Chase is on to drive up interest

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In new format, NASCAR hopes that more is better

RICHMOND - When the Chase for the Nextel Cup was implemented in 2004, it was the intent of NASCAR officials to inject some excitement into what had been a lackluster championship run by Matt Kenseth the previous year.

Kenseth turned the last title of NASCAR's Winston Cup era into a runaway after he finished with one win, 11 top fives, and a series-high 25 top 10s, clinching the title by 90 points over runner-up Jimmie Johnson with a fourth-place finish at Rockingham, N.C., in the season's penultimate event.

The yawns were deafening.

Worse for NASCAR - which kicks off its season with its biggest event, the Daytona 500, instead of saving it for the end - interest in auto racing seemed to wane once it came time for the National Football League to kick off and the pennant races in Major League Baseball to heat up.

So in an attempt to involve more drivers, intensify fan interest, and stoke season-ending competition, NASCAR officials adopted a 10-race playoff format, to be contested among those drivers who ranked in the top 10 in points after the first 26 events of the 36-race season. The points leader would start the Chase with 5,050 points, with the remaining nine drivers ranked in declining 5-point increments, and the driver with the most points at the end of the 10 Chase races crowned champion.

"I've been critical of the Chase getting started," said Johnson, who nevertheless wound up winning his first Nextel Cup title last year after coming up short against inaugural Chase champion Kurt Busch in 2004 by a scant 8 points.

When this year's Chase gets under way Sunday with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, will attempt to become the first repeat NASCAR champion since his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, in 1997-98.

But if Johnson is to do so, it will be under a different Chase format. At the beginning of the season, NASCAR officials tweaked the Chase by: expanding the field to 12 drivers; eliminating the eligibility of those drivers who were outside the top 10 but still within 400 points of the leader after 26 races; resetting the point totals for the 12 Chasers with 10-point bonuses for each victory; and seeding the Chase field based upon the adjusted point standings.

As a result, Johnson, winner of six regular-season races, including the last two at Fontana, Calif., and Richmond, will be the top seed and start with a 20-point lead over Gordon (5,060-5,040), a four-time winner during the regular season whose 317-point lead entering the final race at Richmond was wiped away by the seeding.

"I knew even though I wasn't in love with the Chase getting started, I knew someday I was going to be in that position where the Chase would help me and give me a chance for the championship," Johnson said. "And this year has been that way. We were pretty far back [in sixth place, 430 points behind Gordon]. We've got a lot of speed and the Chase is working out to help us and give us a berth for the championship."

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