Changing the Chase

The first year, he would have won another Cup championship under the old rules. But Kurt Busch put together his best 10 races of the year at the end of the year and won the Chase.
Then Gordon was shut out of the Chase the following year, being the 11th place driver when it began.
But it sure doesn't sound like he's too upset with the rules. He was asked about it during NASCAR's weekly teleconference on Tuesday.
"As far as the Chase is concerned, I like it. I think you don't really want – I personally don't want more than 10 guys in it. I think that maybe some others might like to see more people in the Chase but I think it's pretty exciting the way it is. And it's very competitive and it's certainly a real challenge for everybody. And that might be the only thing that may be coming is, hey, let's just kind of reset it for everybody, which I'm not so sure that's fair. But you know, it's quite an adjustment to get used to this new system, so I really don't want to see any changes really made to it."
Resetting the points seems to be the only point of contention any driver has with the Chase system.
But it looks like Brian France, NASCAR Chairman and CEO, wants to increase the field. More to the point, France wants to make his sponsors and supporters happy. I think he probably heard more grief than he wanted when Dale Jr. and Gordon didn't make the Chase last year.
The Chase has been great for NASCAR. It creates an artificial interest, but it also gives NASCAR a way to compete with the NFL in October and November.
Jimmie Johnson had a good idea suggesting the drivers within 400 points of the leader after 26 races get into the Chase. That could be any number of drivers, but most likely somewhere between five and 10.
It will be interesting to see what France comes up with. For the most part, the Chase makes NASCAR fun to watch. Then again, I didn't need more of a reason to watch the last 10 NASCAR races of the year before the Chase.
Of course television ratings say I was in the minority.