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I have a feeling that you haven't followed the European soccer (okay, football) leagues. There's no playoff system there, especially in the EPL.

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Ducks Angels Sounders Spurs

Neither is Allmendinger

This will be their banquet this December...

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Gael

I thought it was alright. And by "alright", it was still more entertaining than most of the prior Chase finales, and more interesting than most Winston Cup Atlanta finales. *shrugs*

They just need to get the racing itself better. That's been my motto all along, however.

Yeah, it didn't pick up until like 80 to go because from that point on, it was a caution fest.

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Ducks Angels Sounders Spurs

If the racing gets better with the changes next year (doubtful but the glimmer of hope is the 2 inches of spoiler they're ditching) I can live with watching it as a collection of 36 races. The Chase will forever remain unacceptable, and I'll not have anything good to say about it. But if the racing is still shit...I might actually be done with NASCAR for the most part.

Yeah, I don't normally read into the "under the old points system, so-and-so would be the champ" (because it's completely irrelevant), but reading that Gordon accumulated the most points over the 36-race season for the 7th time and has jack shit to show for it, it's pretty discouraging.

Yeah, it's validity is skewed because of the context, but I think (for the people who enjoy such discussions) it's still worth noting. The record books will always show Harvick as the champion but anyone who has a few brain cells to rub together and pays attention would know that he didn't quite have the best season and that Gordon and his team were the best overall in 2014.

I still call shenanigans somewhat on that whole deal, too.. because do you honestly think that teams aren't trying as hard every week to win or finish as best as they possibly can?

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Gael

I think the only big factor that makes a difference is strategy calls. Like, if you're locked into the Chase with an early season win you might gamble a bit more here and there because there's less to lose. So some good finishes might turn bad in that scenario, whereas those might have been better finishes if every race actually counted the same for every competitor.

This.

I'm sure there are occasions where you might try something different with strategy, or pile drive someone in the final corner, but I think 95% of the time you just try and get the best result.

Like others, I was thinking how tense and close the race should be, but I just felt nothing.

I had more nerves during the end of the Nationwide race than I did the Cup race, haha.. guess that's what happens when your driver doesn't win a race all year.

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Gael

And there are people gushing about how 'tense' it was.

I thought pulling against Hamlin was tense enough. He did well while I didn't want him to, and therefore I was on the edge of my seat willing Joey, Kevin and Ryan ahead of him.

brazilian championship used playoffs until 2002. not every time the best team won the title, it was beautiful


but it doesn't suit motorsports racing unless you are selling entertainment and not competition

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

It's not that it wasn't tense, it's just the tension itself was fabricated. I agree the *almost* need to win made the racing somewhat better. But, these races are all about survival until the last 60 odd laps, then you start to race. There's nothing to gain really by racing hard the first 3/4 of the race, so that part of the show tends to be boring.

Going to benchmark of ALL Nascar Championships, 1992 was tense as hell because you had 6 guys go to the last race with a shot at the title and you really didn't know who, between Alan and Bill, was going to get the title until the very end. That will forever be the Title race that all Title races are measured against... At least that's my yardstick.

Was the finale bad? Absolutely not. It was a pretty decent race the last 60 laps. Was it cool to see the top 4 guys at the front of the field going for the win of the race and Championship? Of course. Did it seem just a little too perfect for that to actually have happened? Yep. Do I blame NASCAR for all of the shamefully lopsided officiating and miracle moments (here's looking at you 2001 Firecracker 400, for example) that seem to happen all of the time? Yessir. Will I ever give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt? Probably not, especially when they tell 39 other guys to stay out of the way (Remember the first Chase when Helton actually told the guys in the drivers meeting to not get in the way of the title contenders?)

Sigh... Part of me, despite my near limitless bitching, did not hate the product I saw the last 10 weeks... The sad thing is that just might be me coming to terms with illegitimacy of the current NASCAR product.

And the biggest problem is that they're always changing it.

It's not how hard they're trying or the fact that it's the same for everyone, it's how best to measure who's the best. Do you want the highest reward to go to the driver who was best across a whole season, or the driver who was best across the last 10 races?

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Oh no, I agree on that, what I'm saying is the I don't buy into the whole deal where teams aren't trying their best to win races or have their best possible finish, regardless of if there's a Chase or not.

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Gael