I told you that that pass that Tony Stewart made on Jeff Burton (or Burton gave) would be the difference in the championship, although if that pass hadn't happened, then we'd be looking at a situation where Stewart lost the championship by one point despite winning five Chase races...not good either.
I know all kinds of people are tickled with this artificial form of determining a championship but I've been on the record since the Chase format came into being that I didn't like it; still don't like it. No championship ever in any sport should be decided on a tie breaker. That's what you get when you jerryrig a format. I submit that Nascar should have been prepared for this possibility and decided if it came to pass that there was a tie, that there would be dual champions. Think of the additional press that would garner, people arguing those merits and saying Tony was the more deserving, probably so. But having the most points at the end of the season should make you the champion. It shouldn't matter whether someone else has the same number of points as well.
Make no mistake, Tony went out and took it but he only had the chance because of a phony format. Previous year's Chase, Tony doesn't win it. Any season without the Chase, Tony doesn't win it. So I feel bad about a guy losing a championship because he was on the wrong side of the format. Carl Edwards had the highest average finish in Chase history. More importantly, he had the highest average finish in this Chase. And even though this is a number NASCAR doesn't publish on purpose, Edwards earned the most points this year. Wins is the best tie breaker if you're gonna have one but I'm vehemently against the idea. I don't care if you have to run another race. But who really would be complaining if they gave out two trophies last night?
And I've said similar things about the other sports where you let in too many teams into the playoffs and one team just squeaks in, gets hot and wins a championship, ala the Cardinals this year, the Packers last year, etc. Don't like it and never will. Let's use this extreme example to make the point that this new system vastly undervalues the regular season: One driver has a miraculous first 26 races to the season, say winning 10 races. Then let's say that that same driver wins 3 Chase races but is also wrecked out of 3 through no fault of his own and that another driver has a Chase like Edwards had this year, with a 4.5ish average finish and ends up with more points than the driver who won 13 races during the season.
So just because the guy who ended hot and with the most wins becomes champion isn't any more fair necessarily than a scenario where he doesn't. That's what you can get with a phony system.
But my biggest issue with this by far is the fact that it ended with a tie. If Tony had won by one point, I would feel Edwards kinda got screwed but the other guy earned more points than he did. That's not what happened here.
Also, Carl Edwards is a champion because of the classy way he handled all this. If he feels the way I do, he hasn't said it and I think that's the right thing to do as a driver.
5 comments:
some of your points are valid, but, if you have two winners, and this comes from a changed format, where do you draw the line. the chase came from the 2003 blowout that mat had, as far as i was concerned this was a transfusion to keep interest and television rights interested. it did just that, on the same thought, the points change done for the 2011 season probably helped bring the final to such a close ending, i know tie breakers are not endearing, but just like the sport i don't like, nhl hockey,(to me bettman is a putz and ruins the game) they have a tiebreaker that is done by a shootout that is the most assinine way to end a game i have ever seen, with tony's five win's versus carl's one win tony won, maybe it ain't perfect, but imho i don't think dual winners would fly.
I honestly think, because racing is a very different animal from stick and ball sports, that people would accept dual champions with no problem. There are tie breakers for some things in other sports but never a tie breaker for the championship.
Nascar is happy as a clam with their new format and they're not about to change it.
again you have a valid point, but, what about the sponsers, mom and i were just talking about the politics involved behind the scenes that a lot of people who are casual fans don't pick up on. on one hand you have office depot walking tall with a championship, and then you would have afleck also walking tall with a championship, i dunno i just don't think it would fly.
we are talking millions of dollars for bragging rights, and a lot of sponsers want those rights, just look at homestead on the final race every year, the people paying the bills are everywhere, and i think they would want one team, one car, being crowned "da winner and new champion", again imho.
It's a moot point but I still disagree. You're looking at it like two winners mean each is less a winner than one, which wouldn't and shouldn't be the case. But again, they're not going to do it, so it doesn't really matter. I just think they should have thought with the new point system making everything so tight, that a tie was going to be a very real possibility. And just for the sake of argument, what if both had the same number of wins? What's the next tie breaker? Probably not what it should be, which is real points accumulated during the whole 36 races. And that's the point that's lost here. Nascar has 43 cars in every race, even in the playoffs, unlike stick and ball sports. So the guy who earned the most points over the course of the season is not your champion. Last I'll say on it.
i don't know how many blog members are kurt,kyle or kevin fans. i don't know if any of you watch race hub, or if you are a jimmy spencer fan, i love spencer, his tenacity when he was driving was something to behold, but when he dumped the skinny, mouthy kurt, i wanted to marry him. anyway i digress, with all the mumbo jumbo going on this year about kurt's mouth, kevin's temper, and kyle's (what i don't think is immature just self destructive) behavior.
well mr. spencer gave a good piece on driving without getting caught up in distraction. now i know everyone has a breaking point, gordon and burton last year is a classic, and jeff being VERY annoyed with five time last year. i think you have to call your own battles, not make your career marks known for being involved in disputes, i know kurt has been a champ, i know kyle has won a bag of races for his age, and kevin isn't nicknamed "where did he come from" for nothing, but jimmy made a point of how much these guys are involved in issues and not going anywhere and guys like carl and tony race pretty clean and look where they usually end up. i know tony was a handful up to a few years ago, and carl had his problems with kes the last year.
if you look at kes this year after all the brouhaha last year about "bad brad", and how he ran this year broken ankle and all, and you look at ricky stenhouse this year after roush set him straight with him trying to be a one man wrecking team, i believe jimmy has a very good point, these three and whoever else could be tarred with the same brush,(vickers,kenseth,montoya, and a few more)if they want the same glory, they should look within and see if there is room for them to change and not fingerpoint others.
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