NASCAR

New Chase Format Spawning Unforeseen But Entertaining Results

By Ryan Pritt on October 28, 2014

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Ryan Newman hasn’t won a thing on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit this year — not a race, not even a pole. But with the season just three races from being over, he’s in prime position to perhaps win a championship.

The new Chase for the Sprint Cup format was supposed to put a premium on winning and in a way, it has. There’s no denying the “win and you’re in” aspect, where any driver who wins a race during the regular season gets a berth into the Chase, and where a win in the Chase means an automatic berth into the next round, has provided an even bigger reward for coming away with a victory.

Despite the tweaking, NASCAR is staring the possibility of a driver winning a championship without winning a race all season. That’s because not only is Newman surging, but so is winless Matt Kenseth, each of whom finishing in the top six at Martinsville on Sunday and are in the top four of the remaining eight Chase contenders.

Even if Denny Hamlin, who has only one win this season yet is just two points back of Kenseth for fourth, wins his first title, one would have to think a one-win champion is hardly what the NASCAR higher-ups had in mind when the new system was introduced.

Behind Hamlin, there’s a 13-point gap to sixth-place Carl Edwards, a 24-point gap to Brad Keselowski, and a 26-point gap to last-place Kevin Harvick after all three had difficulties on Sunday. That threesome has combined to win 11 of the 33 races this season with Keselowski’s six representing more wins than anyone else.

Yet with two races left until the final four for the championship race at Homestead, all three are likely looking at must-win races over the next two weeks just to advance.

Whether or not NASCAR intended for these scenarios t0 arise seems a bit irrelevant now. Everyone loves an underdog, and now they have a real opportunity to win the Sprint Cup’s biggest prize. Newman is providing the blueprint in the new format’s very first year.

Ryan Pritt is a NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @RPritt, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.