Thank you Jerry for not being another of the many NASCAR writers with the sheep-like mentality of “what’s wrong with you people?  Jimmie Johnson is on a historic streak and you people need to appreciate what he’s doing”.  In their misguided attempt to prevent what occurred in 2003 (with Matt Kenseth taking the points lead in March and never relinquishing it, winning the Winston Cup with 1 win the entire year) from ever happening again, NASCAR has created a nightmare for itself. There simply is NO REASON to watch races anymore.  The first 26 are nothing but points races.  The last 10 are nothing but the Jimmie Johnson Chase for the Sprint Cup.  The Chase DOESN’T WORK.

George is right. 
The chase needs to go away, and the championship needs to be based on how you run in the season as a whole.  Look at the points leads that have been lost in the last few years because of the chase format.  I don’t know how NASCAR could feel bad about meddling with or fixing races, they do it every year with the points being reset at the chase.
The idea of the chase was to create excitement for the end of the season when NASCAR goes head to head with the NFL. 
Mr. France, the experiment did not work.  (I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.)

-Taglia

Jerry,

Here’s my take, which I posted elsewhere before I saw your article.

I don’t hate JJ, I absolutely respect him… I’m just bored with his dominance, which is in a way kind of a sideways comment. I don’t think I can ever remember a time when Jimmie had a ‘sound bite’ that was worthy of replay on SportsCenter because he just doesn’t seem to rock the boat… he seems robotic in how he approaches racing. He’s obviously a GREAT driver but it helps that he’s got a genius of some sort with him (in Chad) that has found some way to make this car work that no one else has. It’s obvious that no one else at Hendrick understands Chad either!

Think about that… Hendrick is supposedly known as a shop that shares among teams, but yet no other Hendrick team has approached the type of dominance that the 48 has.

It’s human nature to root for the underdog… that’s why I think that Kyle Busch got so much attention last year. Tony Stewart was having a great year, but once the Chase rolled around, even he had his problems.

He simply gets so far ahead that he removes even the potential of the underdog coming up from behind… and when there’s not potential of an underdog, any suspense is removed....

The real question that NASCAR needs to deal with is, In what ways can our sport foster the creation of more underdogs who have a true blue personality that can be expressed come heck or high water without worrying about how their comments are perceived.

At least that’s how I see it.

NASCAR first has to accept the that Chase is a farce.  And they won’t.

They’ll continue to sit in their ivory towers and scratch their collective heads wondering why the product is so dull and unwatchable, why attendance is down and why viewership is down. All they need to do is this:  they’ve removed the “Racing” from auto-racing. Gone are the days when men bumped, passed and cursed all race long because they wanted to go to victory lane. It’s been replaced with vanilla personalities who would rather bide their time and sit in the back of the field (I’m looking at you, Jimmie Johnson) and not actually do any racing, then wait until the competition wipes itself out, waltz up to the front of the line and then give some boring template interview afterward or risk getting called into the NASCAR hauler for showing some emotion and personality.

Thank God that Jerry has bucked the trend and not embraced the Chase as the greatest thing since sliced bread (like many of his fellow sportswriters), or jumped on the JJ bandwagon and ridicules the fans for not likewise buying into the “This is history and you people need to love this man! LOVE HIM!!!” mentality.  It’s comforting to know that we, the little people, actually have someone in OUR corner for once.

Just playing devil’s advocate, but what makes you so sure that Chad/Jimmie aren’t cheating by doing something that NASCAR hasn’t caught yet? Chad has been caught cheating before, while the other Hendrick cars weren’t caught for the same infraction. So, Chad doesn’t always share his secrets for success.

Also, I am wondering if Jimmie would have won the 3 championships even if the Chase wasn’t in existence. Or would someone else have won 1 or more of those championships?

Rick, Here’s something I found for this years chase race...It looks like Jimmy would have won last year even in the old format.

(This came from a blog site dated Oct 19,2009)
“Were NASAR still using the old points system, or as some call it, the pre Chase points system, Tony Stewart would be 117 points in front of second place Jimmie Johnson, while third place Jeff Gordon would be 139 points out of first place. Mark Martin would find himself a whopping 460 points out of first place, and basically without a prayer of winning a championship in 2009.”

