When I woke up Monday morning and started sifting through e-mails and tweets, I was unprepared for what I found. The Chase bashers were out in full force.
Little naive ol' me went to bed on Sunday night believing that the loudest critics of the now 6-year-old, 10-race, dozen-team Chase for the Championship format -- I'm looking at you, Tony Stewart fans -- would have had their sore screaming throats soothed by Smoke's smooth win at Kansas Speedway. After all, the victory propelled him to fourth in the points standings, a mere 67 markers behind Mark Martin.
So everyone should be happy, right? Wrong.
I am once again under siege from Smoke fans and haters alike. Those who love Stewart are claiming that the postseason-style Chase has already robbed him of his third Cup title. Hendrick Motorsports haters claim that the tracks chosen for the Chase are unfairly slanted toward three-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson. Kyle Busch fans still cry that the four-race winner got jobbed when he was left out. Jeff Gordon fans still say he'd be a six-time champ right now instead of four. And then … well, OK … I don't have time to get into it all.
My response? You people have short memories. Six out of every 10 points races before the Chase were as exciting as watching Usain Bolt smoke all my co-workers at the Worldwide Leader last week.
Besides, despite the system's drawbacks, even Stewart himself is on board. At the end of the Richmond Chase cutoff race, Smoke held a 179-point lead over Jeff Gordon, more than a full race's worth of points. When the Chase reset button was hit he dropped from first to third, 10 points behind Mark Martin, who leapfrogged from sixth to first via bonus points for his league-leading number of race wins.
But Stewart spent all weekend telling people that he likes it. "We knew that could happen," he said after Sunday's win before jetting off to Knoxville, Iowa, for a dirt, late-model race. "We had the whole time in the lead to think about that, but we didn't. We knew you could be 2,000 points ahead, then be behind after the field was reset. And there's nothing wrong with it. It's a cool system. There's no point even worrying about it."
Even Gordon, who would be the most justified person in the world to rip the system, endorsed it after finishing second to Stewart, pointing to the fact that with seven races remaining in the season, no fewer than eight drivers are within 114 points of leader Martin and the top four are separated by only 67 points, roughly 15 positions on the racetrack. The distance between first and 12th is 250 points.
The 1992 season, widely considered the greatest pre-Chase points battle in NASCAR history, was a snoozer at this stage of the calendar compared with this year's title bout. Headed into the season finale at Atlanta, six men were within 113 points of the lead. But with seven races to go -- where we are now -- the standings looked like this:
1. Bill Elliott (lead)
2. Davey Allison (-134)
3. Alan Kulwicki (-164)
4. Harry Gant (-214)
5. Mark Martin (-283)
"It's not even close," says Martin of the comparison. And he knows a little something about good points battles, having finished second four times. "Sometimes people remember the so-called good old days as better than they actually were."
Or as my new Twitter buddy, @NASCARHaiku, put it Sunday night: "I'm tired of hearing/How points would look the old way/Been five years now - deal."
Formula One's Formula, Pt. 1
Stewart and Gordon fans alike love to talk about how the former sprint car legends could have also been F1 champions had they gone that route. Prior to the Kansas race, blogger Dave Wartermill added fuel to the "Tony's getting robbed" fire by recalculating the 2009 Cup Series standings using F1's 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system that's been in place since 2003.
Updating it after Kansas, Stewart would still be the leader, with 109 points to Gordon's 100, Martin's 99 and Johnson's 89.
Formula One's Formula, Pt. 2
Autosport, which is pretty much the USA Today of global motorsports, reports reporting that former F1 racer Mika Salo will be testing a Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing in November at an undisclosed location on a yet-determined date. The Flying Finn made 109 F1 starts between 1994 and 2002 with zero wins, but has had considerable success here in the States with the American LeMans Series.
Meanwhile, F1 expat Nelson Piquet Jr., who was recently run out of Europe for his participation in 2008's "Crash-Gate," will shake down a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series ride for Red Horse Racing at Rockingham on Oct. 12.
Full disclosure: I'm a Rockingham native and I will be showing up at that test session if for no other reason than to see the son of a three-time F1 world champion driving down to Fatz Cafe on East Broad Avenue for lunch. A year ago he was dining on his private balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. Next week he'll be driving a pickup on the banks of the Pee Dee River.
NASCAR Hollywood Watch
A gaggle of Cup drivers are making October appearances on Jeff Foxworthy's "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" Michael Waltrip and David Ragan's episodes will air Tuesday night on MyNetworkTV. Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch will be on the newly syndicated version of the show during its "NASCAR Week," starting Oct. 26.
If you've ever had to ask a 10-year-old for the number of sides in an octagon … you might be a redneck.
Scanner Scouring
The best radio exchange of the day at Kansas was between Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus around Lap 200 of the 267-lap event.
Johnson: "I need a new set of tires, these are dog s---."
Knaus: "10-4 on the dog poo."
Season's Tweetings
From @OGOchoCinco, as in Chad Ochocinco, Bengals wide receiver and apparent NASCAR fan … sort of. Posted shortly after hauling in two touchdown receptions in a thrill-a-minute 23-20 overtime win versus Cleveland: "Next celebration -- streak after a td like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights when he thought he was on fire<---awesome"
Ryan McGee
