Interesting to see that NASCAR is changing the Chase to the Championship format that’s been in place the last few years. After trying out what is essentially a playoff system, they are making some tweaks that I think will be good for the sport.
The final ten races will be a race between the top 12 drivers, instead of the top 10. The old system also allowed anyone within 400 points of the leader to get in as well, based on the historical data that no one more than 400 points out had ever won in the past. Yet, so far the 11th driver has been past the 400 point mark, but often has been within just a few points of number 11. I haven’t seen a justification for picking 12 drivers and not, say, 11 or 13.
The next change is one that many have been asking for recently. The amount of points a winner of a race receives has been increased by five. This is supposed to make winning mean more than mere consistency. In the past, someone could win not a single race, but get top 10s all year and beat out someone who won 5 races and was knocked out of 5 races. Consistency is good, but a car can be knocked from a race due to bad luck or some other driver’s stupidity. Are 5 points enough? I thought it would be more, but maybe that would throw everything out of balance. A more conservative adjustment at first followed by another one later, perhaps.
The really big change
