Forget the year, a bunch of us went to the fall race in Atalanta. Earnhardt already had the Championship won (with 3 races remaining), got booed every time he came down the front chute! Yeah, with the chase it's pretty easy to count up the remaining points left and see who's mathematically out of the hunt. Two years ago they modified the format to place more emphasis on wins, that's why Kenseth started out the chase in the points lead. This year could again come down to the last race at Homestead! The new NASCAR fans like drama, can't get much better then deciding the season champ at the last race......

Going back to my sprint car days, in '77 we won the track championship on the last turn of the last lap at the last race of the season.....in '78 we had the season championship wrapped up by the last race in July and everyone hated us!!!! Fans are fickle, when you give them what they want, they don't want it anyway.

I've come to the conclusion that this "new breed" of NASCAR fan loves the wrecks, loves the media crap about he said she said that he said, pays more attention to what the driver wears during an off track interview then how well his crew preps the car, and generally favor the driver who creates the most "drama" that the media experts can hype up!!!!!

I still appreciate the planning, the strategy, the pit crew efficiency, driver's ability to analyze handling and tell the crew chief what the car's doing, Crew Chief's ability to take that information and improve the car's handling, and a driver's ability to save the car, go fast when it counts, and cruise when it don't!!!!!