Points overlooked

Playoff system is not what NASCAR needed to implement

Matt Kenseth will now be remembered as the last Winston Cup champion and the last driver to take the title under the old points system. Robert Laberge/Getty Images Chase for the Championship In a bid to add excitement and put more emphasis on winning, NASCAR changed its scoring system Tuesday by setting up a showdown for the Nextel Cup championship over the season's last 10 races. Click here for full story. Fans' reactions to points change.

Chairman Brian France wants the paying public to know this isn't your daddy's NASCAR. Or his daddy's. Or his daddy's daddy's. This -- the 2004 Nextel series 10-race playoff system -- is all daddy's boy's idea.

In a nutshell, here's the deal: After the first 26 races, drivers in the top 10 and any others within 400 points of the leader will be in the Chase for the Championship. Those drivers will have their point totals adjusted so that the first-place driver will begin the final 10 races with 5,050 points, the second driver 5,045 and on down the line, with incremental drops of five points.

Grandaddy must be rolling in his grave.

Gone are the days of chain-smoking good ol' boys, which isn't all bad. Instead, the face of NASCAR is the cell-toting crowd that wouldn't know to kick someone's aspirator for saying Jeff Gordon is a better driver than David Pearson. Much less take umbrage with a lucky-dog pass. Which are all bad.

NASCAR dropped the lug wrench two weeks ago when it announced there would be a major change in the points race. Of course, if it doesn't work, "we can always tweak it," they maintain. And that's the rub: NASCAR does too much tweaking of the rules. A spoiler height here. A front air dam there. Why doesn't NASCAR drive by a set of rules from can 'til can't?

Ask any driver, crew chief or team owner their take on NASCAR's "tweaking" and the answer will be so far off the record that you'd need a Dansette Phonograph to play it back. No one wants to incur the wrath of NASCAR, which is fond of telling insubordinates that they need the sport a lot more than the sport needs them. But no one likes this much change, this quickly. Or with this question left unanswered: Why?

Why trade in the series when all that was needed was a tuneup? Why try to play to the MTV-generation fans' mentality when the fans who got NASCAR to this point are losing their minds over the constant, many times unnecessary tinkering?

Fans have had it up to the engine-oil filler neck with the mess NASCAR is dressing up as big league stock car racing. What's next, Vince McMahon calling for drivers to start their engines while Lita bumps and grinds the green flag?

NASCAR is racing -- not wrestling, the NFL or major league baseball -- and racing is about getting to the checkered flag before the next guy. So instead of "tweaking" the points system, Brian Freedom Fries concocted something so bizarre that 72 percent of the season is cast aside so that an arbitrary number of drivers can go fast and turn left in 10 races at tracks that average 1.365 miles.

I'm calling bullsh*t -- and NASCAR can ante up to see if fans are bluffing.

NASCAR could have, even should have, stopped when it said one of the factors in the late-season change was because so many TV viewers go the way of college and pro football. That said it all: NASCAR wants those eyeballs because it means more money -- for both its coffers and advertisers'. But NASCAR is never going to pull Sunday viewers away from the NFL.

If NASCAR wants to bring more fans to the tube, it should look more toward reducing the size of the race field (35 cars -- with no provisionals), shortening the season (February through November seems about a week shorter than the NBA playoffs), awarding a bonus for taking the pole, granting more points to the race winner (which it did, adding five points) and fewer points for back-of-the-pack finishers (which is side-stepped by implementing a minimum speed limit for patched-up cars).

Instead, fans will get a WWE-styled, two-ring, over-the-top-rope battle royale. Thanks, Brian. Paul Tagliabue and the boys in the NFL office can rest easy that they will remain the big dog. Say hello to the WUSA when you see it.

From the mailbag ...

I think NASCAR should do away with the lucky-dog pass. What's the point in lapping someone just to give them their lap back? I did not like the idea of giving a lap back under the gentlemen's agreement, either. What is your thought?
 -- Tom, Kalamazoo Mich.

