David Pearson has spoken.

Pearson, winner of 105 races and three championships, was dubbed the Silver Fox once upon a time for his calm, cool and calculated driving style. Off the track, he was as humble and unassuming as they come. He still is, for that matter.

Don't think, though, that Pearson won't express an opinion. Don't think that for a second, especially if it's something that he feels strongly about. And he feels strongly about a number of things, including the Chase. He's not a fan, and that's putting it mildly. Very, very mildly.

“

They don't need a Chase. There ain't no such thing as a Chase. I don't like it ... I don't like none of it.

”

-- DAVID PEARSON

"Whoever heard of waiting to the last 12 races at the end of the year -- 10 or whatever it is now -- and take the top 12 cars [into the Chase]?" Pearson asked, the tone of his voice unmistakably dubious. "I'd do away with that rule. I'd start first of the year with the points and whoever was leading it at the end of the year wins the championship.

"They don't need a Chase. There ain't no such thing as a Chase. I don't like it ... I don't like none of it."

Preach, Brother David. Preach!

The Chase does have its problems. We won't go into what those issues might or might not be because the arguments have been made many times in many other places, but the bottom line is this: the Chase is evidently here to stay, so we're all going to have to learn to live with it.

If NASCAR is determined to have a Chase, let's have a Chase that truly brings attention to the sport. How are we going to do that? Here's one solution that would amount to wiring the rulebook to a few sticks of dynamite and lighting the fuse. This is the master plan:

• Teams run the full 36-race regular season using the traditional, pre-2004 point format, with few exceptions. There's no bonus for leading a lap and leading the most laps, but a 10-point bump for finishing first.
• The top-20 teams get into this version of the new-and-improved Chase.

Here's the kicker. You may want to sit down for this.

• The Chase consists of not 10 races but ... drumroll please ... one race, for all the marbles.

If that weren't enough, there's more.

• There's no qualifying for this Chase showdown. Starting positions are determined by how drivers finish in the point standings at the end of the regular season.
• Location for the Chase moves from track to track each year. Run it at Daytona one year, Bristol the next. How about Charlotte? Can you begin to imagine the show that Charlotte would put on for a $7 million, winner-takes-all championship event?

To prevent any one team from stacking the deck at that season's Chase track, testing at that facility -- and sister courses -- is banned for the calendar year.

Now go ahead. Pick yourself up off the floor and quit laughing long enough to consider this. The Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event in the world. For two weeks, there's a tremendous hype from one end of the country to the other for the National Football League's championship game. Who's got the better offense? The better defense?

Where's the party going to be this year? Who's bringing what food? What are the commercials going to be like?

With a 10-race Chase, that kind of buzz just isn't possible. The first Chase race can't be the big race because there's another race next week ... and the next and the next and so on. For nine races, there's always a tomorrow.

A few other points to ponder about a one-race Chase:

• It would eliminate any criticism of how non-Chase drivers race against Chase drivers. When each and every driver in the field is in contention for the championship, there's no need to make way for anyone else.
• Forget the pit crew race held every May in Charlotte. This would be the truest possible test of the best over-the-wall teams in the sport. Imagine the poor tire changer whose driver was leading until a lug nut got missed on the final stop of the day.
• Most importantly, a one-race Chase would bring an absolutely incredible brand of racing into the mix. Remember Dale Earnhardt's so-called "pass in the grass" -- it's so-called, because he never really passed anybody -- during the 1987 all-star event. Folks, with that much on the line in a one-race Chase, that's the kind of competition we'd see every single lap.

You'd have Jeff Gordon laying a bumper to Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth whacking the living daylights out of Carl Edwards or Greg Biffle, if not both. Kyle Busch would run over Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano -- granted, that's not exactly a stretch. The point is that the sense of all-out, no-holds-barred competition would be heightened to the nth degree.

If the end goal is putting fannies in the seats and eyes on the television, this should be the final word on a one-race Chase format. After laying out the plan for a friend a couple of weeks ago, the first words out of his mouth were, and I quote, "One race for $7 million? Yeah ... I'd pay to see that."

And that, my friends, is what it's all about.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.