Nascar down to the final four

Net week will decide the champion.

Johnson, Edwards, Logano and Ky. Busch

Will Jimmie win his 7th ?

I know that he's not the most popular guy, but Kyle Busch is a hell of a driver and could be competitive in any discipline.

Rooting for JJ to get #7.

Anybody but Logano, although he and Kyle are likely #1and #2. Favorite for me is Carl.

captdownshift wrote: I know that he's not the most popular guy, but Kyle Busch is a hell of a driver and could be competitive in any discipline.

I always wanted to see Kyle try his hand Sports Car/LMP cars.

JJ for #7

also, because Chevy

Pulling for Rowdy. That dude can DRIVE

If I had a car I'd put Busch in it in a heartbeat. He's going to win or bring back a steaming pile of debris but he will put everything he can into it. As much as everyone I know likes to hate him I went to meet him at an event a few years ago and he couldn't have been nicer spenting time with everyone that wanted to talk to him.

I admit to not really following NASCAR, so the whole chase thing is a bit of a mystery to me. Why don't they just have these four out on the track for the race if they are the only ones who can win? Why have the other 30 cars out there in the way? I get the general idea that the race winner and the season champion are two different things, but the tiny bit I know about it makes me think it is a convoluted way to pick a champion that was only designed to get people to watch every race near the end of the season. Did they invent this to not lose viewers to football in the fall?

T.J. wrote: I admit to not really following NASCAR, so the whole chase thing is a bit of a mystery to me. Why don't they just have these four out on the track for the race if they are the only ones who can win? Why have the other 30 cars out there in the way? I get the general idea that the race winner and the season champion are two different things, but the tiny bit I know about it makes me think it is a convoluted way to pick a champion that was only designed to get people to watch every race near the end of the season. Did they invent this to not lose viewers to football in the fall?

Because contrary to popular belief Ricky Bobby was wrong, NASCAR makes more than just first and last place trophies. Points still add up and can change standings for other drivers. Also, how a driver navigates a field can have a huge influence on where they finish.

It'd also be hard for teams to keep sponsors if only one position was ever recognized.

Because the other cars provide a moving chicane.

Besides, the 4 have to qualify for starting position.

An as crackers said, there still are points and awards.

Oh, Matt Kenseth needs to get a new spotter.

Then what is the advantage of "The Chase for the Cup©®™"? Why not just do it the way they did way back when and whoever has most points after the last race wins the championship?

iceracer wrote: Oh, Matt Kenseth needs to get a new spotter.

PIR needs to relocate its spotters stand. The cars are coming straight at them into 1, and in a game of fractions of inches, it just doesn't work.

gearheadmb wrote: Then what is the advantage of "The Chase for the Cup©®™"? Why not just do it the way they did way back when and whoever has most points after the last race wins the championship?

because it was hard to keep people interested in the last couple of races when the champ was mathematically crowned with 2 races left in the season.. i think that when Dale Sr won his last championship he only had to not finish in last place in the second to last race to clinch it, so RCR put a second car into that race that dropped out early with some sort of mysterious mechanical issue and the last 2 races really didn't matter.. Dale likely would have won it, anyways, but they weren't taking any chances..

the Chase actually got put into place after Matt Kenseth won the championship after leading the standings for the last 33 weeks of the 36 race season and only getting one win along the way.. some people saw that as only slightly less "legitimate" than how Kyle Busch got it last year after missing the first 12 races after a crash in the Daytona XFinity race because one of the rules put into place a few years ago was that all drivers had to be in every race every week during the season to be eligible to be crowned champion..

personally, i don't really care who wins the championship or all the theatrics that they push alongside it... i just love watching the races and seeing how individual teams overcome things from lap to lap and find ways to throw it all away with one stupid move like Kenseth did yesterday..

In reply to novaderrik:

That's what I figured that the whole chase thing was to try to make the races near the end of the season meaningful and interesting for the fans. NASCAR really has the marketing part down.

Assuming that there is some cutoff for NASCAR qualifying, what would happen if all four of the remaining drivers failed to qualify? Would there be no champion this season?

In the past, those guys would have enough points to get provisionals, but now NASCAR has team charters that guarantees they are in the race. They used to run 43 cars but since there were so many "start and parks" and the sponsors wanted to not miss, they limit field to 40.

Iusedtobefast wrote: In the past, those guys would have enough points to get provisionals, but now NASCAR has team charters that guarantees they are in the race. They used to run 43 cars but since there were so many "start and parks" and the sponsors wanted to not miss, they limit field to 40.

Or maybe it isn't the cash cow that it used to be and they wanted to show the big $$ teams and their big $$ sponsors that it was worth hanging around because they would be guaranteed a spot in the race..

This move coincided with a tv deal that scatters the races across several networks- this year alone, i had to set my dvr to record races on Fox, FS1, NBC, MSNBC, USA, and even berkeleying CNBC...races have been preempted and shuttled over to a lesser network by soccer, golf, and F1 races.. NASCAR isn't the shining jewel it once was, but the actual racing is second to none most of the time.

Carl Edwards could be the dumbest person I've seen onTV all week.

Johnson did it.

JJ. Did it!!!!!!

Just wow. He is now with the Intimidator and the King. Just WOW!!!!

And he could get more for sure.

It was a great race. The only NASCAR I've watched all year and I now wish I saw more.