Chase was a game I played as a kid. Chase was what I did when our Irish Setter would get out of the fence and run the neighborhood.  THE Chase is a NASCAR concoction which is supposed to spice up the end of the season in the Sprint Cup series with a 10 race “playoff “ system.  Admit it.  From the very first telecast from Daytona this past February, you have heard “Chase, Chase, Chase”, over and over.  Who will make The Chase?  What is it going to take to make The Chase?  Blah, blah, blah.  Each and every race of the season we are told over and over about who is where in the race for The Chase and how many points out the wild card drivers are.  Over and over and over.  The repetition alone is enough to drive a sane man slightly over the edge.  Oh, I am well aware that it is most important to NASCAR to hype The Chase as a playoff system to determine the Cup Champion. Why exactly that is, seems to escape me.

As I remember writing near the end of last season, there was no Chase in the Camping World Truck Series but the ending of the season was spectacular in the competition for the Championship.  Same for the Nationwide series.  Yet, when the Cup Series gets to Homestead, rather than telling us about the race, the entire broadcast was who was were in points, by how many, and what who was going to have to do to capture the crown.  In the end, it was Brad K. and it was exciting that Clint Bowyer was able to move ahead of Jimmie Johnson at the very end.