So, this is my final thought on The Chase. It can't be denied that the racing has improved this year, with the exception of Phoenix 2 and Homestead which TBH were snore fest due to the high volume of cautions. My other problem with Homestead is that the battle between Harvick, Hamlin, Logano, and Newman felt artificial.
That's honestly one of the big glaring problems I have with this new format. The excitement, the drama, all of it, etc. Just felt really really artificial. I honestly had no problem with the eliminations since that's what the fans and Jayski were doing anyways under the old Chase format. I think the artificiality came from the points reset. There is no logical reason to reset the points as often as they did during this season aside from creating drama.
As for the on-track product, while it has improved, I really don't know if that's because of the new Chase format, or if it's because of the 2014 rule package that came out for the Gen6 cars. While there were some instances where drivers drove because of The Chase (Newman moving Larson out of the way in Phoenix 2), I'm really hesitant to say that the new Chase format is the sole reason the on track product improved this season.
Those are my two cents.