The Chase...it's Just Beginning

Credit to NASCAR.com

As I sit here patiently waiting during the rain delay, I got to thinking, “Where did this season go?”  I feel like it was just last week I was screaming at my television watching Trevor Bayne cross the Start/Finish line to become the youngest Daytona 500 winner, and now I’m writing about the Chase.  Time does fly when you’re having fun.

In 2003, Matt Kenseth virtually ran away with the NASCAR Championship.  He had such a massive lead that the end of the season had very little excitement because everyone pretty much saw the point lead going into the final races and said, “Kenseth’s going to be the 2003 Champion.”

As you can imagine, the massive point leads weren’t the best for the television ratings and ticket sales.  There were quite a few NASCAR fans out there that figured since a driver had such a big point lead, what would be the point of watching the final races if you knew that driver was going to be crowned the Champion – completely understandable. 

NASCAR had the solution... “The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.”  This was the not-so-popular answer to the excitement that the fans were lacking during the end of the season. 

In 2004, the Chase was born.  After the first twenty-six races of the year, we embark on the Chase – the last ten races of the season, where a Champion is crowned.  All changes come with some skeptics, and the Chase was no different.  Many people wanted to know why this was needed, but looking back, they probably regret their instinctive emotion of skepticism towards it.

After six years under this Chase format – which not many people could figure out – NASCAR implemented a new Chase format for the 2011 season.  This season the points are awarded in one point increments.  If you come in first, you receive forty-three points, come in second, you receive forty-two points, and so on, that way even if you finish forty-third, you still will get one point.  The total amount of points the drivers can receive in one race is forty-eight, and that's including points for leading laps and winning.  

Qualifying for the 2011 Chase was also slightly different.  Only the Top 10 were based on points, the other two, the eleventh and twelfth place cars, were decided by wins during the first twenty-six races – which ended last week at Richmond.  The Chase drivers' points have been reset to 2,000 and for every win the driver has, he will receive three extra points. 

I know you’re sitting there reading this and are saying, “I know this, why is she telling us this information that we already know?”  Truthfully, there are quite a few people out there that don’t know why the Chase was started or what the requirements for the 2011 Chase were, so I decided to write about it. 

Until the 2011 Champion is crowned at Homestead, I wish Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin (and all the other drivers) the best of luck!  And remember, this is just the beginning of the Chase...things will get crazy!