Why the 2014 Sprint Cup Chase Format Was a Huge Success for NASCAR

When unveiled last January, the new elimination format for the Chase for the Sprint Cup started out on wobbly legs.

Drivers had no clue what to expect, fans initially didn’t seem to like it and the media was essentially unsure what to make of it.

But nearly 10 months later, by the time Kevin Harvick won Sunday’s season finale and ultimately the championship, the new and improved Chase ultimately ended up being a big success.

“I think this Chase is probably the best thing to happen to this sport over the last decade,” Harvick told ESPN after Sunday’s race. “This is probably going to shorten the drivers’ careers because it’s been so stressful.

“I want to thank every single fan for sticking with this sport and us in this industry—we’re going to get it right. You guys are what makes this go around, and we love racing hard for you.”

Perhaps the biggest indicator of the Chase’s success was the last two races of the 10-race playoff.

Phoenix International Raceway sold out the penultimate race of the Chase nearly a week ahead of time.

And then Homestead-Miami Speedway declared a sellout four days before the actual race, the first full-fledged full house at HMS in several years.

TV ratings were also up for a good chunk of the Chase, especially the last two races, with Phoenix registering a 21 percent increase in ESPN ratings (via Jayski's) from the previous year, making it the highest-ranked Chase race from Phoenix in nearly five years.

We’re still waiting for overnight ratings to come out for Homestead, but if Phoenix’s ratings are any indication, we expect a solid rise for the season-finale viewing as well.

Harvick called the new Chase an unqualified success—something you’d expect from the guy who just won the championship and utilized the new format to his maximum advantage.

But Joey Logano—who fell victim to a broken jack on pit road late in the race, which ultimately cost him the championship and left him finishing last of the four finalists—saw things a different way.

“Man, it’s just frustrating and hard for me to say I like it [the format] after all this,” Logano told ESPN. “I know it was an exciting race for everyone to watch and I’m sure it was great for the fans, but when you’re on the end of this deal, it’s not too exciting.”

While Logano’s comment may have sounded like sour grapes, it’s pretty clear he spoke from frustration, as he has continually touted and praised the new Chase format numerous times during the season, including recently in an Autosport.com article.

But overall, NASCAR as a whole—particularly Chairman and CEO Brian France—was quite pleased at the way the first Chase run under the new elimination format played out.

“It might have been a grand slam in the ninth inning,” France said Monday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I really thought that in past times and late in the season—I go back to Tony Stewart when he not only had to beat Carl Edwards and win [2011 championship] and some other performances—I really thought whoever was going to come away with the championship was going to need a win.

“It was amazing. The amount of excitement and drama, watching that, even for long-time fans like myself, that has you on the edge of your seat. Who’s going to do this thing? That’s the beauty of this format.”

Given the praise and success of the new and improved Chase format, it’s unlikely that NASCAR will make any large, wholesale changes to the Chase format. That’s not to say there may still be a tweak or two.

One suggestion I would make to France and other NASCAR officials is for, at least in regard to the Elimination Round, the point system to be revised somewhat.

Ideally, and given there will be only eight drivers remaining in the Chase at that point, rather than give points equivalent to where a driver places in a race—as is standard during the first 26 races of the regular season and all three elimination rounds—I’d like to see something different.

In the Elimination Round only, NASCAR should award points for top-through-worst finishes, from eight points for a win to one point for the lowest-finishing Chase driver in a race.

In other words, if Jeff Gordon was the lowest-finishing Chas driver at, say, Phoenix and wound up with a 29th-place showing, instead of receiving just 14 base points, he would receive the equivalent of finishing in eighth place (the lowest amount of points that would be available to a still-eligible Chase driver).

That way, Gordon would receive 35 points in a system that would be more fair and equitable.

(But then, that’s just my idea. I’m sure there are other equally good tweak ideas out there as well. If readers have any, please leave a comment below.)

But all in all, perhaps after 11 years of existence, NASCAR has hit on the winningest formula possible for the Chase.

“As we go down the road, that’s going to be the Chase,” France said. “If you go back through [this year’s edition of] the Chase, there were plenty of big moments where teams stepped up to move on—[Brad] Keselowski when he had to do it at Talladega, for example.

“I think the teams like that environment. I know it’s stressful for them, but at the end of the day, they get excited and elevated themselves.”

From uncertainty 10 months ago to the realization and near-perfect execution of what the new Chase format was and how it was hoped to play out, it wasn’t just Harvick who hit a grand slam Sunday.

NASCAR did, as well.

Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski