Johnson creating Chase change talk
The Chase for the Sprint Cup Series Championship is in its fifth year, and NASCAR has twice made adjustments to the format. But no matter how many times stock-car racing tinkers with its playoff system, it can't seem to make it Jimmie Johnson-proof.
NASCAR is talking about more changes now that Johnson is on the verge of winning his third consecutive championship - and making a shambles of a system that was supposed to inject excitement down the stretch.
When Johnson rallied from 11th to second place in the final eight laps last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he minimized Carl Edwards' victory. Mathematically, Johnson can clinch the title this Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, two races short of the finale.
"The Chase fits me well, the tracks that are in it,"
Johnson said. "Ideally, any driver would love to sit down and mark out there best 10 races, and I'm very fortunate in the Chase with the ones that are in the final 10. I'd probably choose seven or eight of them if I had my wish list of tracks to pick."
A lot of ideas have been kicked around to make sure the championship comes down to the final lap of the final race. Some suggest a five-race playoff season instead of 10. Others suggest a separate scoring system among the Chase drivers or a different selection of tracks. And some believe every playoff driver should throw out one finish.
"It would be my suggestion as NASCAR looks at how to make this more exciting, if every team had an opportunity to throw out one race and be able to just count nine of the 10, that means you could have a mulligan, and you could be able to come back from it,"
car owner Jack Roush said.
Roush has three drivers in the Chase, including Edwards. If they were allowed one do-over, Edwards would throw out a 33rd-place finish at Charlotte, Greg Biffle would throw out a 24th-place finish at Talladega and Matt Kenseth would throw out a 41st-place finish at Charlotte.
Johnson, who now leads by 183 points, would toss out a ninth-place effort at Talladega, and he still would lead Edwards by 104 points. Equally important, Johnson still would have a lot of room for a mistake with three races to go, while everyone else has used up their mulligan.
Edwards hasn't given up yet, although Johnson only needs three top-10 finishes to clinch the title. Since the 2006 season, Johnson has 21 top-10 finishes in the past 23 Chase races.
"Listen guys, anything can happen,"
Edwards said. "... I'm telling you, as long as we're within 130 points going to Homestead, or whatever, we're still going there to win a championship, and it can happen."
"It would have been hard for me to believe that there would be one guy that would have that big of a lead right now, but if I had to pick a guy, I'd say it's Jimmie Johnson. Those guys are really consistent. They do their jobs, but they can have the same luck that we've had, that's for sure."
At the same time, Edwards can't help but think about a format that would give him a better chance to win the title.
"You've got to be careful, because next year, we might have 183-point lead here,"
Edwards said. "It would be good right now, for sure. We'd maybe throw out two. It would be great."
The Chase was introduced for the 2004 season after Matt Kenseth dominated the entire 2003 campaign. His lead was so big in the final two months that he just had three top-10 finishes in the final eight races and still won by 90 points.
Even with a gimmicky Chase format that resets the points for the final 10 races, Johnson is poised to follow in Kenseth's tire tracks.
"I don't think NASCAR wants to see their championship won by this many points, for sure,"
said Edwards' crew chief, Bob Osborne. "I don't want to see it won by this many points. I don't think anybody wants to see it won by this many points, so if they come up with a format that can adjust this and make the Chase even that much more competitive, that would be wonderful."
Johnson isn't worried. If NASCAR changes the format again - and there's no suggestion it will - his team will make the necessary adjustments.
"Oh, we're already confused as it is with 10 [races],"
Johnson said. "Change it to five? We're just getting the public to understand 10 races. Whatever it is - one race, five races or 10 races, I'll show up and go like hell."
NASCAR Sprint Cup: Dickies 500
When: 4 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth.
TV: ABC.
Last year's winner: Jimmie Johnson.
