Tim Horrigan's NASCAR Chase for the Championship Page

 [February 5, 2008]: For now, I will just reuse my 2007 Chase page. The format for the late-season Chase is the same in 2008 as in 2007: however, the name has changed to the "Sprint for the Cup." That format is, basically: the top 12 drivers have a playoff over the last ten weeks of the season. Those 12 each go to Loudon (racing's most hallowed venue) with 5000 points plus ten bonus points per win.

In 2007, the Chase actually changed the identity of the winner. Jeff Gordon would have won the "classic" points race, but his teammate Jimmie Johnson beat him in the Chase.



I initially wrote this shortly before the Fall 2005 Loudon race, which was the first stage of the Chase for the Championship.

It used to be part of my main Nascar page. Even though some think this is a silly format, Nascar is bringing the Chase back in 2007.

In 2006, the format backfired (though not too badly) in three ways. First, 2005 champion Tony Stewart just barely missed the 2006 Chase but then caught fire the last ten weeks of the season. He finished 11th when he would have finished 4th under the old non-Chase format. Second, a fan favorite, Kasey Kahne, won as many races as anyone else (5 wins) during the pre-Chase portion of the 2006 Season— and just barely squoke into the chase because he was 10th in the points standings. Third, under the old format, the race would have been even closer than it actually ended up: Jimmie Johnson would have beat Matt Kenseth by only 4 points instead of 56. This is the opposite of what was intended, since the Chase format was introduced to eliminate the common situation where the first-place driver runs away from the rest of the field and wins the championship by a couple hundred points.

The format will be different, however, in 2007. There will be 12 drivers (and teams) in the Chase, and the "400-point" rule, which was never used, has been eliminated. (This rule stated that all drivers within 400 points of the leader got into the chase, even if they were in 11th place or lower.) The drivers and teams are still chosen according to drivers' points (or owners' points) but they are reseeded according to wins, not points-race standing. Everyone gets 5000 points, along with 10 points per win. Here is how this would have played out in 2006, in which case Tony Stewart would have been the runner-up to Jimmie Johnson:


See also:



The Chase for the Championship [as of 2006... see above for 2007 changes]

The "Chase for the Championship" traditionally begins with the fall Loudon race. (This tradition dates back to 2004.) There are actually two chases: one for the drivers'-point championship and one for the owners'-points championship. Owners' points are almost exactly similar to drivers' points: the differences are that the team gets the owners' points and a team gets points just for qualifying even when it fails to make the race itself. (In the race itself, a 43rd place team gets 34 points, plus bonus points for leading laps if applicable. Drivers who DNQ get zero points, but their teams get less than 34 points, according to their qualifying rank.)

Typically, it is rare for a top team to use more than one driver over the course of a season, so the two chases normally run in exact parallel. In 2005, after the fall Richmond race, the only multi-driver teams in the Top 35 were the 29th-place #40 team (25 starts for Sterling Marlin, 1 for Scott Pruett), and the 35th place #4 team (21 starts for Mike Wallace, 2 for P.J. Jones, 1 for John Andretti.) (However, during the Chase, defending champion Kurt Busch got himself fired just hours before the penultimate event in Phoenix. He ended up in 10th place amongst the ten Chase Drivers. Roush Racing, on the other hand, got credited with an 8th place owner's point ranking for the #97 team after Kenny Wallace stepped in for the last two weeks as Busch's replacement.)

The Chase is limited to the top 10 drivers/ teams, unless there are additional drivers/ teams who are within 400 points of the leader with 10 races to go. (That is not very likely, although we do hear a lot of commentary earlier in the season about which teams are within the 400-point margin. Indeed, teams that are more than 400 points back get hyped as being "on the bubble.") The top driver/ team gets his or her points total reset to 5050 points. (This would be about 1300 points more than the typical un-reset point total.) Each position below the leader gets 5 fewer points than the position above it: so the 2nd place driver/ team gets 5040 points, 3rd place gets 5035, on down to 10th place getting 5010 points.

The main purpose of this is to turn the end of the season into something similar to the playoffs in "stick and ball" sports. The new system also creates a secondary contest for the 11th place spot. (In 2005, the 11th-place battle came down to two of most popular drivers, Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray.) And yes, the gap between 10th and 11th place truly is insurmountable. Even if the 10th place driver skipped all 10 Chase races, and even if the 11th place driver going into the Chase went on to win every Chase race while leading the most laps in every race, he or she would still be 200 points or so out of 10th place at the end of the Chase.



 Here is a table of the traditional and Chase points at the end of the 2006 season. This season's Chase was actually dominated by the 11th-place driver, Tony Stewart, who would have finished 4th under the old format. Also, Matt Kenseth would have finished much closer to Jimmie Johnson, losing by just 4 points rather than 56.

