Tim Horrigan's Nascar® Chase for the Championship Page

Tim Horrigan's NASCAR Chase for the Championship Page

[Noevmber 17, 2008]: The format for the late-season Chase was the same in 2008 as in 2007: however, the offical name 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 and 2008, the Chase actually changed the identity of the winner. This year, Carl Edwards would have won the "classic" points race, by 61 points, but Jimmie Johnson won the Chase by 69 points. This was the third year in a row Johnson won the Chase, and the second time he didn't win the unofficial classic points race. In 2007, Johnson's car owner Jeff Gordon would have won the "classic" points race.

There is a separate chase for the Owners Point championship; Owners Points are like Drivers Points, only they go with the team and teams get points just for showing up to qualify. The Drivers Points and Owners Points Top 12's were once again identical for both Chases. The highest ranked multi-driver team was the #8 US Army Chevy: Marc Martin and Aric Almirola combined for a 15th-place finish (175 points shy of the chase) and improved to 14^th place by the end of the season. Being in the Top 35 in owners points is very important, because those teams are guaranteed a spot in the race (no matter how bad they do in the qualifying time trials.) Two Top 35 teams missed starts: the #66 team (usually driven by Scott Riggs) and the #21 team (driven by Dave Blaney) both suffered DNQs during the season.

# Classic Drivers Points Standings [after Richmond race 26 of 36]:

1) #18-Kyle Nationwide 3878 [8 wins]

2) #99-Carl Edwards 3671 -207 [6 wins]

3) #48-Jimmie Johnson 3576 -302 [4 wins]

4) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 3488 -390 [1 win]

5) #31-Jeff Burton 3384 -494 [1 win]

6) #20-Tony Stewart 3285 -593

7) #29-Kevin Harvick 3283 -595

8) #16-Greg Biffle 3280 -598

9) #11-Denny Hamlin 3235 -643 [1 win]

10) #24-Jeff Gordon 3221 -657

11) #17-Matt Kenseth 3132 -746

12) #07-Clint Bowyer 3116 -762 [1 win]

# Chase Drivers Points Standings [after Richmond race 26 of 36]:

1) #18-Kyle Nationwide 5080 [8 wins x 10 bonus pts]

2) #99-Carl Edwards 5050 [6 wins, 5 wins x 10 pts = 50pts*]

3) #48-Jimmie Johnson 5040 [4 wins]

4) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5010 [1 win, 2nd, 3rd, 3-4ths]

5) #07-Clint Bowyer 5010 [1 win, 2nd, 3rd, 4th]

6) #11-Denny Hamlin 5010 [1 win, 7-3rds]

7) #31-Jeff Burton 5010 [1 win, 1-3rd]

8) #20-Tony Stewart 5000 [3-2nds]

9) #16-Greg Biffle 5000 [2-2nds]

10) #24-Jeff Gordon 5000 [1-2nd, 3-3rds]

11) #29-Kevin Harvick 5000 [1-2nd, 1-3rd]

12) #17-Matt Kenseth 5000 [2-3rds]

* Edwards lost the bonus for win at Las Vegas (March 2, 2008) due to penalty

Final Classic Driver Points Standings [after Homestead race 36 of 36]:

1) #99-Carl Edwards 5236 [9 wins]

2) #48-Jimmie Johnson 5220 -16 [7 wins]

3) #18-Kyle Busch 4984 -252 [8 wins]

4) #16-Greg Biffle 4747 -489 [2 wins]

5) #31-Jeff Burton 4709 -527 [2 wins]

6) #29-Kevin Harvick 4691 -545

7)#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 4605 -631 [1 win]

8) #24-Jeff Gordon 4537 - 699

9) #20-Tony Stewart 4487 -749 [1 win]

10) #07-Clint Bowyer 4487 - 749 [1 win]

11) #11-Denny Hamlin 4439 -797 [1 win]

12) #17-Matt Kenseth 4316 -920

(none of the Chase teams fell out of the top 12 in classic points.)

