Should there be a road course race among the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup's 10-race playoff portion of the schedule?
I have been a proponent of this since the Chase was first instituted, written several columns and debated on radio and television over many years explaining the benefit of featuring a road course -- I believe the purest test of a driver's ability -- in the Chase.
And now ... it seems others don't think the idea is far-fetched.
An enthusiastic, and importantly, very large crowd -- sold out reserved seating -- witnessed a great show at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International over the weekend.
And as typically follows a good road course show, the question of adding one to the Chase demands extra attention and at least serious consideration.
The Century Survey of 100 NASCAR industry insiders, half from the media and half from the garage (including crew members, drivers, crew chiefs, track officials and public relation representatives) was released this week after taking a poll over the past weekend on whether a road course should be added to the Chase, and if so, which one.
The most popular idea was to move the Watkins Glen race into the Chase. Adding Austin's Circuit of the Americas or shifting the June Sonoma, California, race into the Chase were the next two biggest vote getters.
Interesting, the biggest disparity among the voters was an 8-1 vote with people in the garage (8) against even adding a road course at all. Only one media representative didn't want to see a road course in the Chase.
Ten different tracks received votes as good venues to have in the Chase. In addition to the Glen, Sonoma and COTA, Road America (Wis.), Laguna Seca (Calif.) and Road Atlanta received the next most votes in that order.
And NASCAR executives have indicated they are at least listening to the voice of the fans, media and industry insiders, even if they aren't quite ready to make a big change to the Chase yet.
For many years, the drivers and teams were the tough sell.
But the trophy isn't a foregone conclusion anymore going to a racer like the retiring Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart or a couple road course ringers.
RELATED: Let's debate adding a road course to the Chase
In the 1980s and 1990s, road course races were tolerated by a large portion of the starting grid, considered a couple complicated weekends to just check off and collect as many points as possible -- two and through.
It was common for drivers to show up with their helmet at a Bob Bondurant School for a quick refresher course in the days leading up to the Sonoma race and maybe hit a Skip Barber Racing School on the East Coast just before Watkins Glen.
But today's NASCAR drivers embrace the skill set it takes to do well on road courses and have even come to like them and the unique challenge.
There was a time for the argument that a road course race in the Chase essentially worked to the benefit of an elite group making it an unfair situation during the most important 10-week run of the season to crown a sport's champion.
But that's not the case today and it's time for the Chase to turn right.
"To me, always when I think of drivers that were really good, they did well on the road courses," said NASCAR's all-time road race winner Jeff Gordon.
"But then you had this big drop off where drivers and teams just didn't really go after them and really struggled on them. To me, about the late 90s is when I saw everyone really putting a lot more focus and attention on them. And it started bringing the whole level of competition up higher.
"By early 2000, 2001 it seemed like most of the field was good on a road course."
The statistics back up Gordon.
Until Kyle Busch's win at Sonoma earlier this summer 10 of the last 11 races have been won by different drivers ranging from Clint Bowyer to Kasey Kahne, to Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr.
At Watkins Glen, there have been only three repeat winners (Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Marcos Ambrose) in the last decade.
On a FOX Sports 1 broadcast called "Fans Speak Out" this June, a poll revealed that adding a road course to the Chase was the No. 1 topic among those NASCAR fans.
NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell acknowledged the increasing calls for a Chase shake-up.
"As you can tell, the fans voting it number one, there's certainly a lot of passion around it," O'Donnell said at the time. "It is a topic we look at each and every year. Although I don't see something in the immediate future when you look at '16, it is something that we're aware of from a fan standpoint, to look at and see if we can introduce that in the future."
This week O'Donnell addressed the subject again.
"We never say never to that question, but we really like where Watkins Glen fits on the schedule, the build-up, where it stands in the schedule, and drivers really going after wins," O'Donnell said Tuesday.
"Some of the drivers feeling like that's their one shot to propel them into the Chase so that's a really neat storyline. It is something we'd look at down the road and would have to figure out weather considerations and that sort of thing.
"But for the time being, we're really happy with where both our road courses stand in terms of how they play out throughout the regular-season schedule."