Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg.We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy.
How about that Chase jumble, eh? Kansas messed up the points standings not only in their current form but in their old form. Joey Logano, Sunday's race winner, is the points leader under the current format and would be the points leader by 28 in the old format. Here's how it would look through four races.
1. Logano, 2,184
2. Harvick, 2,156
3. Kyle Busch 2,153
4. Keselowski, 2,149
5. Gordon, 2,148
6. Edwards, 2,130
7. Newman, 2,130
8. Kenseth, 2,128
9. Johnson, 2,125
10. Hamlin, 2,118
11. Earnhardt Jr. 2,110
12. Allmendinger, 2,110
13. Kahne, 2,102
14. Biffle, 2,101
15. Kurt Busch, 2,075
16. Almirola, 2,074
In reality, Logano has a six point lead over Kyle Busch. Let's talk about this Chase now.
From my point of view this new Chase system is terribly flawed. First major flaw I see is the focus is being taken off the top of the standings and concentrated at the bottom. In previous years after the Kansas race the contenders were defined and generally went at it toe to toe. Last year (Johnson) and Kenseth put on a hell of a show for nine races and I was on the edge of my seat. The champion the last number of years has had a avg. finish in the 3.0-5.0 range. This year Logano has a avg of 2.5 and no one is talking about him and a flat tire at Texas may eliminate him from contention. This year we are focused on the bottom of the pack, it doesn't make sense to me.
The second problem I see is we are facing the possible elimination of Johnson, Keselowski and Jr the sports biggest stars because two tires ran out of air and Greg Biffle ran out of talent.
I watch enough sports to know you want your big markets and big stars in the playoffs as long as possible. The NHL was giddy last year with the LA/New York Stanley Cup Final because it was exposed to the biggest markets. Do you think MLB is going to be happy to see Kansas City and Washington in the World Series? I don't think so.
NASCAR can have its final four in Homestead but I don't think I'm going to be watching or get too excited to see Ryan Newman, Edwards, Kenseth and Kyle Busch avg out a 8 place finish to become a champion. - Tony
Tony raises a good point. This year, at least through the first six races, it's going to be about who misses out and who moves on. We're not talking about how awesome Logano is first and foremost, it's about the elimination.
Granted, that talk is magnified because of the drivers who are now suddenly on the bubble of disqualification, but even as we get into the third round of the Chase, I still think who will not advance will be more of a story than who will advance. It's the biggest round in terms of percentage of drivers eliminated (50 percent) and even if there are three different winners in the round, one driver will be advancing via points.
It's again another fascinating twist to the "winning is everything" angle that was well-worn throughout the regular season.
We'll talk about the second part of the question after this tweet.
It was clearly deisgned to not have any modicum of an idea who the champion will be, but as we've said, the three-race-per-round nature leads to randomness and this is the perfect storm of it with Junior, Johnson and Keselowski all suffering issues in the same race.
And from a viewership and interest standpoint, potentially losing those three isn't a great idea at all, even if the market size angle is pretty incongruous. New York and Los Angeles teams don't play in every other major league game. NASCAR drivers, with rare exceptions, are in every race. But being in contention for the title matters.
If you look at the standings above, Junior is probably out of it being 11th and 74 points behind in the old format. But there's a small chance he could have a comeback over six races. If he's eliminated in two races, there's no chance whatsoever of a comeback. After being primed for a title run all season, are Junior fans going to be amped about the final four races without him in the Chase? A tiny chance is better than no chance at all.
If you're unaware of the article, you can read it here. And I agree with the sentiment, even if we're unsure of what the real reason for the Kansas tire failures is. The onus always seems to be put back on the teams for problems and that isn't fair. This isn't a foolproof system. Goodyear isn't an infallible being. Do we really think they've gotten everything right since the tire debacle at Indianapolis?
And were the tires a big reason that NASCAR didn't go with a high horsepower and low downforce package for the 2015 rules? That seemed to be what the drivers loved at the Michigan test, but there were questions if tires could be durable enough and wear properly to make it possible. Not going with what got glowing reviews seems to sublty answer that question.
The point about this happening at Homestead is a valid one too. What if what we saw at Kansas was a problem with the tires and had nothing to do with the teams. What if it happens at Homestead? We're seeing how volatile tire issues can make a three-race round. It's not an onion you want to open with one race deciding the title.
It's a combination of speed, new pavement and tires. Plus, conditions at Kansas haven't been the most consistent. The fall can produce big temperature swings from practices to races. As the track starts to age and the new package of reduced horsepower and downforce is used, I'm interested to see if the perception of Kansas changes. The track will slow down and the grooves are tending to open up. While the races have been unpredictable, the high speeds and high downforce haven't made for incredibly entertaining racing after restarts.
The bottom four driver in most trouble is Kasey Kahne. While he could go win, he's not been good enough to points his way back into the hunt if he doesn't get a win.
And I'll take the Royals in six. Going to be a great series and one that I didn't think would be happening sitting in Kauffman during the eighth inning of the wild card game with the Royals trailing 7-3.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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