NASCAR has made its regular season mean nothing.
It’s unfortunate too. Before the elimination format I was perfectly fine with the Chase. Sure, the traditional points standings, the system used from the 1970s through 2003, probably determined the correct Sprint Cup Champion in regards to consistency and skill. But at least the Chase had a reasonable cut off, either the top 10 drivers or the top 10 and two other wildcards. Those wildcards kept the regular season exciting as drivers went for wins. And while the Chase would take away that consistency required to win the title as opposed to years prior, it still felt like the best driver was taking it each year (well, except for 2004 I guess and maybe 2011). And some of those wildcard races really felt like they mattered. Anyone remember when Jeff Gordon missed in 2005? Or when Tony Stewart missed in 2006? Adding the wildcard made it feel like there were real stakes every week at least.
But now with the Top 16 drivers getting in, NASCAR’s regular season means absolutely nothing. The biggest drama in 2014 was what? Aric Amirola’s silly Daytona Night victory or A.J. Allmendinger’s Road Course win to clinch a berth? Neither man was going to be a title threat. 2015 had the lucky story of whether or not Kyle Busch would get in because he missed the first quarter of the season with an injury. He got in with ease and ended up winning the title. Kyle got there because it’s all about the wins now to get in now (but ironically, not when it’s time to actually race for the title). Otherwise, why should I care about any of these races? Carl Edwards won Bristol today to clinch his Chase spot. Not like it mattered, even if he didn’t win all season he was getting in either way. Other winners so far this year? Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski. All guys who most likely would have been in the Top 16 anyway. I remember my favorite driver winning the 2014 Daytona 500, then realizing that I didn’t need to really care about the next 25 races for him since he was in the playoffs already. Right now if I’m a Jimmie Johnson or Kyle Busch fan, why do I need to follow anything in NASCAR until the playoffs begin? There just isn’t a reason to.
Kyle Busch made a mockery of the regular season last year, and in a way so did Ryan Newman the year before. Now I understand that regular seasons in sports really don’t matter that much anyway, but with NASCAR each of their races is supposed to be an event (unlike the NFL, where there are 15 games going at once each weekend). Each race is supposed to be important and at this point it’s just not. When Kyle Busch won the title, he showed just how much the regular season meant despite missing 11 of the 26 regular season races, he killed NASCAR’s regular season for good. It simply doesn’t matter.