by richard teague tinynascars@yahoo.com
Sometimes change is good…and then sometimes change is STRANGE! Take, for instance, when you’re driving down the road and you look up and every car in front is heading right at you. Well, then you realize you’re going the wrong way on a one way street, you better make a change. That’s a good change. Perhaps you’re standing in a checkout line and you see a shorter line, so you change to it and then the person in front of you has got an item that won’t scan. The clerk then calls the toy department for a price check, which could have been a good change to start, but then it turned to crap. How about the times you change your mind and do something different from the way you always have? It seems like forever only to find out that it isn’t as good as it used to be. That can be a real mess.
It appears to me that’s what NASCAR has done, and is doing, with the changes in the way a champion is chosen. You all know that I have never hidden my dislike for the Chase for the Nextel Cup, and now with this new format it is even more offensive to my non-descript opinion. Brian France says, “In 2004 when we unveiled the Chase, we said we would keep a close eye on it, and make adjustments if needed.” Now there is the “key” word: “adjustments.” Let’s see how good ole Webster defines these two words. First, adjustments: “a correction or modification to reflect actual conditions.” Now, changes: “to make different in some particular way,” or “to make radically different.”
You see the words “modification” and “different” in those definitions, don’t you? Ever since the big change from the complete season deciding a winner to a ten race season, I don’t think “adjustment” can be the correct word for NASCAR’s vocabulary, do you? Yeah yeah yeah, I’m one of those “few fans” that would like to see it the way it once was even if you big-time NASCAR columnists look down on me and a few other million fans and say what jerks we are. Those guys sit up there and kiss butt on everything that NASCAR does and keep right on writing about how great Mr. France is and how great the sport is doing and only once in awhile you’ll read some guy like me that speaks his mind about the sport we love and how it’s turning (into what? I don’t know).
Let me share with you what my favorite reader emailed me the other day, and when Melinda takes the time to write, I listen. She wrote, “Well we’ve all made it through the holidays and for lots of folks the countdown to Daytona has begun. Not so much for me, because right now I can take it or leave it. The thrill is just not there. That’s not to say that I haven’t kept up with the current events in NASCAR, because I have - I’m just not all giddy about the start of racing.” I couldn’t believe that at all because this woman is one of the biggest NASCAR fans I know and she says she’s not excited about the start of the new season. This was even before the new format for the Chase was announced. I can’t even imagine what she thinks of the new set up.
I think that more and more fans, me included, are feeling this way. And with the first major change for this year! How will we feel as the season progresses? I did tell her that the only thing that has kept me looking forward to the start of the season was that I did get my invite to Media Day and a chance to interview all the drivers. Beyond that I’ll have to wait and see. I know that I will not be able to contend with much more of NASCAR’s way of doing things but also, like I told her, I hope seeing all the drivers will pick me up. One more thing that might get me “all giddy” about the start up is the shopping for NASCAR accoutrements with my friend John in a few weeks.
Now for the adjustments, changes, or whatever the heck you want to call the blooming things. Let’s talk about them now. Adding two drivers to the Chase is dumb. What happens next year if a top name driver ends up 13th or 14th after 26 races? Will the following year have fourteen drivers in the Chase or will it take two more years before that change? If you’re going to try to get the top teams or drivers in the Chase, why not just go on and say it? “Only the favorites, multi car teams, top ones in points or race winners will be in the Chase.” How about the cars that have even numbers on them can be in when it’s an even number year and the odd numbers on odd number years? I got it, how bout the prettiest car, or the one with the best paint scheme, can be in and let the fans or some fancy artist pick the Chase contenders for that season.
Now y’all know I could go on all night coming up with scenarios for this but I think I have saved the best one yet and that is: “Go Back to the OLD WAY!” Alas, poor NASCAR, I knew you well when a Winston Cup Champion was chosen by the way a guy drove for 29 or 30 races and not just the last ten. You know, I get tired of beating this ole dog about the Chase format, but I also feel that it’s my NASCAR DUTY to say what I believe a lot of race fans feel. I do know that there are a bunch of you guys that like the Chase, but perhaps you forgot how good it can be when your diver is way out front and you ain’t got to worry about him losing the championship in Homestead.
The other “adjustment” that I think is not really a winner is that a winner from the first 26 races gets to double dip, you might say, because he gets 10 extra points per win that determines his start in the Chase. Now here’s your guy and he’s 200 points out in front of my guy after 26 – BUT – my guy has won three races and had five DNFs and is still in the top 12. Your driver hasn’t won a race and he starts at least three spots behind my driver. Is that justice looking at it either way? That race winner got his points for the race he won and he’s now getting 5 more than last year per win, why get any more? If the format is here to stay, can’t you just give them all 5000 points and let it rip? But oh no, you got to have somebody that can say he started the Chase in first place, don’t you?
I guess we will all have to wait and see how the drivers feel about these adjustments/changes and wait for the outcome of the season. Like always, there ain’t nothing you or me can do but watch them take effect and talk about how we feel. Where will it go from here? I don’t know and I don’t have my crystal balls any longer to predict what NASCAR will do next. You can bet the farm that it could be anything from A to Z, so it might just be fun, if not interesting, to see the season get started. I sure hope Melinda gets just a little bit “giddy” before too long and like I also told her, “our boys Jeff and Tony will be racing” and we love to watch that, don’t we girl?
OK I’m done for now about NASCAR, but I would like to interject a little something right here and that’s about my new five year contact with the newspaper. My old dear friend, that may just soon be my ole dear ex-friend, has still not come off the hip. He doesn’t seem to be planning to give me that big pay increase I want, but we are still at the bargaining table and I hope to have an announcement real soon. I wish I could tell y’all the particulars, but like the police say, the investigation is on going and I can’t say anymore than I have already. If you feel the need to contact me, it can be done at tinynascars@yahoo.com. And as I feel the need to say: If it ain’t NASCAR it ain’t s**t!
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