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IT'S ALL ABOUT WINNING >> NASCAR'S NEW POINTS SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE DRIVERS TO CHASE THE CHECKERED FLAG
Reaction mixed to Chase changesDate published: 2/15/2007 BY JIM McCONNELL In the days before television turned NASCAR drivers into multimillion-dollar conglomerates, second place was merely the first loser. Richard Petty sure thought so. "The King" won an amazing 27 times in 49 starts during the 1967 season and finished his Hall of Fame career with a record 200 victories. The late Dale Earnhardt earned his reputation as "The Intimidator" with his cold-blooded willingness to do whatever it took to win races. Cale Yarborough wanted to win so badly, he fought both Donnie and Bobby Allison after he and Donnie wrecked while racing for the lead late in the 1979 Daytona 500. The bare-knuckle ending to that race, the first NASCAR event televised in its entirety, still is widely credited with helping to spark the explosive growth American stock-car racing enjoyed in the 1980s and '90s. And it's that kind of passion, the unquenchable thirst for victory, that Brian France believes will launch NASCAR into another period of remarkable prosperity. "Winning is what this sport is all about," France said, and he ought to know. The grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. is 44 years old, easily old enough to remember the days when a driver gladly would've knocked his grandmother into the wall if it meant beating her to the checkered flag. NASCAR lost much of that edge during its evolution into a mainstream sport. Other than a few remaining "old school" holdovers, most of today's racers are walking, talking billboards, spit-shined and careful not to say or do anything to offend their big-money sponsors. LOSING SPEEDLast season, at least, reaction to NASCAR's product was lukewarm at best. Both television ratings and track attendance lagged--the result, as more than one media analyst noted, of the sport hitting a natural plateau after more than a decade of expansion. France, who believes if you're not moving forward you're losing ground, wasn't about to sit idly by and watch NASCAR's gains slip through his fingers. So just three years after he went out on a limb by implementing the 10-race "Chase for the Championship," France decided it was time to tweak the system.
Date published: 2/15/2007
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