The 5-HR ENERGY 301 from New Hampshire

[Chewbaccer]

Amazing how they throw the caution as soon as Kyle gets his lap back when there was oil on the track for a good 5 laps at least.

3rd ain't bad, but I'm about ready for cautions to start benefiting Harvick every now and then.

 

[molsaniceman]

I don't know if you have played fantasy nascar on Yahoo but drivers are broken down as A drivers, B drivers, or C drivers. You get to choose 1 A driver to start, 2 B drivers, & 1 C driver. C drivers are obviously the shitty drivers so there's not much to choose from

Yea im in the racing at the hoop It is slim pickings no doubt

 

[bksballer89]

I have no problem with Kyle making the chase. He obviously deserves it and secondly his injury was Nascar fault for not having a safer barrier on the inside wall at Daytona. If he tore his acl in some bar fight then I would have an issue with this. He is one of the best drivers in the sport and he continues to prove it weekly

 

[Chewbaccer]

I don't have an issue with Kyle making the Chase. He is notorious for crapping his pants in the CHase, so he won't be a factor for the championship.

Your champion will be either Harvick or Johnson.

 

[Chewbaccer]

As long as NASCAR doesn't make exceptions to rules to benefit the drivers, I don't take issue with them making the CHase. If they would have waved the top 30 rule just for Kyle, I would have called BS.

But in the future if we're gonna have this format, I think it should be limited to drivers in the top 20 in points. Not to eliminate drivers who get injured, but to eliminate guys that suck all season, but get lucky in one week and steal a Chase spot from a more deserving driver.

Last season, Allmendinger, who is basically just a road course ringer running the full schedule won at Watkins Glen and stole a spot. Almirola won a rain shortened race at Daytona to steal a spot. Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin both won an early race, but were terrible the rest of the way, but made the Chase. If you don't run good enough to be in the top 20 in points, especially as top heavy as NASCAR has become, then you don't deserve a shot at the championship for getting lucky in one race.

But if the rules are what they are, I don't have issue with Kyle Busch making the CHase if he gets in the top 30 in points.

Really, it would be no different than Tony STewart winning at Watkins Glen and getting in the Chase at this point.

 

[Retroram52]

Kyle Busch has won three of the last four and suddenly he's staring at a shot at making the Chase. I agree with Jeffro. Return to the old format and just let the points determine the Championship and stop all of this Chase bullshit which doesn't make much sense anyways.

 

[wildturkey]

I hate to say it, but Kyle needs to win the championship so that it will cause enough uproar so that this format will be scrapped. Someone who misses close to half the season should never have a chance at the title.

They'll just stop issuing exemptions. They'll never admit the Chase is retarded (especially this version).

The one to root for though is the winless driver winning the whole thing like Newman last year. Conveniently, Newman is positioning himself nicely for another run at it this year! And that's even after the tire penalty which I predicted would be total bullshit for this exact scenario, points penalties don't hurt that much because The Chase is retarded and it wipes out all your points anyway. All you have to do is make the ridiculously big field. So Newman essentially got zero punishment.

TL;DR version: The Chase is, and always has been, fucking stupid.

 

[bksballer89]

I'm not a fan of the chase format but the last 10 races are really exciting under this format since drivers know they can be eliminated...that part is pretty cool.

I do think it is garbage that you can win one race and be ranked 25th in points and still make the chase

 

[jeffro151]

The championship should be awarded to whoever is the most consistent during the entire season.

 

[bksballer89]

The championship should be awarded to whoever is the most consistent during the entire season.

Agree but I do think the final 10 races are more exciting than ever now. There's not much fun for fans of other drivers when the championship is down to 2 or 3 guys by labor day with 2 months left in the season

 

[wildturkey]

Agree but I do think the final 10 races are more exciting than ever now. There's not much fun for fans of other drivers when the championship is down to 2 or 3 guys by labor day with 2 months left in the season

Yeah there is. It's called winning races. It worked for like 50 years beforehand.

