I don’t know about you but I always like to see the best man/car win. Like most everybody, I enjoy a good upset now and then. It’s what makes sports so interesting. But what NASCAR and its silly rules and format did this weekend was just plain stupid. It randomized the results.
It all started with the disaster in qualifying. Now it’s one thing to confuse fans, but when you confuse the overwhelming majority of drivers and crew chiefs, you’ve accomplished something. Driver after driver complained after the qualifying day was complete. Full time drivers and fan favorites, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Justin Allgaier were left out of a race where they both had legitimate shots at winning.
The pair did not qualify for the race because stars such as Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin all failed to finish in the top 35 of qualifying. All of those drivers complained afterwards that the new qualifying rules had them confused which led to their poor qualifying times.
Gordon tweeted after his qualifying attempt, “Wow. Never been so frustrated & confused trying to qualify for a race.”
Kevin Harvick called the qualifying, “The stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Danica Patrick who is dating Ricky Stenhouse Jr., tweeted, “Good cars going home that shouldn’t.”
Danica’s exactly right. Good cars went home that shouldn’t. And it’s all on NASCAR and their silly qualifying format.
OK NASCAR try to convince me that Gordon, Busch, Harvick, Logano and Hamlin aren’t better than nearly all the other cars that finished ahead of them. Tell me that Stenhouse and Allgaier aren’t at least in the top 30. Saturday’s qualifying was an utter disaster.
One good thing for NASCAR though, the silly new Chase format made us all forget the disastrous qualifying.
Because of a poor race in the latest round, which NASCAR calls the “Contender Round”, NASCAR fans are left to crown a Champion where arguably three of its best drivers are not “Contenders”.
Six-time Champion Jimmy Johnson is not a contender. Dale Earnhardt Jr., coming off his best season as a driver is not a contender. Kyle Busch who can win any race any week is not a contender. And we were a whisker or two away from adding Brad Keselowski to that list as well. Seriously, any system which can so easily eliminate arguably the three best drivers in your series is flawed.
Just as no one can make the argument that the qualifying gave us the best 43 cars for this race, no one can make the argument that the Championship now has the best eight drivers in it. I don’t know about you but I want to see the best compete against the best. This weekend NASCAR gave us its version of a lottery.
I hear some making the argument that the performance of the newly excluded drivers is responsible for their demise. Of course that’s true, but a system that seems to make it too easy for good drivers to be excluded from the Chase is the real issue here.
People, sponsors and teams invest huge amounts of money in this sport. To crown a champion without including Johnson, Earnhardt and Busch taints it significantly. We all deserve better than this. We can always go to a casino or play the lottery to get our fix on random winnings. We don’t need our legitimate sports to be so random.
Sorry Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano or whoever happens to win the 2014 Sprint Cup Championship. In my eyes it will be forever tainted. For us fans, we’ll have to deal with a Chase that does not include some of the stars very best.
On to Martinsville for some short track racing. My picks:
- Kyle Busch
- Jeff Gordon
- Jimmie Johnson
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