No, I don't think so. There was a very bad police show on for a season or two where a female cop solved all the mysteries with one thing in mind. "Always follow the money", she'd say. Well, bad acting aside, she had a good philosophy. More cars in the chase means more major sponsors on the TV those last ten races. And when the 400 point back door into the chase didn't work, they dropped it like a bad habit. Then open the chase up to 12 drivers and we're sure to make a few more bucks, I mean sponsors happy, I mean fans happy. They identified a bottleneck in their ability to rake it in, and opened it up a little.

At least the "old" chase had some resemblance to the "old" points system. It tightened up the top ten, but it left out the teams that didn't have a shot at it anyway. This "bottomless" numbers game could open up the championship to a driver that never had a chance with ten races left. And this staging by wins thing? Where does that leave a driver who traditionally wins a number of the last ten races? Where's the advantage of winning these races after the staging has already been set?

I was a huge "Chase Hater" when it came out, and I ended up changing my mind after two seasons. We'll see if I'm wrong about this one too. Now back to Infield Parking! I might need some therapy to get me off that thing.