Excitement of new Chase format will be amplified during playoffs
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During the frigid temperatures of the offseason last winter, NASCAR officials took a two-tiered approach to refreshing the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, revising the eligibility rules to get in it and the format to win it. The news heated up the hot-stove season, creating an all-new level of bench racing.
The element of the unknown set the garage's best minds to work with early opinions on devising new strategies and approaches. Now, with 26 regular-season races behind them in the deep reaches of summer and 10 postseason showdowns looming, both sides of the season appear to be entwined by a common thread.
"Our mentality is to win. That's what we come to do -- nothing's changed there," said Joey Logano, a three-time winner this year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. "We're going to do what we've got to do."
The newly charged emphasis on winning goes to another level Sunday with the opening round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Chicagoland Speedway. After 10 years of postseason stock-car racing with only slight changes to the format, this Chase goes into its 11th with major moves.
If the new-look Chase takes on a tournament-style feel with a survive-and-advance mindset, it's no accident. The overhauled format, in which regular-season winners virtually punch their postseason ticket, was developed to discourage conservative "points racing" and make for more aggressive pushes toward the checkered flag. The change paid frequent dividends with teams taking pit-road gambles and drivers testing the limits on the track.
In an overwhelming show of parity, 13 drivers visited Victory Lane during the regular season to clinch Chase berths, meaning the new rules of the road will greet former champions, familiar faces and newcomers alike. The remaining three earned their way into the expanded 16-driver field based on their place in the Sprint Cup standings.
In previous years, drivers were removed from contention by mathematical means if they stumbled off to sluggish starts. Now, the eliminations after each of the three-race rounds (Challenger, Contender and Eliminator) are more clear-cut, whittling the title-eligible field from 16 to 12 to eight to a best-finisher-take-all championship race among the final four at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 16. After each round, the points reset to level the playing field, but winners in each round get the benefit of a free pass to the next.
Brad Keselowski is the top seed and has four regular-season wins, including last week's regular-season finale at Richmond. He's joined by a quartet of three-time victors atop the Challenger Round heap -- former champs Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, and first-time championship hopefuls Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Logano.
While the rules for advancement remain the same at each of the three cuts, Steve Letarte -- Earnhardt's crew chief, who will trade his wrenches for a microphone on the NBC Sports broadcast team in 2015 -- suggests that the pressure to perform will only increase as the Chase rolls on.
"I don't think it's anything like past years," Letarte said. "I think the first three (races), you've got to run top 15, the middle three you've probably got to run in the top 10 and the last three, you're probably going to have to win one to end up at Homestead."
While the powerhouse teams will likely feel a ratcheted sense of pressure, in true tournament style the new format will also lend itself to potential upsets by plucky underdogs. Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Kurt and Kyle Busch all faced issues or dry spells during the season that would have placed them either firmly on the Chase bubble or completely out of contention in past years, but their ability to convert one regular-season win each gives them nearly equal footing at playoff time.
Likewise, A.J. Allmendinger and Aric Almirola -- two drivers who notched their first career victories in 2014 -- now have a Cinderella shot at championship glory. Almirola emerged as a surprise winner with a rainy victory at Daytona in July, and Allmendinger scored a long-awaited breakthrough at Watkins Glen a month later by flexing his road-course expertise.
For Allmendinger, the triumph was one of perseverance and redemption, but it also came with an opportunity to rise up come clutch time.
"When it comes to the Chase, with the new format, it doesn't mean we can't show up to Chicago and get hot early," Allmendinger said Aug. 10 after his maiden voyage to Victory Lane in NASCAR's top series. "The way the format is laid out, you don't have to be amazing for 10 races, you just have to be good enough each three sets of races. The next thing you know, you get to Homestead -- anything can happen."
The format has not only provided extra incentive to win, but the system has also provided benefits for clinching early. Drivers with regular-season wins under their belts have rolled toward the Chase under far less pressure than in past years. The effect has been the same for teams and crew chiefs, who have been able to experiment with car setups for Chase races without great risk of damaging their postseason hopes along the way.
Regular-season strategies under the new system have shifted, but the question of whether playoff strategies will follow suit remains. While teams will continue to make customary adjustments for each of the 10 tracks in the Chase, Logano said he doesn't anticipate his Team Penske bunch making wholesale changes to their overall approach.
"I think we've got to race the same way we've been," Logano said, noting that his team had amassed a modest five-race hot streak during the summer with an average finish of 3.6 over the span. "I would hate to change what we're doing. It's working pretty good."
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