The story behind the creation of the Chase

After Matt Kenseth cruised to a boring championship in 2003, the Chase was born. Getty Images

If you ever want to coax a sly smile out of Matt Kenseth, just ask him about the Chase for the Championship format. Kenseth, after all, is the reason the Chase exists.

Turn the clock back to 2003. This was Kenseth's finest year. He was ruthlessly consistent, compiling 25 top-10 finishes. But he didn't exactly dominate. He only had one win in '03, an early-season victory in Las Vegas, and over the last 16 weeks of the season he didn't even crack the top five. But because of the old NASCAR points system, which rewarded consistency, Kenseth cruised to the title. It was such a yawner that he finished 43rd in the season finale at Homestead -- dead last! -- and it didn't matter because he'd already clinched the title.

The last month of the season was such a snore-fest that it prompted Mark Dyer, vice president of licensing for NASCAR, to write an e-mail to Brian France, the chairman of NASCAR. Dyer spelled out a vision for a playoff-style, scheduling format for the Cup series. A championship season within a season was what he basically called it. And after months of tweaking, discussing, and analyzing, the Chase for the Championship was born.

We're now entering Year Five of the Chase Era, and there's little doubt that it's the best thing that's ever happened to the sport. (It was such a good idea, in fact, that professional golf has copied it.) Ever since the Chase format was adopted, every race over the last 10 weeks of the season has mattered. No one has clinched the title before the season-finale like Kenseth did back in '03. What's more, now that 10 bonus points are awarded to drivers for regular season wins -- which was a great idea, though I'd like to see it bumped to 15 points per victory -- even the first 26 events have taken on a new meaning. Drivers now go as hard as ever after wins, as Carl Edwards showed at Bristol recently when he bumped Kyle Busch out of the way to steal the victory.

That leads us to Saturday night at Richmond (or maybe Sunday, depending on the tropical storm that's blowing in the direction of the track). In the first four years of the Chase format the last race of the regular season has typically been one of the best of the year. What race fan can forget 2006 at Richmond, when Tony Stewart, the defending series champ, didn't make the Chase after a poor showing at the track?

Who won't make it in this year? Well, the odds are long for Kasey Kahne. Currently 14th in the standings, he trails 12th place driver Clint Bowyer by 48 points. Considering that Bowyer won at Richmond earlier this season and that Richard Childress Racing, Bowyer's team, has a long history of success at the track, it'll take an upset for Kahne to qualify.

The same can't be said, however, for David Ragan, who's in 13th place and trails Bowyer by just 17 points. Ragan has been the surprise of the year. Last year, in his first full season on the circuit, he came in 23rd in the points and only had three top-10 finishes. But over the last two months of the season, Ragan has been as good anyone in the series other than Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards.

Ragan has finished in the top 10 in five of the last eight races and he should have a legitimate shot to surpass Bowyer at Richmond. Ragan finished third in this race a year ago, and in the first practice on Friday, Ragan was the second fastest in the field, just behind Jeff Gordon. Add it up and you have to like Ragan's chances.

If nothing else, the race at Richmond will have one thing it lacked before the Chase format was born: meaning. And for that, you can thank Kenseth and Mark Dyer, the two people responsible for creating the Chase.