Take 5: Five Takeaways From The Third Chase Race

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Take 2 – The chase has yet to live up to its own hype.

In all fairness to NASCAR it was going to be a tall task for the chase to live up to its own hype considering the fact that NASCAR set the bar to a ridiculously high level. That not withstanding, the opening round of the chase did fall a bit short for me. The first two races I thought were entertaining; the on-track action was good and the combination of cautions and driver errors kept things interesting. However, this year’s chase is predicated on the elimination and that was the focal point for the third race which didn’t deliver the goods. Sure, if you’re a fan of Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne or Kurt Busch you were most likely on pins and needles for the majority of the race but even that battle didn’t translate well. The race itself was mostly dominated by Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon; things were interesting for a moment when Harvick had his tire issue but then you quickly understood he was not in danger of missing the chase cut line. Overall the first three races of the chase were predictable but I guess that should have been expected when you have a field of 16 drivers and half of them truly aren’t championship contenders. With Talladega in the next round things should be more interesting.