With Monday’s fuel-mileage fiasco at Chicagoland Speedway, I
really got to thinking about what the Chase for the Sprint Cup should be.
Rather than filling the final ten races with uninteresting,
1.5-mile ovals where you can take a 3-hour nap in the middle of the race and
not miss a thing, why not make The Chase exciting for the fans?
When the idea of The Chase crossed, Mike Helton’s desk, it
was said that the goal of the last 10 races of the season to be an exciting,
playoff-like shootout for the Sprint Cup Driver’s championship. Now when I think of playoffs, I picture the white-out
games at the standing-room-only First Niagara Center with an additional 8,000
Sabres fans watching the game on big screens in the plaza outside the arena. Or I picture the entire month devoted to
College Basketball, with bars, restaurants, and arenas packed across the
country watching March Madness.
What I don’t associate with playoffs is kicking back in a recliner,
flipping from the less than exhilarating 3-hour stanzas at places like
Chicagoland, Kansas Speedway, or New Hampshire. Playoffs are meant to keep
sports fans at the edge of their seats for 3 hours, not provide background noise
for naps.
At a time in the season where you’re fighting with the country’s
most watched sport (NFL Football), placing races in NASCAR’s playoffs is no way
to gain interest in a competing market.
NASCAR president, Mike Helton was asked about the
possibility of changing some of the races on the Chase schedule, and Helton
left the question rather open-ended when all was said and done.
“I've learned over
time to never not imagine the possibilities of something," in a press
conference earlier this year before the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The
Glen at Watkins Glen International. "But
as we sit here today, we still maintain the thought process when we introduced
the Chase that we were not going to shuffle tracks around to adapt to the
Chase; that the Chase was the last 10 races. Now, however that may work out in
the future, if someone comes to us and asks to change stuff around, we would
consider it. But there is nothing on the table today.”
So with the open minds of NASCAR executives, I’m wondering
what can be done to make these last 10 races of the season more exciting for
the driver and race fans alike. I do understand that NASCAR racing is a bit of
a team sport in a sense, otherwise there would be no use for guys like Chad Knaus
and Darian Grubb (who might have won the race for Tony Stewart on Monday). But, eliminating the fuel-mileage games and
countless hours of boring racing could help in changing some TV sets from football
games to NASCAR Racing during this competitive fall season.
Now, I’m a firm believer of not complaining about something if
you don’t have a logical solution to the issue. I’ve put some thought into the
tracks I would like to see on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule’s final 10
each year…exactly what Mike Helton also said would not happen as the Chase
evolves into the playoff-like shootout that was originally planned.
"We wouldn't stack tracks up in the Chase for benefit of
the Chase. The Chase is the last 10 races of the season. But as the evolution
of changes go on, who knows what could end up the last 10 races?"
My question to you Mr. Helton is; Why Not? Why not change up the schedule to make the last 10 races of the season more exciting?
More to come…including my “NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Fantasy
Chase Schedule”, stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment