all, the mighty Chase can be subdued only for so long.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer.