NASCAR Title Chase

Since it went to NBC I haven't watched any races (too many on TNT and we don't have cable.)

How does this race to the chase work? Is one driver eliminated in each of the last 10 weeks or is it just that these racers start over at 0 points for the final 10 races or what?

 

NASCAR Points System

The top 10 have their points reset high enough that the other drivers can't catch them. The points seperating the top 10 drivers are also reset to 5 points between each driver. So Jeff Gordon now has a 5 point lead over Jimmie Johnson and 10 points more than Dale Earnhardt, Jr., etc. Nobody in the top 10 is eliminated, it is just a 10 race shootout to determine the champion.

 

I'm a Mopar guy, so I am rooting for Newman or Mayfield. Newman has certainly shown the ability to dominate as he won eight races last year. Mayfield has run well recently also.

My guess is that Jeff Gordon is the winner. He's starting out with a 5 point lead. He's the last guy I'd want to see with an advantage if I was the other competitors.

 

A couple of thoughts on the chase:

First, Matt Kenseth has saved most of his test sessions for the last ten races of the year. I think he has 9 sessions left. Gordon and Johnson have 4 apiece and all others have fewer. That is a potentially HUGE advantage for Kenseth.

Second, the two most important races--because of their unpredictability--are the race at Talledega (gotta avoid the "big one") and the race at Darlington. Darlington is a TOUGH track. They have never run there in November and they have never run there at night. Both of those tracks are tracks on which Jeff Gordon excels.