Trouble in Turn2

I hadn’t planned to take a day off today, but it’s a good time to relax. I will be back next week for some in-depth review of 2007. If I don’t return on Monday, it’s because I was swept in and carried away by a wife-induced Black Friday tornado.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with this. While some Gordon fans are decrying the Chase, look at the points based on last year’s rules. The Chase would have seeded the drivers based on points finish and there would be 5 points less per win. The means Jeff Gordon would have started the Chase with 5050 points and in first place instead of 5040 and tens points behind Jimmie Johnson. Without 30 extra points for his 6 wins pre-Chase, Johnson would have finished fifth in the standings, placing him fifth to begin the Chase with 5030 points and a 20 point deficit to Jeff Gordon. Then during the Chase Gordon and Johnson would have lost 10 and 20 points respectively. Johnson still would have won the Chase, but it would have been much closer entering Homestead and would have also given Gordon at least some sense of reward for his dominant regular season.

I still believe Johnson won by playing the game better than Gordon, but the thing that bothers me the most is basing the entire Chase on number of wins from the first 26 races. If you apply this year’s rules (I say this year’s because they could change again next year on a France whim), to last year’s Chase Kasey Kahne would have vaulted from 10th to first entering the Chase. How is that fair?

Have a good weekend, and like Mr Rogers, “I’ll be back when the day is new, and I’ll have new ideas for you. And you’ll have things you’ll want to talk about, I will too.”