NASCAR Chase format ramps up pressure on drivers

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Jeff Gordon remembers the first time he heard NASCAR would tinker with its long-time championship format.

The 2003 season had recently ended as Gordon stood on a dock in Key West, Fla., waiting to board a boat for a NASCAR-promoted cruise.

NASCAR vice chairman Mike Helton and chairman Brian France approached Gordon on the dock. They told him about a new format coming for the 2004 season that would be called the “Chase.”

Gordon, who was two seasons removed from his fourth Cup championship under a system that rewarded season-long consistency, smiled at NASCAR’s top two officials.

“I laughed in their faces because I thought that was the most hilarious thing I had ever heard of,” Gordon said. “I thought it was a joke. Then I quickly realized it was not a joke and I was pulling the laughs back into my mouth.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ And they said ‘yes.’

“Of course, I didn’t like it.”

Twelve years later and in his final season, Gordon has become this season’s chief beneficiary of NASCAR’s playoff system — one that has evolved since 2004 and now stresses winning races above all else. By prevailing at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway two weeks ago, Gordon is the only driver who has already clinched a spot in the Chase’s championship round next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Seven other Chase drivers — Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano — will compete for the final three spots at Homestead in Sunday’s Quicken Loans 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Barring an intrusion from a non-Chase driver (like Jimmie Johnson winning last week at Texas Motor Speedway), there’s significant pressure on all of them to win — automatically sending that winner to the final round with Gordon. The other two would qualify on points.

“It’s an emotional game,” said Kurt Busch, who is seventh in points and has advanced through the Chase without winning. “Everybody feels it, everybody is dealing with it. And it is a matter of who deals with it (best). In years past before this format, consistency was still key. Consistency is key now, but the problem is that you have to get top-fives. You have to win.”

It wasn’t always this way. Gordon won his four titles under the old system, accumulating points equally throughout the entire season. The Chase, when instituted in 2004, involved the top 10 (later 12) drivers in points in a 10-race playoff over the final 21/2 months of the season. The driver with the most points won the title.

That changed in 2014, when the Chase was changed to a 16-driver, four-segment format. Four drivers are eliminated through the first three rounds, with winning the only guaranteed way to advance. The highest finisher among the final four at Homestead wins the championship.

“Everybody races differently under each point system and does what it takes,” said Gordon, whose championships have come in 1995, ‘97, ‘98 and 2001. “There is no doubt in my mind that (the old system) suited my driving style. The reason I was able to win at so many different tracks was the consistency that our team had and that I had at all the different tracks. That paid off when you were trying to win the championship under a 36-race schedule. I didn’t want to see it come down to that final 10, because some of those final 10 were not all tracks that suited me.

“But when I look at the sport from 10,000 feet, I love it and think it is exciting.”

The current Chase’s format has lived up to its win-centric billing. In addition to the stakes Sunday for seven drivers, this season’s Chase has been memorable. Six-time champion Johnson, who won four times in the regular season, didn’t make it out of the first round when a $5 part broke in his No. 48 Chevy at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

Defending champion Kevin Harvick had to win at Dover to stay in the Chase — and did. Joey Logano, apparently in excellent shape for a championship after winning all three races in round two, must win Sunday after Matt Kenseth wrecked him at Martinsville (after Logano wrecked Kenseth at Kansas, leading to Kenseth falling out of championship contention).

Keselowski dominated last week at Texas before being overtaken late by Johnson. Instead of automatically qualifying, Keselowski remained mired in sixth place in points.

So there will be a lot going on Sunday. Even without a victory, at least two drivers will advance on points.

“You’ve got to have game plans for certain situations and what’s going to happen on the race track because there is so much on the line,” said Logano, who can only advance with a victory. “You’ve got to know what everyone’s scenario is. We know what Jeff’s situation is, but you’ve got to know what the top eight cars have to do. When you’re racing around them you’ve got to know what’s going on and how they’re going to race you.

“I think it puts on a great race for everyone to watch, something interesting for everyone to watch, so I don’t see anything bad with it.”

Gordon, whose consistency paved the way for his four previous championships, agrees with Logano.

“This new format, I think it is even better,” Gordon said. “I will continue to support it, always have, even when it hasn’t suited me. I think that I try and not be that selfish and think of what is best for the sport. At the end of the day, what is best for the sport is best for me, best for the team, best for all teams.”