Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/39393
VIEWS FROM THE GRANDSTANDS KAY BELL Mix it up Chase for the Championship needs revamping to recapture its appeal ne of the most frequent com- plaints about the Chase for the Championship is that reducing the Sprint Cup hunt to 10 races devalues the full season. That's a fair argument. We old- O timers, er, veteran NASCAR fans remember fondly the days when the sport's top trophy went to the driver who could master all types of tracks. I've grudgingly accepted that NASCAR is not going to do away with its so-called playoff system. But the sport could mollify my fel- low fans and me by again reward- ing a well-rounded racer. How? By changing the Chase races. The 2011 Chase begins on Sept. 18 at Chicagoland Speedway. That's LOOSE LUGNUTS Heavy traffic The inaugural Sprint Cup race at Kentucky was marred by a 20-mile traffic jam, which left some race fans sitting in their cars for more than six hours and kept many of them from ever reaching the track. Having idled in a NASCAR parking lot for hours trying to leave a race on multiple occasions, I have no sympathy for either race officials or local officials. Races shouldn't be sanctioned until tracks have sufficient traf- fic control and, more importantly, enough roads in and out of the facility. Kentucky needs to get its act together before the Sprint Cup is allowed to return — and Austin needs to pay serious attention to this. The crowd for the 2012 Formula 1 race at the new Texas track will dwarf Kentucky, and the chance for historic gridlock looms large there, too. IndyCar ideas The IndyCar series is considering a plan to drop the Milwaukee event and add one at nearby Road America. I'm all for this. The Milwaukee Mile is a historic oval, but it's too small to showcase the Indy cars at their fin- est. Road America is one of the best road courses anywhere, and it was 36 TRUCKERS NEWS SEPTEMBER 2011 the site of a long-popular event in the old CART/Champ Car series. I'm not so sure about another idea being floated. The IndyCar series judged its two-races-in-one-night experiment at Texas a success (I'm lukewarm on that) and is pondering a double-header at Iowa. However, the Iowa twofer pro- poses one race on Saturday night followed by another on Sunday afternoon. If these are two full- length, full-points races, I might be convinced to haul myself to the track twice in 24 hours. But if they're half- length races like in Texas, I'm not sure I'd make the effort. He's No. 3 Kyle Busch is far from my favorite driver, but I tip my hat to him for becoming only the third NASCAR driver to win 100 career races. Busch hit triple figures with his Nationwide series win at New Hampshire. Busch's 100th win gave him 49 in Nationwide, along with 22 in Sprint Cup and 29 in the Camping World Trucks series. Richard Petty, of course, is the all-time wins leader with 200, all in what is now the Sprint Cup series. The only other driver with more than Busch is David Pearson, who owns 106 wins — 105 in Sprint Cup and one in Nationwide. Jeff Gordon crosses the finish line to win the 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway, his second victory of 2011. followed by trips to New Hamp- shire, Dover, Kansas, Charlotte, Talladega, Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix before handing over the hardware at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Aside from the always-on-the- edge Talladega and the paperclip that's Martinsville, yawn. Wake me when Jimmie Johnson collects NAS- CAR championship No. 6. The biggest problem with these tracks is that most of them are too similar. OK, that's a major problem with a lot of NASCAR tracks. But the repetition during the Chase is notable. Half of the last 10 events are on 1.5-mile tracks. Three others are a mile long (to be exact, Loudon, N.H., is just a tad longer than a mile). And while the banking varies a bit, these eight tracks are basically the same-old race oval. So let's mix it up a bit. I'll admit right up front that, despite my kvetching, five of the current Chase races still make my ideal final 10. But my other five Chase choices should spice up the championship quest. 1. Talladega: The NASCAR season begins with the restrictor- plate race at Daytona, so it's fit- ting that a restrictor-plate competi- tion would get the playoffs started. And this Chase keeper would do so in grand style, with the pros- pect of "the big one" adding excite- ment. But moving it from the sixth race of the Chase also would give any championship-seeking teams JASON SMITH/GETTY IMAGES FOR NASCAR