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This past weekend at Texas Tony Stewart notched his fourth win in the Chase – it was an impressive feat considering that prior to the first Chase race in Chicago it had been 32 races since he’d last seen victory lane. Despite the late string of success, Stewart still finds himself second in the championship points standings. For some that’s inexplicable.
This fundamental question of what’s more important in the push to a championship is something that’s dogged NASCAR and motorsports for a long time. Do we want a champion who the had the best overall Chase, or the one who had the most wins? Often times they are not one and the same.
NASCAR, prior to this season, retooled the points in an effort to simplify and put slightly more emphasis on winning. The new system gave three extra points to the top finisher in addition to another point for leading a lap. NASCAR also gave the two teams outside of the top-10 but inside the top-20 with the most wins berths in the Chase.
The result of the points changes, while certainly an improvement and much easier to understand has been pretty insignificant this season. But is that a bad thing?
Championship success in NASCAR unlike other sports is not and never has been solely based on winning. It’s of course important, but consistency and good finishes are often the key. Consider Carl Edwards has an average finish of 9.7 on the season, with one win, and 5.6 in the Chase with no wins. Tony Stewart on the other hand is averaging a finish of 12.6 on the season and 7.3 in Chase. For Stewart that includes those four wins.
Carl has without a doubt put together the better, more consistent season. He’s even put together the better, more consistent Chase. And that’s why he finds himself leading the points.
I’ve always been of the belief that the best team should win the championship no matter how it gets there. In this case I want the team with the best Chase performance to win it all. Whether that means the championship winning team has the most wins or the most number of better finishes.
So what do you think should get the emphasis? Consistency? Or wins? Does NASCAR need to restructure the points again? Should Tony Stewart be leading the points?
The responsibility over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed. As annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ might have been, we saw it last night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. Then what I’m telling you today is our reaction. - NASCAR President Mike Helton
The responsibility over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed.
As annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ might have been, we saw it last night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. Then what I’m telling you today is our reaction. - NASCAR President Mike Helton
Since the implementation of NASCAR’s more lenient on-track policing policy began last season we’ve been waiting for this moment. Waiting for NASCAR to give some definition to, “we’ll know it when we see it.”
While I don’t think we got a whole lot of clarity with the penalty this weekend, I can’t say I’m surprised that was the moment. Count me among the legions who didn’t expect NASCAR to act as strongly as they did, but again I wasn’t surprised.
Kyle Busch was out of his mind Friday night – out of his mind like seldom few I’ve ever seen on a race track. He not only wrecked Ron Hornaday’s repairable truck, he wrecked his own even more repairable truck all because he was upset Hornaday got loose and forced him up the track. The championship contender was apparently supposed to back down for Busch. It was mind-boggling.
And then NASCAR’s decision was not. Busch has repeatedly been involved in incidents this year. Most notably with Kevin Harvick and subsequently with Richard Childress. He, if you’ll remember, also had that 126 mph speeding ticket during the summer.
If this had been the first incident you may not have seen NASCAR act with as much gusto. But it wasn’t. This behavior has become all too frequent for Busch.
I’m hopeful this will be a moment of clarity for the driver. An opportunity for him to realize that maturity and temperance are important steps in becoming the great racecar driver he’s capable of becoming.
But I don’t blame NASCAR. In fact, I applaud them. This was a long time coming. It was unfortunate for Busch’s sponsors and increasingly I feel bad that Joe Gibbs and Joe Gibbs Racing are forced to make excuses for behavior I know they don’t find acceptable.
Kyle Busch got exactly what Kyle Busch deserved – and we’ll see if more is coming on Tuesday.
What a week! On Monday night we got word that Rick and Linda Hendrick were involved in a plane crash in Key West, Florida. Both sustained non-life threatening injuries. The crash came five years and one week after the plane crash that took the lives of John and Ricky Hendrick and five others. On Tuesday night, former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield was arrested on possession of methamphetamine charges after the Catawba County Sheriff’s office executed a search warrant searching for stolen items. Mayfield’s attorney said Mayfield had no knowledge of the stolen items on his property or the meth. On Wednesday, Michael Waltrip Racing announced that David Reutimann would not drive for the team in 2012. He’s being replaced by Mark Martin. And finally, NASCAR parked Kyle Busch for the weekend after he intentionally wrecked Ron Hornaday Jr. under caution Friday night. This is the NASCAR week that was, October 30 to November 5, 2011.
It’s time for Busch to take a long look in the mirror
Media Watch: Jeremy Mayfield
Hendrick injured in plane crash
Reutimann battling emotions with losing his ride
Twitter roundup: How drivers reacted to Kyle Busch incident
Vintage Insiders
Digesting The 24/48 Pit Crew Swap
Change Phoenix? Please Don’t
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