POS

TradPOS

Driver

RealPts

TradPts

Starts

Wins

Top5

Top10

Money Won

1

1

JIMMIE JOHNSON

6475

5158

36

5

13

24

$8,909,143

2

2

MATT KENSETH

6419

5154

36

4

15

21

$6,608,919

3

5

DENNY HAMLIN

6407

4725

36

2

8

20

$4,389,222

4

3

KEVIN HARVICK

6397

4838

36

5

15

20

$6,201,578

5

6

DALE EARNHARDT, JR

6328

4641

36

1

10

17

$5,466,104

6

7

JEFF GORDON

6256

4567

36

2

14

18

$5,975,873

7

8

JEFF BURTON

6228

4535

36

1

7

20

$5,008,882

8

9

KASEY KAHNE

6183

4497

36

6

12

19

$6,204,222

9

10

MARK MARTIN

6168

4484

36

0

7

15

$4,282,548

10

12

KYLE BUSCH

6027

4416

36

1

10

18

$4,821,093

11

4

TONY STEWART

4727

4727

36

5

15

19

$7,285,281

12

11

CARL EDWARDS

4428

4428

36

0

10

20

$4,578,926

13

13

GREG BIFFLE

4075

4075

36

2

8

15

$4,602,716

14

14

CASEY MEARS

3914

3914

36

0

2

8

$5,413,338

15

15

BRIAN VICKERS

3906

3906

36

1

5

9

$3,917,676

16

16

KURT BUSCH

3900

3900

36

1

7

12

$5,026,137

17

17

CLINT BOWYER

3833

3833

36

0

4

11

$3,924,412

18

18

RYAN NEWMAN

3748

3748

36

0

2

7

$5,364,547

19

19

MARTIN TRUEX, JR

3673

3673

36

0

2

5

$4,193,119

20

20

SCOTT RIGGS

3619

3619

35

0

1

8

$3,237,341

21

21

BOBBY LABONTE

3567

3567

36

0

3

8

$4,651,095

22

22

ELLIOTT SADLER

3469

3469

36

0

1

7

$4,650,289

23

23

DALE JARRETT

3438

3438

36

0

1

4

$4,478,774

24

24

REED SORENSON

3434

3434

36

0

1

5

$3,456,948

25

25

JAMIE MCMURRAY

3405

3405

36

0

3

7

$5,010,303

26

26

DAVE BLANEY

3259

3259

36

0

1

2

$3,479,643

27

27

JOE NEMECHEK, III

3255

3255

36

0

0

2

$4,099,914

28

28

JEFF GREEN

3253

3253

36

0

0

2

$3,767,754

29

29

J J YELEY

3220

3220

36

0

0

3

$4,336,547

30

30

ROBBY GORDON

3113

3113

36

0

1

3

$3,143,787

31

31

KEN SCHRADER

3049

3049

36

0

0

2

$4,130,883

32

32

KYLE PETTY

2928

2928

36

0

0

2

$3,655,539

33

33

DAVID STREMME

2865

2865

34

0

0

0

$3,456,113

34

34

STERLING MARLIN

2854

2854

36

0

0

1

$3,248,034

35

35

TONY RAINES

2609

2609

29

0

0

1

$2,358,230

36

36

TRAVIS KVAPIL

2451

2451

31

0

0

0

$2,867,087

37

37

MICHAEL WALTRIP

2350

2350

33

0

0

0

$2,971,978

38

38

SCOTT WIMMER

1812

1812

24

0

0

0

$1,904,783

39

39

JEREMY MAYFIELD

1684

1684

22

0

0

0

$2,641,732

40

40

KEVIN LEPAGE

1346

1346

22

0

0

0

$1,823,351

41

41

TERRY LABONTE

1278

1278

17

0

1

1

$1,547,359

42

42

DAVID GILLILAND

1178

1178

15

0

0

0

$1,521,447

43

43

KENNY WALLACE

984

984

17

0

0

0

$1,386,818

44

44

BILL ELLIOTT

765

765

10

0

0

0

$1,056,131

45

45

PAUL MENARD

669

669

7

0

0

1

$546,993

46

46

CHAD CHAFFIN

553

553

10

0

0

0

$819,218

47

47

BORIS SAID

415

415

4

0

1

2

$429,000

48

48

MIKE BLISS

387

387

6

0

0

0

$471,458

49

49

BRENT SHERMAN

372

372

6

0

0

0

$637,056

50

50

MIKE WALLACE

355

355

4

0

0

0

$519,218

51

51

STANTON BARRETT

343

343

7

0

0

0

$531,418

52

52

DERRIKE COPE

317

317

9

0

0

0

$652,168

53

53

WARD BURTON

252

252

3

0

0

0

$232,450

54

54

HERMIE SADLER, III

251

251

7

0

0

0

$716,355

55

55

SCOTT PRUETT

223

223

2

0

0

1

$203,530

56

56

TODD KLUEVER

187

187

4

0

0

0

$283,127

57

57

MIKE SKINNER

184

184

4

0

0

0

$348,216

58

58

KIRK SHELMERDINE

177

177

3

0

0

0

$445,624

59

59

TODD BODINE

143

143

2

0

0

0

$145,875

60

60

MIKE GARVEY

138

138

4

0

0

0

$312,210

61

61

JIMMY SPENCER

122

122

2

0

0

0

$122,275

62

62

RON FELLOWS

119

119

2

0

0

0

$135,772

63

63

DAVID RAGAN

88

88

2

0

0

0

$129,610

64

63

BRANDON ASH

88

88

2

0

0

0

$127,995

65

65

CHAD BLOUNT

74

74

2

0

0

0

$147,678

66

66

MORGAN SHEPHERD

71

71

2

0

0

0

$149,407

67

67

ERIC MCCLURE

70

70

1

0

0

0

$69,875

68

68

BILL LESTER

67

67

2

0

0

0

$135,360

69

69

JUAN MONTOYA

61

61

1

0

0

0

$61,425

70

70

P J JONES

55

55

1

0

0

0

$67,610

71

71

BRIAN SIMO

40

40

1

0

0

0

$57,460

72

71

CARL LONG

40

40

1

0

0

0

$101,433

73

71

TED CHRISTOPHER

40

40

1

0

0

0

$67,060

74

74

TOM HUBERT

34

34

1

0

0

0

$67,116

75

74

MARC GOOSSENS

34

34

1

0

0

0

$57,537

76

74

BRANDON WHITT

34

34

1

0

0

0

$61,286

77

77

JOHNNY SAUTER

0

0

1

0

0

0

$85,750

78

77

STEPHEN LEICHT

0

0

1

0

0

0

$62,275