How can a playoff work in racing?

Zerkfitting

Zerkfitting

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Like it or not there will be a Chase. Instead of whining about NASCAR’s current attempt to tweak The Chase I think we should come up with some better ideas.

Here is mine

All teams maintain the current non chase points system for the entire season. Second place on back would use that points system. Use the Chase to determine the champion. I would go with 5 drivers and 5 races. The top finishing driver gets 5 points, the worst gets 1 point; 1 point for leading the most laps and 2 points for winning a race.

I picked 5 races because a playoff shouldn’t take 2-1/2 months. I picked the top 5 drivers because in the last five races (chase or no chase) only a few drivers have a realistic chance to win the cup, I also think consistency over a long season should be rewarded. Having a Chase points system relative to just the drivers involved keeps the competition close, currently a bad race pretty much eliminates a driver from the playoff. Bonus points reward wins and dominating performances.

Does anyone have any better ideas? Let’s kick around some ideas. I was trying to figure out how a season long heat system might work but I couldn’t come up with anything.
 
Expand the Chase Field to 43 drivers and expand The Chase to 38 races. :D
 
It will never work in any configuration as well as it would without the chase.
 
Have the Chase and the Chase point system at the beginning of the racing season and then make the final 26 races count :)
 
If NASCAR really wants to go the stick and ball route, they should do this:

Reduce the Chase from 10 races to 4 races. This would make the "playoffs" about a month long, which is right in line with the NFL and MLB. After the 32nd race, seed the drivers in a bracket based on where they are in points after the first 32 races (1st in points vs. 16th in points, 2nd vs. 15th, etc). The highest finishing driver from each matchup moves on to the next round in next week's race. This would leave 2 teams standing at Homestead for a Super Bowl type matchup.
And to keep the advantage with the drivers that had a better regular season, they should do like the NFL and re-seed after every round.

Not really any crazier than what NASCAR is proposing now...
 
I really like the idea of giving the chase driver s a separate point system from the rest of the field. 12-1 for a max 17 point day and keep the rest of the field on a 31-1 system.. it would make for such small differences in the amount of points between drivers that it would most likely come very close by the end.
 
ToyYoda said:
If NASCAR really wants to go the stick and ball route, they should do this:

Reduce the Chase from 10 races to 4 races. This would make the "playoffs" about a month long, which is right in line with the NFL and MLB. After the 32nd race, seed the drivers in a bracket based on where they are in points after the first 32 races (1st in points vs. 16th in points, 2nd vs. 15th, etc). The highest finishing driver from each matchup moves on to the next round in next week's race. This would leave 2 teams standing at Homestead for a Super Bowl type matchup.
And to keep the advantage with the drivers that had a better regular season, they should do like the NFL and re-seed after every round.

Not really any crazier than what NASCAR is proposing now...
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FWIW, Kyle Busch would have won the 2013 Sprint Cup championship under this format, beating out Jimmie Johnson in the finale.
 
Keep the current format but reduce the number of races. The Chase is just too long. It should be no more than 6 races IMO. The final six being Sonoma, Martinsville, Darlington, Richmond, Phoenix, and Atlanta (or possibly California instead). Good variety of tracks in warm climates that usually put on a good show.
 
The PGA tour has a playoff system.

There are 4 playoff events and they have a NASCAR-type points system.

It goes something like this (don't quote me on the # but I think I'm close):

The top 175 golfers make the first event (there are hundreds of golfers on the tour).

Then the top 125 golfers make the second event.

Then the top 50 golfers make the the third event.

And the final event (the Tour Championship) is a shootout with the Top 30 golfers were the points awarded are heavily biased towards the winner of the Tour Championship event (the name of the event) winning the annual championship (the FedEx Cup).

There's no drama because everybody's favorite golfers are either easily in the Top 30 and coast to the final event or they're injured and have no chance at making the Top 175. NASCAR adapting this (obviously with a lot smaller fields) could be kind of interesting, though I'm still in favor of no Chase. But, let's face it, that's not happening.
 
If they're hell bent on having playoffs then don't have cars that aren't in the playoffs race.
 
The top ten in points following the 26th race. One to be determined by the chairman using any arbitrary criteria he may desire.

Starting with the 27th race, the first of the last ten, the lowest finishing championship-eligible driver is eliminated. Continue until they roll into the final race with only two drivers left. The highest finisher of the two wins the gig. A reality television type of survivor series.

It stinks but it’s a gimmick that may sell to the newer, younger crowd.
 
I'm still for the randomization of car and driver match ups for each race. One hopper with car numbers and one hopper with drivers decides who drives what before each race. Now that would make for some exciting racing and really prove who's the best.
 
