Remember the first year of the Chase?  There was no season long countdown to the event where every word of commentary concerned "Chase Implications".  I like Jeff Burton but if he mentions that one more time during a broadcast of a race I'm going to put him up for the Buffoon Award in Broadcasting.  Everything has "Chase Implications" thanks to the way NASCAR has it worked out.  Remember the Michael Waltrip Racing event at Richmond a couple of years ago?  Remember Brian knocking Martin Truex out and putting Jeff Gordon in because "he could"?  Remember last year when Kyle Busch missed 11 races yet was crowned Champion?  Oh, Kyle made it in by the rules but my personal opinion is that such a Champion is less than a Champion.  No disrespect to Kyle on that one, but we all should know that was only another way for NASCAR to gain press time.  I frankly don't think it worked that well because by now the press is almost immune to covering anything NASCAR.  There are only about 10 sports writers nationwide who provide copy on NASCAR these days and sometimes I feel as though their knowledge of racing about equals my knowledge of math, which, by the way, is almost non-existent.

The race at Darlington was good. Attendance was good. Television ratings stunk. Part of that may have been no one wanted to hear "chase implications" mentioned over and over.  Now, Richmond, which determinates the final Chase has a 1.5 overnight rating, lowest of the year, which is down from 1.7 last year. Some say it was because Virginia and Virginia Tech were playing football in Bristol.  I don't know about that but I do know the fans there were so far from the field they had to watch the jumbotron to see what was going on.  Imagine paying to sit on hard seats and watch the game on television while a pile of little ants ran around on a field far below you.  Boggles my mind, but then what I think of football would not make me popular with the pigskin people anyway.

So, who is in the Chase?  Other than Brad, Kyle, and Kevin, and all the Toyotas Brian could get in there, I have no idea.  What's really sad for me is that I don't care. I do know Ryan Newman won't be in the Chase because Tony Stewart, once more, showed his temper and ended whatever fleeting hope Ryan had.  I can remember when the Championship was something I followed closely all year hoping that my man would win it.  These days, it matters not to me.  To determine a champion under such a format to me is as ridiculous as the Final Four or the Stupid Bowl. (The only thing "Super" about that one game is the ticket prices).  It simply doesn't matter to me anymore.  I know part of the reason is that I have no real "favorite" for whom to cheer on to victory.  Sure, I would like to see the 43 car win because it was always my favorite, knowing in my heart that "Richard Petty Motorsports" is merely the use of The King's name in an effort to attract sponsors for the team.  But I have no real favorite.

By now everyone knows I have a strong dislike of Toyotas.  Having said that, I am sick and tired of one Kyle Busch dominating the X-Finity series, in essence manipulating the Chase format in that division. Further, in the Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing dominates the races they choose and then hang back in some races so as not to appear to be the benefactor of all the concessions NASCAR has provided for that make.

I will continue, I suppose, to watch, because that's what I do.  Racing still means something special to me even with the manipulation of outcomes and other disturbing actions taken by the sanctioning body.  Today, however, I miss races when something else is going on, especially if it involves a grandson.  I watch, but I don't care.  All I want to see is all the Toyotas behind the wall, but that never seems to happen.  I do recognize we need to be proud of the sport which sincerely appreciates America, the flag, and the National Anthem when other sports disregard our history, and then pay "lip service" with phony displays of the American flag covering the entire field while the disrespectful players take a knee when the Anthem starts.  NASCAR may be far off base, but its participants and fans still have the patriotic fervor for which the sport was always known.

My grandsons are starting their sports seasons now.  The Chase is starting.  I know which I'll choose when it comes down to it.  It won't be The Chase.  I don't care. We start with sixteen (obviously a reference to the "Sweet Sixteen" from another sport).  We then go to the Twelve for which I have no cutesy term.  Then the "elite eight", another reference to the sport that allows tattooed tall guys to run up and down the hardwood in their underwear bouncing a ball trying to get it in a basket. (Is that the basket of deplorables?)  Just wondering.  Then for the last race, held in some forsaken swamp where once the alligators roamed free, it is the final four with the winner taking all.  If I had one dream for that race it would be that all four of the "final four" wrecked on the first lap and the "Champion" had to be selected from the wrecked.  Can you even imagine the drop in television ratings if the Championship essentially ended on the first lap?

Okay, folks, enjoy the Chase if that's your choice.  The drivers all praise it. What do you expect?  If they didn't toe the line, NASCAR would be handing out fines left and right.    Seems racing has gotten more political than I ever imagined it could.