I don't like the lucky-dog rule or the gentleman's agreement. It's racing; drive it like you stole it.

As a fan, how does one communicate with NASCAR to express displeasure with the new points system?. Every forum that I am aware of expresses a negative opinion. Doesn't NASCAR care about the fans? Drivers' opinions? I cannot find any e-mail address to provide feedback to NASCAR. Any ideas?
 -- Joe, Charles Town, W.Va.

Karl Thacker in West Des Moines, Iowa, has an online petition. Check it out to get involved with a grassroots movement.

I would like to voice my disgust with these people changing the points system in NASCAR! If Dale Jr. had been leading by 400 points, not one person would be complaining and things would have been left alone! It was bad enough for them to screw with the race dates! I guess when the younger people take over things, tradition means nothing! I am considered a young person and I hate the changes they are making! I've been a diehard fan since 1992 and they are going to make it very hard for me to continue! I just hope they don't ruin the sport!
 -- Maryann, Tulsa, Okla.

Talk about contradictory. NASCAR wants the "young guns" to be the new blood of the sport, to bring it new life. Yet in the same sentence they seem to want them all to be vanilla, politically correct and all. Kevin Harvick runs his mouth, drives rough and I, for one, love it. It shows he loves his job. Kurt Busch is a punk with no respect for anyone; he deserved to have his lights punched out ... but he's not vanilla, either. Give me those guys any day over boring drivers who merely spout off the same company line no matter what happens. Poor sportsmanship is one thing, indifference and lack of enthusiasm is another.
 -- Jeff, Hartland, Vt.

The forced equality, restricter plates, aero packages, etc., actually cause more accidents by not only bunching up the cars, but by forcing drivers to take more risks to get by an "equal" car. Drivers used to drive. They didn't need a slot car in a groove to make them look good. We need a "retro" division!
 -- Peter, Montauk, N.Y.

I'm tired hearing that NASCAR runs the show and is the omnipresent higher power. The drivers have the power; they just don't use it. If Dale Earnhardt Jr. (or Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart, etc.) were to bolt NASCAR for IRL, do you not think that fans would follow? They'd bail on the Nextel Cup in a heartbeat. Fans aren't loyal to NASCAR; they are extremely loyal to "their" driver. It's time the drivers use this as leverage and take a stand against the NASCAR management and what is becoming a boring spectator sport.
 -- Jim, Mililani, Hawaii

I'm 51, been following NASCAR since I was 12 and RJR/Winston made stock car racing a national pastime. They could have stayed around a few more years on their contract with NASCAR, but maybe they saw the writing on the wall -- lack of "characters," lack of competition between auto makers by NASCAR making a "level playing field," and the entry of Japanese into an American pastime -- and concluded the best has come and is going, along with fans like me.
 -- Doc, Orange, Calif.

I hate the idea of the 10-race "playoff" format! I agree that change is not always bad and that tradition is just part of value, but NASCAR has become one of the fastest-growing spectator sports because of what it is -- not because of what it can be changed to. Give the winner an extra five or 10 points (second should not get more than the winner, even if he did lead the most laps), and allow 30th and back the same points to keep the junk off the track. If you want to see the playoffs, watch football or basketball!
 -- Bob, North Baltimore, Ohio

I grew up watching racing since the 1960s. The "characters" involved in the sport, along with the excitement, are what made it. NASCAR seems determined to circumcise the sport and install its corporate pretty boys. NASCAR is a greedy family bunch!
 -- Bruce, Middleboro Mass.

With so many complaints about the margin of points Matt Kenseth won the title by, I would like to suggest a solution: The "provisional" starting positions for an event should be eliminated. In any other major league sport, if you don't have the record, you don't make it to the playoffs. If NASCAR is really the ultimate sport that everyone claims, if a driver doesn't out-right make it into the field, then he and his race team should miss the event and not receive any points that week.
 -- Rick, Broussard, La.

B. Duane Cross is a senior producer for SI.com.