NASCAR’S New Format For A Champion Is A Mess

The stage is set for the final race at Homestead. Only 4 Driver's have a chance at winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, & Kevin Harvick. Who ever finishes the best this Sunday is your Champion.

Over the off season last year, NASCAR came up with a new idea to "create" excitement for the Championship. Well, I will give them that, it has created excitement as well as Drivers getting mad at other Drivers.

In years past, NASCAR totaled up points throughout the year and whoever had the most points was your Champion. That worked GREAT for over 50 years. Driver's like Richard Petty & Dale Earnhardt won 7 NASCAR Championship's because they had outstanding years and were rewarded for that. Then it happened in 2003. Matt Kenseth had a fantastic year by scoring top 10 after top 10 finishes, 25 top 10's finishes to be exact. NASCAR thought this was boring and wanted to spice things up, thus the "CHASE" was born.

Jimmie Johnson became the Master of the Chase format. He won 6 Championships in a 10 year time span. NASCAR didn't like this as once you had a bad race, you were basically eliminated from winning the Championship so they spiced it up even more. If you win, you get to advance to another round which leads us to next weekend at Homestead.

Logano, Hamlin, Newman, & Harvick are the 4 Driver's that can win the Championship and how they finish is the order of the Top 4 for Championship Points. Ryan Newman has yet to win a race but has been consistent which is something Matt Kenseth did in 2003 and this caused NASCAR to tinker with the points. I would love to see Newman win the Championship as it would defeat NASCAR's exciting idea on how to create a Champion.

Below is the current point standing.

1) #11-Denny Hamlin [1 win] 5000
2) #22-Joey Logano [5 wins] 5000
3) #31-Ryan Newman [0 wins] 5000
4) #4-Kevin Harvick [4 wins] 5000

drivers below eliminated in the first 3 rounds:
5) #2-Brad Keselowski [6 wins], 2320
6) #24-Jeff Gordon [4 wins] 2312, -8
7) #20-Matt Kenseth, 2296, -24
8) #18-Kyle Busch [1 win] 2280, -40
9) #99-Carl Edwards [2 wins] 2278, -42
10) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. [4 wins], 2271, -49
11) #47-AJ Allmendinger [1 win], 2256, -64
12) #16-Greg Biffle [1 win], 2256, -64
13) #48-Jimmie Johnson [4 wins], 2239, -81
14) #41-Kurt Busch [1 win], 2229, -91
15) #5-Kasey Kahne [1 win], 2202, -118
16) #43-Aric Almirola [1 win], 2170, -150

What if NASCAR used the point championship like they did the first 50 years. Below is the Point Standing the old way going into Homestead. Driver's in BOLD made the Chase Format

1) #24-Jeff Gordon 1217
2) #22-Joey Logano 1188, -29
3) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1145, -72
4) #2-Brad Keselowski 1138, -79
5) #4-Kevin Harvick 1124, -93
6) #20-Matt Kenseth 1093, -124
7) #31-Ryan Newman 1093, -124
8) #99-Carl Edwards 1050, -167
9) #42-Kyle Larson 1049, -168
10) #48-Jimmie Johnson 1032, -185
11) #16-Greg Biffle 997, -220
12) #1-Jamie McMurray 975, -242
13) #18-Kyle Busch 964, -253
14) #11-Denny Hamlin 949, -268
15) #15-Clint Bowyer 943, -274
16) #3-Austin Dillon 939, -278
17) #5-Kasey Kahne 934, -283
18) #27-Paul Menard 904, -313
19) #55-Brian Vickers 900, -317
20) #41-Kurt Busch 877, -340
21) #47-AJ Allmendinger 864, -353
22) #9-Marcos Ambrose 855, -362
23) #78-Martin Truex Jr. 830, -387
24) #14-Tony Stewart 798 -419
25) #43-Aric Almirola 795, -422

As you can see, Jeff Gordon, Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr, & Brad Keselowski have had a Great year but only 1 of them has a chance at the Championship. If Newman wins the Championship this year, will NASCAR change their format again?