Chase not perfect but clearly smokes points system

Only a couple of months ago many people were already engraving Kyle Busch's name on this year's Sprint Cup Series trophy.

Then all of a sudden Carl Edwards got hot and the 2008 championship picture became a little murkier.

Jimmie Johnson's late charge adds to the suspense of the Chase. (Getty Images)

Now with Jimmie Johnson's late-summer hot streak there is no clear favorite on who will end up on top of the NASCAR mountain when the final checkered flag flies at Homestead in November.

And that's exactly why the Chase for the Sprint Cup format works so well.

While Busch, Edwards and Johnson will be the favorites once the Chase kicks off next weekend in New Hampshire, after Saturday night's race in Richmond there will be nine others with a shot at winning the title.

Those who long for the "old" point system would basically have a two-driver race to follow over the last eleven races of the season with Busch holding a massive 208-point advantage over Edwards after 25 events.

Johnson is a whopping 329 behind and with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton in fourth and fifth, a distant 432 and 521 back respectively.

Under the old system there would basically be no championship talk for the next three months.

But the Chase gives us both the intrigue of who will actually make the postseason, as it does most every year when the 26th race rolls around at Richmond, as well as a championship stretch drive over the final 10 events.

Why would anyone want to follow a sport where the title is decided with three or four events left in the season?

While it's possible a driver could wrap up the championship before the Homestead finale, it isn't likely, making the final race of the season meaningful.

Another criticism I hear from some fans is that once the Chase begins, the television networks only concentrate on those drivers each week and ignore others not battling for the title.

While I agree to a point that the coverage becomes a bit slanted during the Chase portion of the season, I think television has done a pretty good job staying focused on the individual race story of the leaders at the front of the field in addition to providing the championship picture.

If your favorite driver isn't in the Chase or running upfront for the lead, there isn't any reason for television to be covering them anyway.

However, the Chase isn't perfect by any means and with a few tweaks could even be better.

Shrinking the field would be my first move.

One thing it didn't need was to add more drivers into the mix.

The decision to increase the Chase field from 10 to 12 a couple years ago was a bad idea and just watered down the championship lineup.

I'd go back to the top 10 in the point standings and make the title field more of an elite group.

The drivers currently 11th and 12th are both nearly 700 points behind leader Busch in the standings. That's not title contention worthy in my book.

A stronger emphasis on winning has been missing in NASCAR racing for a long time. Race winners should be rewarded with more points, plain and simple.

Adding the bonus point concept to the mix was a step in the right direction and seeding the Chase based on those victories and points is the right idea.

But let's not go as far as to award a driver a Chase spot simply based on winning a race in the regular season. Consistency should still be a benchmark in the point standings. I would just give a race winner 25 more points than the second-place finishers to reward what the sport is supposed to be about -- crossing the finish line first.

A separate point system for Chase drivers once the playoffs begin is a must.

Let the championship contenders battle among themselves and not get eliminated in Week 1 on a boneheaded move by a non-Chase driver, like we've seen happen many times since the format debuted.

The race within a race would make more sense to fans and viewers if the drivers in the title battle had a separate system.

The Chase is manufactured and a made-for-TV creation, two knocks I hear all the time from those who still haven't embraced the format.

And that is completely true.

So is the wild card in baseball and football, the 3-point shot in the NBA, the BCS in college football and the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour, which is basically professional golf's version of the Chase.

Leagues and sanctioning bodies are supposed to find ways to generate interest in their sport. NASCAR has done that with the Chase.

There's always room for improvement but implementing the Chase was the right thing to do.