NASCAR: NASCAR Can’t Reward Drivers With Byes In The Chase

There is nothing that sets the NASCAR community on fire more than when changes are being discussed. That fact was made brutally apparent after NASCAR announced their new Chase format in 2014 and happened again last week when NASCAR drivers expressed an interest in rewarding the points leader at the end of the season. With that being said, how should it be done?

A first round bye is probably the most obvious fix to NASCAR’s desire to reward the regular season points winner, but a change like that would still raise a few problems. For example, what would the motivation be for a driver to perform well in the first round of the Chase if they had already been handed a first round bye before the playoffs even start.

With that being said, NASCAR can still use winning a race in the first round of The Chase as an incentive to keep things interesting, but it does little to fix the flaws the system would present. In fact, adding a bye week might even give drivers reason to sand band for the rest of the first round, especially since there is really no consequences for doing so.

In the end, they needs to be careful with a bye week rule like this. Sure, it could still work and contribute a massive benefit to the winner of the regular season, but NASCAR needs to still have some kind of rule in place to prevent the possibility of sandbagging through the first round. To achieve this, maybe NASCAR can put some kind of limits in place to make sure drivers are performing their best.

One way of doing this is to create a cutoff spot for the bye week recipient at the end of the regular season. This would pretty much work like the top-35 chase rule, but instead of not making The Chase, they would instead not advance to the next round. Where to set up the line is of course up for discussion, but the bottom two in points would probably be a good place to start.

Another way officials could eliminate sandbagging with a points system change like this is to establish an average finish for the regular season bye week recipient. While this does take a little bit away from the reward of a first round bye, it wouldn’t hurt for NASCAR to say that a driver must average a top 35 finish in the first three races to still be eligible for the next round.

While NASCAR drivers might want and even deserve a reward for being the regular season points leader at the end of the first 26 races, it is one of those things that will require a balance to pull off correctly. NASCAR has already learned their lesson with the win and you’re in structure of the new Chase format and creating a similar system for the points leader would only cause more unrest from fans.

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With that being said, the sport needs to tread lightly during the 2016 offseason and try their best to access  what will work  for the drivers and not anger the fans at the same time. Again, it’s going to take a balancing act and unfortunately for NASCAR, that balancing act could be the difference between a step forward or a step back with their fan base. Tread lightly NASCAR. Your future depends on.