For one, NASCAR made no effort to diversify the Chase schedule. All they did was lop off the final ten races and make that the Chase, which was dumb since then the playoff venues weren't representative of the types of tracks you raced on in the regular season to get into the Chase in the first place. Why you can have a driver win a race on a road course and qualify for the Chase and then not have a road course after the reset just boggles my mind.
I've read posts that say Chad and Jimmie adapted their strategy to become most successful at the types of tracks that dominate the Chase - the intermediate tracks between 1 and 2 miles. Well, not really. Even before the Chase, that was the type of track they were best at. In 75 starts from 2001-2003 these were Jimmie's average finish stats:
Speedways (1-2 miles): 11.5
Speedways (2+ miles): 14.5
Short tracks: 15.0
Road courses: 18.0
In comparison, Jeff Gordon from 1992-2003:
Road courses: 10.6
Speedways (2+ miles): 11.5
Short tracks: 11.6
Speedways (1-2 miles): 12.7
You look at the Chase schedule today, and you see eight speedways between 1-2 miles, one short track, one speedway over 2 miles, and zero road courses. That's one of the reasons why the Chase is a farce, in my opinion. You used to be judged on your performance at all types of tracks over the course of the whole season, and now you're simply judged on what was already the back end of the schedule.