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.
Welcome to the second of our two Happy Hours this week. Had we combined your non-fight questions and our normal standings feature into one mailbag, it would have been brutally long. So we broke it up into two.
Here are this week's old Chase standings. Because of his issues late in the race, Joey Logano's lead is not a full race heading into Phoenix, but he could still clinch before Homestead.
1. Joey Logano, 2,329
2. Kevin Harvick, 2,294
3. Brad Keselowski, 2,280
4. Ryan Newman, 2,278
5. Jeff Gordon, 2,270
5. Kyle Busch, 2,270
7. Matt Kenseth, 2,255
8. Denny Hamlin, 2,253
9. Carl Edwards, 2,249
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2,234
10. Jimmie Johnson, 2,234
12. AJ Allmendinger, 2,228
13. Greg Biffle, 2,209
14. Kurt Busch, 2,192
15. Kasey Kahne, 2,179
16. Aric Almirola, 2,144
Now, let's start this version with some Chase tweaks, shall we?
Here is a suggestion to improve the playoff format. It may have been suggested before but maybe not. The regular season is 32 races. The playoff is four races. To qualify for the playoffs a driver needs to win three or more races during the regular season. Three bonus points per win are carried into the playoffs. Highest point total in the four playoff races among qualified drivers wins the championship. Do you think this is a good idea? - Noon
I've expressed my dislike of short sample sizes before, so I'm not sure I'd be a fan of a four-race Chase, unless it was diverse and included a short track, intermediate track and superspeedway. I do like the bonus point idea, and, like I've said before, wish the wins in each round carried over. (Though if they did, the points race for Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski isn't much different. They'd still trail at their current deficits because Joey Logano also had a win in the second round.)
@NickBromberg Would NASCAR tweek the points system in the off season if we end up having a winless champion this year? #WinningIsEverything
— Chris Nulty (@RealChrisNulty) November 6, 2014 AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Sorry for the screaming. But... oh man, can you imagine tweaks to the Chase after a year? While I could want them in a perfect world, when you've already changed the playoff format every 2.75 years, you have to get close to the average, even if the champion is not the desired result.
If you like marketing pretzels, you're rooting for neither Matt Kenseth or Ryan Newman to win at Phoenix on Sunday, but for both to advance. Newman is the craziest. Kenseth has 12 top fives. Newman has four. He's tied for 15th in the Cup Series in top fives with Paul Menard. 15th! And he's one race away from racing for the championship.
In any potential pushes for Ryan Newman before Homestead, expect to see the word "consistency" a lot, but the absence of "points racing" will be conspicuous. Remember y'all, points racing is dead and with the new championship format, it's pointless. (Yes, we can argue about what the concept of what "points racing" actually is, but you get the point.)
@NickBromberg Been to any interesting sports events lately? Will non chaser "teammates" be rolling roadblocks to support their guys Sunday?
— Brian Cullather (@Briancullather) November 6, 2014 I've been spoiled in October and November. I'll fully admit it. It's my favorite sports time of the year usually, but it's been wild this year and I can't cherish it enough.
Going to Circuit of the Americas and seeing Formula 1 cars up close and in person for the first time was awesome. While the series doesn't have the history for me of IndyCar racing and NASCAR (I can remember the first Indianapolis 500 I watched in full and the first Daytona 500 I watched in full with ease), I've been more and more fascinated with it every year.
I think the teammate angle is what we have to look out for on Sunday if we're looking for any revenge or similar storylines. I don't think drivers in contention for a title are going to go do something supid to settle a grudge and risk their championship hopes. Will they have someone else? Probably not, but if you're going to do something at Phoenix, you're going to have someone not in title contention do it.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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