If the “Chase” had always been the format, would any championships change?
Probably considering that even this season according to JaySki, Edwards would have won by 78 points if it had not been for the chase format. Steward would have been third.
The 2005 (Stewart), 2006 and 2009 (Johnson for both) winners would have been the same under the old format. Jeff Gordon would have won in 2004 and 2007 (instead of Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson, respectively) and Carl Edwards would have won in 2008.
Racing reference lists the points total after each race, so you can see what the season enders would look like without the Chase. Some article a few years ago applied the Chase to the 80s and 90s and most of the top people still won. The only surprising one was 1992. The champion would have been Kyle Petty.
The points system in NASCAR has changed many times over the years, so there will always be disagreements about how “should” have won the championship. The last major change was 1975 but there have been minor adjustments as well. Things like points awarded for leading at halfway, which events award points, different points for different sized tracks, etc. It’s always been a mess but the same thing occurs in other motor racing realms. It sometimes seems that no matter who wins, it was the wrong person and the points need to be dispensed differently.
I like the current one point per postition points system, but I hate the chase. It allows a slacker to come on at the end and take the championship while other people have accumulated more points throughout the season. It also drags along people who barely scraped in before falling off in performance and hurts others that had bad races and missed the chase, but came on strong at the end, like Kahne.
If they want a “game 7” moment every year, they should make Daytona the last race of the season, even if it’s the first race of the year, like it used to be, and make the winner of the Daytona 500 the champion.
I have seen several rumors that they are considering moving the July 4th race at Daytona to the end of the season.
As for the Chase format, I don’t think you can do it retroactively. These guys race the rules they have at the time. Teams that laid back in late races to protect a points lead would have run harder. It’s like saying “who would’ve won the Super Bowl if the helmet-to-helmet rule were in place?” The guys playing would’ve played differently.
My only beef with the current system is that I think points should be same from 35-43 (the 35 being subject to debate, frankly, I’d be okay with 30+ on most tracks). I hate the fact that teams scramble to put a non-competitive car on the track for a few laps just to earn points. It interferes with the actual racing and sooner or later is going to get someone killed. I do like the current system’s emphasis on wins vs finishes.
NASCAR puts so many cars on the track that it’s difficult to work out a points system. I’d prefer that they only gave points down to 30th position. I would argue that the current system didn’t “allow a slacker to come on at the end”. It encourages teams to slack off all year because they only need to make the top ten. Once that happens, points are leveled off and THEN you need to actually race for a championship.
I’m not happy with the Chase but I think the 10+2 system that they implemented this year is an improvement. From what I read earlier in the year, the change in points wasn’t a large difference from the way it used to be. The numbers were smaller but the ratio between positions wasn’t markedly different. Rather than giving winners more points, I would make the chase 6+4.