Kevn Harvick = The Right Driver Won It

[Panther_99FS]

I really don't like this new system...but it is what it is.....
That being said, out of the 4 that were eligible, the right driver won it!

(Although Newman came dang close to slipping everyone a "Mickey")....:a1310:

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

WAY TO GO HARV!

Great win great championship by Kevin! Sure wish I could be at the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield or at Trouts in Oildale tonight! Be a party I suspect! Kevin ya done Bakersfield proud!

What a tough call. Stay out or come in and get 4 or get two... What to do? Darian Grubb at the last moment ordered Denny to stay out and Denny dove out of the line coming in for tires to stay out. Ryan came in and got two - Kevin came in and got four. Joey came in and had the car fall off the jack.

I was really sweatin it worried that Darian might have made the right call and a championship would go to Denny. It will be interesting to see if Denny disappears sulking for a year or two and what he says eventually about Darian's call. Toyota's are always fast at homestead and even the announcer commented on the speed Hamlin's team had been finding. I was scared to death his car might be best when the sun went down - it probably was but strategy or bad luck (race did not go green) can destroy ya.

Tough tough loss for Joey losing 11 positions on the two pit stops before the last and then having the car fall off the jack on the last stop. Destroyed any chance he had. Real bummer when the pit crew loses it all for you. I'm betting there is a pit crew going to learn the meaning of the word practice. I'm not worried Joey will be back.

I really want to compliment Ryan Newman. I have liked Newman since the days of the Alltel number 12 at Penske. I actually have a diecast Alltel number 12 car around here somewhere. Today he made me really like him. He said in the interview he thought of diving into turn one and washing up against Kevin maybe putting Kevin in the wall like he did Kyle the rookie last week to get into the final four. Ryan said it would have been the wrong thing to do as he respects Kevin and would not race him that way and believes Kevin would return the respect. You use rookies but not people been racin about as long as you. But I think it goes deeper than that. Kevin drove for Richard for 13 years stepping into Dale Sr's car and did great for Richard. I think Ryan fully knew that and respects the relationship between Richard and Kevin and racing Kevin totally clean I have no doubt bumped Richard's opinion of Ryan a lot. The other possibility is Ryan did not want to face Delana after the race! :mixed-smiley-010:

And finally I can't understand why Jeff pitted when he did. He could have been in the mix but I suspect he wanted out of the way. Another possibility may be that he wanted to be out of the way of Kevin since Kevin is a "teammate" - I know Kevin drives for Stewart Haas but Stewart Haas uses Hendrick engines and so is part of Hendrick. I suspect Stewart Haas gots lot of intel from Hendrick and Kevin even said so as he said Jimmie Johnson was in his coach a lot helping him get ready for this race.

Finally Brian France said some tweaks were coming to the chase format but not big ones - be interesting to see what they are. His comments at NASCAR seem to indicate he likes this style chase as according to him it rewards both the consistent and the go for broke winners. Interesting...

-Ed-

[Panther_99FS]

Speaking of respect, I noticed that Larson didn't dump Newman (though he could have)....And we didn't have to see Harvick make due on his threat and dump Kenseth. So Harvick won it - I expect no more threats or crying from him (Harvick should now take a lesson from Jimmie on how to act like a champion IMHO).

I'm not sure how accurate my memory is so here goes...
It seems to me that most of the "big wins" were made with 4 tire changes, not 2.....
Seems like Crew Chiefs should be getting this by now....
But what do I know....

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Larsen isn't going to dump one of the final four drivers in the last race - even he knows better than that. I think Harv mean't nothing saying what he did about Kenseth - he just lets his mouth get ahead of him time to time.

Four versus two versus none is always hard. i have no idea if 4 has won more often but many drivers and crew chiefs feel it gives them the best shot. in this race without the last caution or maybe two likely Denny has the title but in this case the four tires gave Kevin restarts to take advantage of them.

On other forums lots of speculation on Gordon pitting. Everything from wanting to get out of the way to helping Kevin to making NASCAR's chase system look better. Black helis everywhere. I admit I was astounded that he pitted.

Now what to do till daytona - hmm comment on F1 threads? :jump:

-Ed-

[Panther_99FS]

What we haven't talked about is Stewart-Haas & Hendrick engines. Richard Childress showed flashes of speed but could never really keep up with teams of SH and Hendrick....Only Penske Ford could.

Toyota's forte is Trucks...

[stansdds]

I'm not a fan of "The Chance" format of the The Chase, but of the four drivers in contention for the championship, the best driver did win.

[Terry]

Congratulations to the 24 team, the winners in the real world.