The chase worked ok for me last year, none of my drivers won the championship, but, it was an exciting season and i enjoyed every race i got to watch. Like dpk said...the season can't start soon enough.
 
shark77 said:
I'm still for the randomization of car and driver match ups for each race. One hopper with car numbers and one hopper with drivers decides who drives what before each race. Now that would make for some exciting racing and really prove who's the best.
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iroc ?
 
who said "gimmick"? that is what the chase and the championship has become.

you want wins to count? then take all the big $$$ they payout in the points fund and spread it out top heavy to the top 10 finishers in each race.

there is no such thing as a playoff format in racing. unless it is a gimmick.

jmo.
 
klemmabyna said:
who said "gimmick"? that is what the chase and the championship has become.

you want wins to count? then take all the big $$$ they payout in the points fund and spread it out top heavy to the top 10 finishers in each race.

there is no such thing as a playoff format in racing. unless it is a gimmick.

jmo.
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Kenseth proved that winning isn't rewarded, he never got a big lead with all his wins, ironic he won a title with one win by driving consistently and he lost by winning a bunch.
 
If there absolutely had to be a chase then maybe....

Top 10 in pts. at the end of 31 races get reset to a level playing field. Then bonus points are awarded for each race won during the reg. season... say 3 pts. a win and 1 pt. for all-star or unlimited win. Maybe have bonus points awarded to Top 5 drivers in laps led department.

Thinking of it tho, all these bonus points seem silly. I say, just fix the cars and quit "chasing" a fabricated playoff.
 
Brian France is a despicable maggot. I hope nascar doesn't self destruct, but if it does I hope it happens during his tenure.

He deserves some misery.
 
Brian France is a despicable maggot. I hope nascar doesn't self destruct, but if it does I hope it happens during his tenure.

He deserves some misery.
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Come on, motor sports has been declining; I hope he can succeed - I don't care what kind of person he may be.
 
Greg said:
Brian France is a despicable maggot. I hope nascar doesn't self destruct, but if it does I hope it happens during his tenure.

He deserves some misery.
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My dream is Brian tries to rip off a bunch of companies by playing the bankruptcy game, and some rich dude who understands racing offers a settlement to the creditors and steals the whole thing right out from under these France brats.
 
Zerkfitting said:
Come on, motor sports has been declining; I hope he can succeed - I don't care what kind of person he may be.
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The p.o.s already has a born birthright into the hall of fame. And fines and punish descenters like an Atilla the hun. Insiders are probably to scared to tell him he is stupid with all of the insulation.
I hope he burns in hell.
 
Greg said:
The p.o.s already has a born birthright into the hall of fame. And fines and punish descenters like an Atilla the hun. Insiders are probably to scared to tell him he is stupid with all of the insulation.
I hope he burns in hell.
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greg: you always seem to take my original thoughts and express them far better than what i usually end up posting after sending it through my sobriety filter. my only balancing thought is that brainless france is a bigger disappointment to his ancestors than he is to me.
 
FenderBumper said:
My dream is Brian tries to rip off a bunch of companies by playing the bankruptcy game, and some rich dude who understands racing offers a settlement to the creditors and steals the whole thing right out from under these France brats.
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If I ran NASCAR, they'd be racing at South Boston, Motor Mile, Hickory, Langley, Five Flags and Lonesome Pine ... TOMORROW.
 
I preferred the old point system but I could deal with the chase. At least it was spread out to 10 races.
But the idea of having it all come down to one race is stupid beyond words.

Trying to compare it to the NFL, well the Super Bowl games sucked for about the first 30 years but the NFL believed in their product and had some patience. The conference championship games were usually much better but they have been playing the game with about the same scoring system for 50 years.
The Super Bowl is a big event but it has been meaniful games over the entire season that has made it such a capstone.

In racing some Steven Wallace idiocy or somebodys itch can totally destroy the best competitors, the most worthy drivers day. We at least get to see Matt and JJ, Brad and JJ, or Tony and Carl take points accumulated over 9 events now to Miami.

But this spin the wheel idiocy that is being suggested now has absolutely no integrity. It treats folks that love racing like fools, turning their passion into a circus, with as much cred as the WWF.
 
StandOnIt said:
Kenseth proved that winning isn't rewarded, he never got a big lead with all his wins, ironic he won a title with one win by driving consistently and he lost by winning a bunch.
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I disagree. Yeah, Kenseth won 7 races and came up short, but the guy who edged him for the title won 6 and was usually not too far behind Kenseth when he was winning. Kenseth's ultimate downfall was that Phoenix race. The team sort of unraveled and he finished 23rd while Johnson finished 3rd. That 48 team will very rarely give you a mulligan come Chase time.

I've said this before, but Tony Stewart proved in 2011 that winning is rewarded enough already. Carl Edwards had a better average finish than him and lost the title because he didn't win enough races. If we try to reward winning even more, we're going to eventually throw consistency out of the equation completely.
 
heard today talladega is final race......swap w/ homestead. ??
 
Mr. Gregory said:
I've said this before, but Tony Stewart proved in 2011 that winning is rewarded enough already.
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Tony is a freak of nature and that run will most likely never be duplicated. He won half the chase races... he could have won one less race and all those wins wouldn't have meant squat.
 
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