All about the Chase, when it should be about the race

These days, it's all about the Chase. Tony Stewart clinched his spot in NASCAR's postseason showdown by starting last weekend's race at Michigan, and Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson can secure their berths with finishes of sixth and second, respectively, Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. Brian Vickers is charging. Juan Montoya is coasting. Mark Martin is hanging on, and Kyle Busch is running out of time. With only three races remaining until the championship field is determined, the jostling for position has begun in earnest. For all its spectacle and grandeur, Bristol is but one part of a much bigger picture.

Despite its flaws, there's no question the Chase has been a good thing for NASCAR. Without it, Stewart would hold a nearly insurmountable 284-point lead in the standings, and the only thing louder than the roar of Sprint Cup engines would be the click of televisions turning off from coast to coast.

Now, Bristol is once again a lock-solid sellout, Atlanta has hope of a good crowd in two weeks, and TV ratings for last Sunday's Michigan race were up over a year ago. Despite Stewart's perceived invincibility, a real sense of unpredictability hangs over this season's Chase. And then there's the knowledge that since the dawn of the Chase era, only one regular-season leader -- Stewart in 2005 -- has ever managed to finish the job.

So given the prolonged drama of who will get in and who will get knocked out, there's clearly a reason to tune in during the next several weeks. The Chase is doing its job, providing NASCAR with a wave of momentum it will need to attract attention from the casual sports crowd now that football training camps are in full swing.

In many ways this championship format dominates the season from the first lap at Daytona until the final circuit at Homestead, giving every fully sponsored team the same goal to aim for, providing the diving line that separates a successful campaign from a disappointing one. It casts a shadow so large that it obscures everything else -- including who wins an individual race.

No question, the Chase has issues. The fact that Martin is the series leader in race wins yet sits just 12 points out of racing for 13th comes across as ludicrous. The fact that Stewart is going to lose every bit of his substantial points advantage -- if the Chase began today, he'd start 10 behind Martin -- comes across as unfair. The fact that Montoya has been giving up opportunities to win races, content to finish in the top 10 and strengthen his postseason position, comes across as backward.

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.