Time To Retool

Unless Jimmie Johnson suffers a collapse of historic proportions, the final three weeks of the 2008 Sprint Cup season will be little more than a high-speed victory tour for the number 48 team. The reigning two-time champ, who finished second in the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta

Motor Speedway on Sunday, holds a commanding 183-point lead over Carl Edwards--despite Edwards's win in Atlanta. Thus, for the fourth time in the last five years, the season finale at  Miami-Homestead Speedway (Nov. 16) is likely to lack the one thing the Chase was designed to create: drama. What can be done to inject some excitement into the Chase? Here are three changes worth considering for 2009.

•Create a separate points system for the Chase drivers When his engine stalled at Charlotte on Oct. 11, leading to a 33rd-place finish, Edwards lost 96 points to Johnson, who finished sixth--effectively scuttling Edwards's title hopes. But of the 27 drivers who finished between Johnson and Edwards, 21 were non-Chasers. Take them out of the points mix, and Edwards would have emerged from Charlotte bruised but still very much alive.

Here's SI's plan: The highest finisher among the 12 Chase qualifiers in each race would earn 12 points; second would get 11; third 10; and so on down to one point for 12th. If a Chase driver won the race, he would receive a three-point bonus, and if he earned the pole, he would get a one-point bonus. Under this scenario Johnson's edge over Edwards would be just 19 points, and eight drivers would still be in the hunt.

•Wipe the points slate clean at the start of the Chase Under the current system each regular-season win brings a 10-point bonus that carries over to the Chase. Under the SI plan, a 25-point bonus would go to each winner in the first 26 races, giving a long shot the chance to zoom up the standings over the final weeks of the regular season. But once the Chase started, all 12 drivers would start with zero points. This would give the Chase more of a March Madness feeling because an underdog could catch fire at the right time and win the title.

•Add new tracks to the Chase In the regular season 27% of the races are held on 1.5-mile tracks. In the Chase 50% of the events are run at that length. But shouldn't the Chase reflect conditions in the overall season? The SI plan would take away Chase races from Kansas Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway--two 1.5-mile tracks--and add Watkins Glen (N.Y) Raceway (a road course) and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (a .533-mile short track). Not only would a greater variety of tracks spice up the Chase, but it would also reward all-around driving, not just 1.5-mile specialization.

"The concept of the Chase is good, but we need to keep guys from running away with it," says Darrell Waltrip, a two-time champ from the pre-Cup days. "The Chase is broken, so let's pleeeeeeease fix it."

Here's a blueprint, DW. It's up to NASCAR to get under the hood and make the tweaks.±