Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Plan dumb enough to work- It could reduce the Nextel Tour to a circus rodeo, and it could reduce Talladega to a bloodbath.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 13:47:56 -0500

Thursday, December 11, 2003

Commentary
Plan dumb enough to work
By Ed Hardin

Landmark News Service

So NASCAR wants its own playoff system, wants to scrap the points race as we've
known it for the past 32 years and create a season-ending scramble made for
television drama and national attention?

Of course, this is a stupid idea and it's bound to blow up in NASCAR's face. I
say let's do it.
I mean, come on. Did you really enjoy this season's points race? Do you remember
the one before that? Do you ever remember a good points race?

They say there was one, back in 1992. I was there. It wasn't that exciting. They
say there were great points races just this year in Busch and Trucks. Sorry, I
didn't notice. The truth is, points racing is boring and the current points
system generates no excitement. None.

This latest idea is brazen and reckless. The concept is fraught with peril, from
both a safety point of view and a public relations point of view.  This could
take the sport to a whole new level, possibly one just below ice hockey. This
could endanger sponsorship programs and the careers of veterans.

It could reduce the Nextel Tour to a circus rodeo, and it could reduce Talladega
to a bloodbath.
So there are problems that must be worked out. But I think we can make it work.
Having said all that, let me make this clear. I really do like this idea.

NASCAR has floated a plan that would create a 10-race championship series among
the top 10 drivers in the points race, basically creating a 26-race regular
season that would eliminate all but the top 10 drivers from a "playoff" chase to
Homestead.
If the current plan holds, the points system itself would not be altered. Matt
Kenseth would've still been the points leader after 26 races, and Junior
would've been second. Now, had Dale Earnhardt Jr. been, say, 11th, I'm not sure
this thing would work at all. Then again, were he 11th headed into the 26th
race, you can bet I'm gonna be at that race.

That would've been Richmond this past year, the race where Kevin Harvick and his
team fought Ricky Rudd and his team after the race in what NASCAR described as a
"bench-clearing mentality." If this new points thing is approved, you can best
believe the bench-clearing mentality will become the norm.

And maybe that's a good thing. Watching Kenseth stroking his way to a points
championship without winning a race after March4 wasn't drama. When he clinched
the title at Rockingham in November, the race was on cable.  That's not the way
they do it in the big leagues.

Next year's final eight races will all be on network television, competing with
the NFL and the baseball playoffs and college football, which people enjoy
watching, and also the start of the NHL and NBA seasons, which no one watches
anyway.
NASCAR, in its zeal to become one of the Big Four sports, might just finally
catch and pass both hockey and pro basketball in one brilliant move.  And this
might be it. Then again, we could see all kinds of problems.

What if Junior and Jeff Gordon aren't in the top 10 after Richmond? What if this
system effectively kills the careers of racers like Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin,
Terry Labonte, Kyle Petty, Ken Schrader, Dale Jarrett and Sterling Marlin? What
if somebody does get killed at Talladega?

I don't think those things will happen. I don't think a sponsor like NAPA would
get irritated to the point that it would pull out once it became apparent that
Michael Waltrip wouldn't be in the final 10. I don't think tracks like Chicago
or Bristol or Daytona will sue to have the schedule altered to give them a date
in what would be a very visible stretch run (Daytona would be suing itself, and
Bristol's people are already suing NASCAR and nobody cares about Chicago
anyway). I don't think the 26 races or the 33 drivers left out of the playoffs
would become moot, at least not any more moot than they already are.
But those things could happen. In NASCAR, the unexpected often does. Most
everything NASCAR has ever done has blown up in its face, and yet it is still
the fastest-growing sport in the world, or so we're told.

This idea would turn the final stretch into a crazy, dangerous and angry finish,
a 10-race Winston, if we can still say that word.
Let's face it, this plan sounds so stupid it just might work.

http://www1.roanoke.com/sports/racing/10953.html

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