Lee Montgomery: Runaway title races don't warrant knee-jerk reaction
Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson (right) and crew chief Chad Knaus are on the verge of winning their fourth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup title. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
COMMENTARY
Kyle Busch’s lead over Carl Edwards in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings is 215 points, but take heart, NASCAR fans. There are two other title races that are closer.
Oh, yeah, much closer. Ron Hornaday leads Matt Crafton by 202 points in the Camping World Truck Series, and, of course, Jimmie Johnson leads Mark Martin in the Sprint Cup Series by a mere 184.
There is the very real possibility that none of the championships will be up in the air at Homestead-Miami Speedway in three weekends. You remember Homestead? The place that holds “Ford Championship Weekend” at “The Championship Track.”
Well, not this year. Sorry, Homestead, but the party will have already started by then.
Who’s to blame? Well, NASCAR, of course. The sanctioning body is to blame for everything. NASCAR caused the economic meltdown, the election controversy of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, global warming and the breakup of TV’s John and Kate Gosselin.
Yes, NASCAR conspired with more than 100 race teams to let Johnson, Busch and Hornaday compile runaway point leads.
And if you believe that, well, as Ryan Newman said at Talladega, stay home.
Listen, folks, sometimes we’re not going to have five drivers fighting it out to the last lap at Homestead – even with the Chase For The Sprint Cup. It’s kind of pitiful to see it in Cup, given that’s what the Chase is designed to do, but it happens.
What can we do about it? Not a darn thing. Nor should we. Why do we even ask the question?
Let’s not have a knee-jerk response to these terrible title races and alter the landscape of the sport. That’s what happened to institute the Chase in the first place. After Matt Kenseth won one race and ran away with the championship in 2003, NASCAR changed the way champions are decided.
Was it a bad move? I don’t think it was, because the Chase has brought a level of excitement to the sport that didn’t exist before. But was it necessary? Not really, for the sport wasn’t broke.
And neither is the way a champion is crowned in Nationwide and Trucks. Both of those series have serious issues that need to be addressed, but the way a title is earned isn’t one of them.
So let’s leave the Chase where it is and hope that we have some closer championship races next year.
And, please, can somebody beat Jimmie Johnson?