The problem is not the Chase, the “problem” is the excellence of the 48 team.  If NASCAR changes the rules now, it will only prolong the 48’s dominance because Chad will view it as a new challenge to be conquered.  Nothing excites him more. 

Short of giving the 48 a different points system than everybody else, there’s not a lot NASCAR can do.  They’re already taking the cars to their R&D;shop after every race.  This team will adjust to any points system NASCAR contrives, and they will win.

That’s why many say to appreciate what you’re witnessing.  It is amazing.

Johnson’s my driver ,well actually Martin,for 2o plus years but i started going with JJ about 7 or 8 years ago I just thought he was going to make it happen ,and he did.I cry to think Mark will come in second for the fourth time. Until Nascar does what everyone wants Jimmie will stil win and if they change he still might So lets do it right two tracks frome each configuration ,quadoval,oval,dshapd roacorse and trioval.tri oval

The Chase system is in my opinion doing a huge disservice to Jimmie Johnson and his legacy.  Despite the fact that there were changes to the points system from Petty’s heyday to Gordon’s, you rarely if ever hear the complaints about “well, this guy did it in this era and that guy did it in that era”.  But with JJ, the major criticism is how the Chase has ruined the sport and how the Chase has helped him win 3 (and soon to be 4) titles. I’m not saying it’s fair or accurate, just that this is the perception in some quarters and it’s gaining some steam.

Jerry, very very thoughtful column and replies.  This must be where the intelligent NASCAR followers can be found.  I have not missed a televised NASCAR race in many years, and have attended several in person.  This Jimmie Johnson “era” is so painfully boring that I cannot make myself watch anymore.  Does anyone (including those in the media who spout this all the time) believe that we should be really excited because we are “watching history?” You’ve got to be kidding, maybe we are seeing the most “boring” series of events and seasons in history, that I can buy.  It’s HISTORY all right…

The 48 team is making monkeys out of the rest of the field, pure and simple, and making monkeys out of those of us who waste Sunday after Sunday watching, hoping to see the likes of Mark M (or Jeff, or Tony, or maybe even Kyle, can’t believe I said that) show up the 48 team.  This sport is going to be in sad, sad shape if this continues for YEARS TO COME, I really hope Jerry is wrong about this but I fear the worst at this point as well.  These guys make the rest of the teams look like they belong in the truck series.  The only encouraging thing I’ve seen lately is that some of the drivers actually seem to be irritated about this & speak as though they want to beat the 48 really bad.  I think that Denny H, JPM, Kyle B, or Carl E may have the drive and the talent to pull this off IF they can get their equipment issues straightened out (and Kyle can grow up & develop some common sense, not too likely to see that anytime soon).  I think Denny and Carl (and maybe JPM) are our best hope to have a shot at this next year, but does either have an organization and team that’s close enough to the level of the 48 overall?  Competitive, bulletproof reliable cars EVERY week?  Borderline insane dictator crew chief that is incapable of handling loosing?  It’s going to take a nut case of a personality to have MORE drive than Knaus to win, that’s obvious.  It seems very unlikely anyone will be able to pull this off anytime soon.  It appears we are stuck with the Jimmie and Chad show for the forseeable future, like it or not.  Might be worth checking out the highlights on NASCAR Now but NOT wasting Sunday afternoons watching the whole thing, no way. 

The race on Sunday was the last straw for me; you could not have written a worse script for the outcome of that mess if you had tried, it would seem to lousy to be believeable.  Our superstar, wonderful, invinceable soon-to-be 4 time champ rides around in back like a little girl (even Krissy Wallace didn’t do this, come to think of it, shouldn’t insult girls like that, sorry) for the whole day.  I will not be suckered into watching another race where the “Superstar” doesn’t even think that it’s worth racing for 99% of the race, what a joke.  Why should we think it’s important enough to watch the first 170 laps if the best cars in the field don’t think so?  If NASCAR can explain to me why I should watch anything but the last couple laps of this race, if most of the fast cars aren’t even attempting to race, I’d be happy to tune in again someday.  I’m from Minnesota and I skipped the Vikes / Packers game for that race, what a brilliant move that was…