After eight months of controversy, complaining, curiosity and conjecture, NASCAR’s new playoffs are at hand. The Chase for the Nextel Cup is on.
In politics they’d call it a virtual tie among 10 candidates.
Just 45 points separate first-place Jeff Gordon from 10th-place Ryan Newman. They could trade places in a single race, beginning Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway. That’s how paltry the spread is.
In between, separated by five-point increments, are Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin and Jeremy Mayfield.
Mayfield is the only last-ditch qualifier for the playoffs, having leaped from 14th to ninth in literally the last few minutes of the regular season by winning Saturday night’s Chevrolet 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
“Everybody is in the same boat now,” said Newman, who remains the new system’s most vocal critic even though he’s its biggest beneficiary. “It’s just who gets to be a survivor. Any little thing can take you out [of title contention title]–any person, a little debris, bad luck … “
Gordon still isn’t entirely comfortable with the playoff format either. Fluid as the standings promise to be from one race to another, Gordon looked at the big picture of the final 10-race package and concluded: “I could go from leading the points right now and very easily finish 10th in these standings. And I don’t know if anybody in that position would think that’s really fair.”
The phobia among all contenders is, as Johnson put it, “One DNF (did not finish) and you’re out of luck.”
He got a premonition of that Saturday night. He came into the race leading the standings but was knocked out of the race when he was caught up in a multicar wreck caused when Jimmy Spencer hit Casey Mears.
Like most drivers, Gordon clings to the old system in which championships were won by drivers who demonstrated the best season-long consistency. He won four titles that way.
Gordon conceded that the Chase “is going to be exciting and entertaining. When the whole thing’s over, it’s going to be very interesting. But I think we’re not rewarding the guys who have been up front.”
That would include himself, Johnson and Earnhardt, who have mingled at the top of the standings through the first 26 races this year.
Happiest with the way the Chase works was Earnhardt, who’d been among the most critical when the plan was announced in January. At first he worried that if he won his first title this way, detractors would compare him unfavorably with his late father, who won seven Winston Cup titles under the old, grueling grind of a system.
But now, said Earnhardt: “I think it’s OK. It would be pretty boring if you tried to do it any other way.”
There is pizzazz in the paths to the playoffs of some drivers who had rocky starts to this season, particularly Mayfield and Martin.
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Before Saturday night, Mayfield hadn’t won a race in more than four years.
“We had a really tough couple of years trying to get this team where it needs to be,” Mayfield said, “and I think we’ve got it. It just all sort of came together.”
Martin, who has finished second four times and third four times in the championship race, charged from 15th in the standings five weeks ago to eighth now.
“It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he said.
Usually gloomy in outlook due to all the heartbreaks in his career, Martin found some atypical optimism this time. Through the final 10 races, he said, “We have an awful lot of good racetracks (where he has run well in the past) coming up where we can contend to win.”
The final 10 races will be at New Hampshire (one mile); Dover, Del. (one mile); Talladega, Ala. (2.66 miles, with restrictor plates); Kansas City (1.5 miles); Charlotte (1.5 miles); Martinsville, Va. (half-mile); Atlanta (1.5 miles); Phoenix (one mile); Darlington, S.C. (1.366 miles) and Homestead-Miami (1.5 miles).