 

[4down20]

Chase sucks ass. Nascar execs are a bunch of greedy fucks who took a good thing and thought they needed to "take it to the next level" when they didn't.

It isn't a sport where teams are playing each other individually, it's a sport where every team competes against every other team for the entire year. And the one that does the best over the entire year is the one that should be the champion.

The playoffs exist in other sports only because they don't all play each other at the exact same time. The manipulation of it all over the years just makes it even worse.

 

[4down20]

Agree but I do think the final 10 races are more exciting than ever now. There's not much fun for fans of other drivers when the championship is down to 2 or 3 guys by labor day with 2 months left in the season

That's not true at all.

Hell, some of the best years ever featured times when it came down to only 2 guys.

And good racing doesn't require extra incentive. Nascars best races didn't come from the chase and aren't produced by the chase. They are generally produced by the same tracks.

 

[Psych-Ward]

Agree but I do think the final 10 races are more exciting than ever now. There's not much fun for fans of other drivers when the championship is down to 2 or 3 guys by labor day with 2 months left in the season

The Chase is bullshit....

The old points system awarded consistency.

This points system gives anyone a chance to take a month off and still make the chase for the title, that's bullshit. Yes more emphasis should be given to guys for a win, but this Willie Wonka Golden ticket shit sucks ass. For fuck sakes, why not just take the big names and give them a pass for the chase every year and leave open 3 spots for points.... seems t be what they do now with this bullshit.

 

[Psych-Ward]

I think it is safe to say that Samantha Busch wont be having any lobster for dinner tonight!!!

 

[Rex Racer]

I think it is safe to say that Samantha Busch wont be having any lobster for dinner tonight!!!

I can't say I blame her, lobsters are nothing more than seafaring cockroaches. Disgusting little fuking critters, bleecchhhh!

 

[Rex Racer]

I don't like the points system we have now and I can't say I ever liked any of the various systems used since I started out as a casual fan 40+ years ago. My issue then (and now) is that the points awarded after each race do not overwhelmingly favor the winner. I get the feeling I will never be happy with it

 

[Rex Racer]

Now for my take on yesterday's race.

Looking back through my hindsight lense it was clear that Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski had the cars to beat. They dominated the first 3rd(ish) of the race and when Harvick took the lead and ran way out front for a while I thought maybe the 18 and the 2 would need to make some serious adjustments to get back up front.

It turns out that it was more likely that Busch and Kes were just saving their cars for the final run because when they restarted with about 50 laps to go they both took off and left Harvick and the rest of the field in their dust. Being a KB and Keselowski fan made it quite an enjoyable day......even though............................

We got freakin roasted out there. It was right around 90 degrees even with intermittent cloud cover and the humidity was up there. I was happy for a relatively clean race with few cautions as that got us out of there earlier than past races.

The crowd was about 60-70% to capacity even though the stands looked to be half empty. I can tell you that thousands of folks were hiding under the grandstands trying to stay out of the sun. I also saw a number of folks (mostly couples or folks with kids) bailing out very early because of the oppressive weather.

All in all a nice day at the track.

 

[Retroram52]

The Chase is bullshit....

The old points system awarded consistency.

This points system gives anyone a chance to take a month off and still make the chase for the title, that's bullshit. Yes more emphasis should be given to guys for a win, but this Willie Wonka Golden ticket shit sucks ass. For fuck sakes, why not just take the big names and give them a pass for the chase every year and leave open 3 spots for points.... seems t be what they do now with this bullshit.

I with the prevailing sentiment expressed by a number of posters on this thread. All of you are spot on. This Chase crap has taken the competitiveness and incentive out of NASCAR. I totally agree Psych Ward and others. At this rate, just give past champions all the goodies and save 3 spots for everyone else. It is bad enough that NASCAR has removed the competitiveness from practically every other thing (like tires and engine blocks for example) and now they want to take away the last vestige of competitiveness left and that was rewarding consistency.

 

[Chewbaccer]

The championship should be awarded to whoever is the most consistent during the entire season.

I agree, but we have what we have. Can't take the championships away from those that win it with the same rules as every other driver.