Final Chase Driver Points Standings [after Homestead race 36 of 36]:

1) #48-Jimmie Johnson 6684 [7 wins]

2) #99-Carl Edwards 6615 -69 [9 wins]

3) #16-Greg Biffle 6467 -217 [2 wins]

4) #29-Kevin Harvick 6408 -276

5) #07-Clint Bowyer 6381 -303 [1 win]

6) #31-Jeff Burton 6335 -349 [2 wins]

7) #24-Jeff Gordon 6316 -368

8) #11-Denny Hamlin 6214 -470 [1 win]

9) #20-Tony Stewart 6202 -482 [1 win]

10) #18-Kyle Busch 6186 -488 [8 wins]

11) #17-Matt Kenseth 6184 -500

12) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6127 -557 [1 win]

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 2009. The Chase is a ten-week series at the end of the season, beginning with the fall Loudon race.

The initial format was that the top 10 drivers in owners points plus anyone else within 400 points of the leader, got into the Chase. (See below for more details.) 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.

Since 2007. there have been 12 drivers (and teams) in the Chase, and the "400-point" rule, which was never used, has been eliminated. 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:

2006 Pre-Chase Standings
1. Matt Kenseth, 5,050
2. Jimmie Johnson, 5,045
3. Kevin Harvick, 5,040
4. Kyle Busch, 5,035
5. Denny Hamlin, 5,030
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 5,025
7. Mark Martin, 5,020
8. Jeff Burton, 5,015
9. Jeff Gordon, 5,010
10. Kasey Kahne, 5,005
x-Tony Stewart, -------
x-Greg Biffle, -------

2006 Pre-Chase Standings Under New Format
Rank, Driver, Reset Pts, Wins, Adjusted Pts*(spots advanced/lost)
1. #9-Kasey Kahne, 5,000, 5, 5,050 (+9)
2. #17-Matt Kenseth, 5,000, 4, 5,040 (-1)
3. #48-Jimmie Johnson, 5,000, 4, 5,040 (-1)
4. #29-Kevin Harvick, 5,000, 3, 5,030 (-1)
5. #20-Tony Stewart, 5,000, 2, 5,020 (+6)
6. #24-Jeff Gordon, 5,000, 2, 5,020 (+3)
7. #11-Denny Hamlin, 5,000, 2, 5,020 (-7)
8. #5-Kyle Busch, 5,000, 1, 5,010 (-4)
9. #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr., 5,000, 1, 5,010 (-3)
10. #16-Greg Biffle, 5,000, 1, 5,010 (+2)
11. #6-Mark Martin, 5,000, 0, 5,000 (-4)
12. #31-Jeff Burton, 5,000, 0, 5,000 (-4)
* � Reflects 10-point bonus for each race win.

And if the NEW system was used in 2006, how would the final results look?
1. #48-Jimmie Johnson 6475 [finished 1st in 2006]
2. #20-Tony Stewart 6459 [11th]
3. #17-Matt Kenseth 6419 [2nd]
4. #29-Kevin Harvick 6397 [4th]
5. #11-Denny Hamlin 6397 [3d]
6. #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6313 [5th]
7. #24-Jeff Gordon 6266 [6th]
8. #9-Kasey Kahne 6233 [8th]
9. #31-Jeff Burton 6218 [7th]
10. #6-Mark Martin 6148 [9th]
11. #16-Greg Biffle 6051 [13th]
12. #5-Kyle Busch 6002 [10th]

See also:

The Chase for the Championship [as of 2006... see above for 2007-2009 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 43^rd 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 29^th-place #40 team (25 starts for Sterling Marlin, 1 for Scott Pruett), and the 35^th 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 10^th place amongst the ten Chase Drivers. Roush Racing, on the other hand, got credited with an 8^th 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, even 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 2^nd place driver/ team gets 5040 points, 3^rd place gets 5035, on down to 10^th 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 11^th place spot. (In 2005, the 11^th-place battle came down to two of most popular drivers, Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray.) And yes, the gap between 10^th and 11^th place truly is insurmountable. Even if the 10^th place driver skipped all 10 Chase races, and even if the 11^th 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 10^th place at the end of the Chase.