Halfway to homestead: midway through NASCAR's controversial Chase for the Championship, it's time to take stock of where it has been—and where it's headed

You have to wonder if NASCAR chairman Brian France was nervous on that February day as he walked to the podium to answer questions about the most sweeping changes in NASCAR history.

If France wasn't nervous, he should've been. This would no longer be his father's NASCAR. So many things were changing already--there was a new title sponsor in Nextel, a new gas in Sunoco, a new schedule, even a softer tire meant to make races more exciting. But those were minor changes. With the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup, the changes would take a stick of dynamite to the points system that had defined the sport since 1975.

That the new system was no surprise--news of the change already had been reported--didn't diminish the massive impact. The sport never would be the same. And people--fans, drivers, sportswriters--weren't happy about it. In the court of public opinion, the Chase was a bad idea.

Or was it? There were pockets of support. Michael Waltrip loved it. Others pointed out NASCAR had done pretty well over the years and should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Nine months and 30 races later, not much has changed. The Chase still dominates discussion. Controversy still thunders, the aftershock from the sport's craziest offseason ever. There still are plenty of drivers who don't like the new format--Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson being the two most vocal critics. Elliott Sadler, on the other hand, says he never has had so much fun racing.

But the Chase wasn't invented to please drivers. It was invented to boost interest in the sport, and on that measure, the Chase has been a success. NASCAR never has gotten this much attention in the fall. The TV ratings have been unimpressive, but the buzz has been immense. Even drivers who don't like the Chase have acknowledged the new format accomplished what NASCAR hoped it would: Interest and excitement have been created where previously there had been little. Whether that was a worthy goal and whether a 10-race shootout for the championship was the proper way to attain it, remain up for debate. As does just about everything else about the Chase.

With four races down and six to go, now is a good time to assess the new format. Are there ways to tweak it? Certainly, and there are no shortage of suggestions from drivers, fans and media. ("Junk the whole thing" does not qualify as a tweak.)

Here comes the hype

The season-ending Ford 400 likely will be the most hyped NASCAR race since ... ever. Several drivers could be in the running for the championship in the November 21 finale of the Chase at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"Homestead is now a track you can pass on and go door handle to door handle on," says Jeff Hammond, a former crew chief who analyzes races for FOX. "That is so important if you're trying to make a move. It has really set the stage for what could be the most dramatic and at the same time the most controversial race in the history of our sport."

If the September 11 race at Richmond, the cutoff to make the Chase, is any indication, the scrutiny and pressure will be intense at Homestead. "There's building tension, race by race, until the end," Dale Earnhardt Jr. says. Several drivers in the hunt for the Chase said they had lost sleep and had never felt so much pressure to perform as they did before the Richmond race. If that was true just to make the Chase, imagine how intense it will be when the championship is on the line.

What could have been

Teams would not be racing the same way they have been this season if they still were under last year's points system. So it's like comparing wrenches to pliers--but it's still fun to crunch the numbers to find out what if ...

Rk. Driver                Real points    Woulda been points (Rk.)

 1. Kurt Busch               5,685              3,974 (3)
 2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.       5,656              4,182 (1)
 3. Jeff Gordon              5,606              4,158 (2)
 4. Elliott Sadler           5,542              3,833 (6)
 5. Mark Martin              5,535              3,733 (9)
 6. Tony Stewart             5,512              3,887 (5)
 7. Matt Kenseth             5,505              3,811 (7)
 8. Ryan Newman              5,453              3,634 (11)
 9. Jimmie Johnson           5,438              3,935 (4)
10. Jeremy Mayfield          5,428              3,611 (12)
11. Jamie McMurray           3,736              3,736 (8)
12. Dale Jarrett             3,654              3,654 (10)

Junior's racing to a different beat

In the past nine months, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won NASCAR's biggest race, suffered serious burns, was pulled from a car that was engulfed in flames by what he believes was the spirit of his father, was profiled on 60 Minutes, got in trouble for cussing on live TV and turned 30. That's not a season. That's a country song.

   I won the biggest race
   Spoke with Mike Wallace, face to face
   Done got burned in a car
   But that's OK, I'm still a star
   It hurt, real bad
   Made my fans real sad
   After a while, I was fit
   Then I got busted for saying ...