Leave it alone: NASCAR should stick with current Chase format for some time

Good, bad or ugly, NASCAR's new Chase format has created drama, excitement and hard racing throughout its first year. Although it has faced criticism and it may have flaws, NASCAR now needs to leave the format alone for the next few seasons.

Since the Chase was introduced in 2004, the format and way teams compete for the championship has been changed, molded and completely rewritten on four different occasions. These changes altered how many drivers qualified, how they made their way in, and how the eventual champion was crowned.

With this latest change producing drama and excitement unlike anything we've seen in the sport for quite some time, NASCAR needs to embrace this format and let it be.

"NASCAR's core responsibility is to always look down the road and position the industry to excite our fans with the highest level of competition in the world," NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said when introducing the new format in January. "... The new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will be thrilling, easy to understand and help drive our sport's competition to a whole new level."

France was right that the new format would be thrilling and drive the competition to the whole new level. This year's Chase has produced some of the most memorable moments, both on and off the track. 

Easy to understand? Well, there might still be some work on that one, both for fans and competitors.

When introducing this format, France also pointed out the fact fans do not like points racing and this new Chase emphasized winning above everything else.

"We have millions of fans and we have some very loud and passionate fans, especially when we change anything. We understand that," France said back in January. "The vast majority of the fans that we communicated with, and I think we're the best in sports in staying close to our fan base, really love this.  They love it because they really don't like points racing. At the end of the day, although consistency is important in our sport, and it remains important, it's just less important, so they like that. They understand winner‑take‑all formats, and they understand being the best down the stretch."

Drivers and teams learned a host of information this season as they worked out the kinks with the new format. Wins were essential to making it into the Chase, but as Ryan Newman and his Richard Childress Racing team have shown, points racing is still an important part of the game.

Brad Keselowski has the most wins of any driver in the series this year, yet he is no longer in title contention. Same for Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who all have four wins on the season but no shot at the title this week in Homestead. Yet among the four drivers fighting for the Sprint Cup trophy in Homestead, Newman is winless and Denny Hamlin's lone win came back in May at Talladega.

Sure, there are flaws to the system. Yeah, the emphasis on winning may not have come to fruition as planned. But this is the system that is in place and the competitors have done their best to adapt, learn and capitalize on any advantages they can find.

Some have suggested that this season's champion should have an asterisk next to his name as a result of this new and unpredictable format. That should not be the case.

This should not be a one-off championship format that sees major changes overhaul the Chase system yet again next season. NASCAR should stick with this format with no major changes for the next few years so that teams and drivers can continue to learn and adapt to how to race for the championship.

The new Chase format has mostly been a hit among drivers as well.

"From my standpoint, the intensity of the sport has gone through the roof. You can never making everybody happy," said Newman. "Can it be manipulated? Absolutely. Can we give more points for wins? Can we give more points for leading laps? Absolutely. Can we give points for qualifying? I said that 10 years ago. In the end it is what it is, and we all had the opportunity in Daytona to start our Chase for the championship, and now four of us have a chance this coming weekend."

"The people that outcry this system is bad is when their favorite driver doesn't make it," Denny Hamlin said Sunday in Phoenix. "The system is fine. It's exciting. Every race is exciting. There's not been one boring race, and every race, it comes down to somebody on a restart or something. This is the best thing that's happened to the sport in a really long time. Just because your favorite driver don't make it, it could go the other way for them next year. Let's just leave this thing alone for a little while."

Over the history of NASCAR, champions have been crowned in different ways, under different systems. How Richard Petty won the title in 1964 was different than how Dale Earnhardt won it in 1994, different than how Kurt Busch did it in 2004, and will be much more different than how the 2014 champion will be crowned.

Let the competitors figure this system out, let them work the kinks out on their own, and let's see how it unfolds over the next few years before looking for more tweaks and adjustments.