Unofficial Top 25 in 2014 Sprint Cup Driver Points Standings (not the Chase):
[after Homestead, race 36 of 36]
(using current points system, but not the Chase rules, unofficial)
1) #24-Jeff Gordon(EC), 1253
2) #22-Joey Logano(C4), 1216, -37
3) #2-Brad Keselowski(EC), 1179, -74
4) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr.(EC), 1175, -78
5) #4-Kevin Harvick(CH), 1171, -82
6) #31-Ryan Newman(C2), 1136, -117
7) #20-Matt Kenseth(EC), 1131, -122
8) #42-Kyle Larson #, 1080, -173
9) #48-Jimmie Johnson(EC), 1067, -186
10) #99-Carl Edwards(EC), 1059, -194
11) #1-Jamie McMurray, 1014, -239
12) #16-Greg Biffle(EC), 1000, -253
13) #11-Denny Hamlin(C3), 987, -266 (missed a races)
14) #15-Clint Bowyer, 979, -274
15) #18-Kyle Busch(EC), 969, -284
16) #5-Kasey Kahne(EC), 966, -287
17) #3-Austin Dillon #, 958, -295
18) #27-Paul Menard, 944, -309
19) #55-Brian Vickers, 921, -332
20) #41-Kurt Busch(EC), 911, -342
21) #9-Marcos Ambrose, 872, -381
22) #47-AJ Allmendinger(EC), 868, -385
23) #78-Martin Truex Jr., 857, -396
24) #43-Aric Almirola(EC), 820, -433
25) #14-Tony Stewart, 799, -454 (missed 3 races)
(CH is the 2014 Sprint Cup Series Champion)
(C# is chase driver and current Chase position)
(EC is chase driver that has been eliminated from the Chase)
(11-16-2014)

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Well I'm sure Jeff will enjoy his imaginary trophy and his imaginary dinner celebrating his imaginary championship with his imaginary friends at an imaginary wards dinner. Maybe Bill France Sr the ghost of NASCAR past will be there. Imaginary Congratulations Jeff!

You know with respect to these kinds of speculations - there is no way to legitimately know that the other drivers would have driven the same under the old points system as they did this year. So it really is a fantasy.

-Ed-

[Panther_99FS]

Congratulations to the 24 team, the winners in the real world.



Unofficial Top 25 in 2014 Sprint Cup Driver Points Standings (not the Chase):
[after Homestead, race 36 of 36]
(using current points system, but not the Chase rules, unofficial)
1) #24-Jeff Gordon(EC), 1253
2) #22-Joey Logano(C4), 1216, -37
3) #2-Brad Keselowski(EC), 1179, -74
4) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr.(EC), 1175, -78
5) #4-Kevin Harvick(CH), 1171, -82
6) #31-Ryan Newman(C2), 1136, -117
7) #20-Matt Kenseth(EC), 1131, -122
8) #42-Kyle Larson #, 1080, -173
9) #48-Jimmie Johnson(EC), 1067, -186
10) #99-Carl Edwards(EC), 1059, -194
11) #1-Jamie McMurray, 1014, -239
12) #16-Greg Biffle(EC), 1000, -253
13) #11-Denny Hamlin(C3), 987, -266 (missed a races)
14) #15-Clint Bowyer, 979, -274
15) #18-Kyle Busch(EC), 969, -284
16) #5-Kasey Kahne(EC), 966, -287
17) #3-Austin Dillon #, 958, -295
18) #27-Paul Menard, 944, -309
19) #55-Brian Vickers, 921, -332
20) #41-Kurt Busch(EC), 911, -342
21) #9-Marcos Ambrose, 872, -381
22) #47-AJ Allmendinger(EC), 868, -385
23) #78-Martin Truex Jr., 857, -396
24) #43-Aric Almirola(EC), 820, -433
25) #14-Tony Stewart, 799, -454 (missed 3 races)
(CH is the 2014 Sprint Cup Series Champion)
(C# is chase driver and current Chase position)
(EC is chase driver that has been eliminated from the Chase)
(11-16-2014)



Apparently, there will be "small changes" for next season!

[Panther_99FS]

It will be interesting to see if Denny disappears sulking for a year or two and what he says eventually about Darian's call.
-Ed-

Haven't heard from Cazzie in a long time....Hope he's okay..
And to answer your last couple of poking fun at Denny (I seem to remember "sniveling" in another thread)
-> http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/shake-and-bake/nba-legend-michael-jordan-comforts-denny-hamlin-after-homestead-loss-111714 (Denny's "Tweets" are quite nice)

[joe bob]

I feel sorry for up and coming fans. They will never know the pleasure of a memorable championship.
The pay off for years that were decided early were made up for the down to the wire ones that people are still talking about a decade later.
I can't think of any of these annual "close" races being remembered for any length of time. Whats more, it doesn't have the capacity to be memorable if it will always be artificially close in points.
I suppose some find it exciting but memorable? I doubt it.

[joe bob]

Apparently, there will be "small changes" for next season!


I assume that will be something like you get an automatic 1000 point bonus each segment if your car is green with the number 10 on it?

[stansdds]

I assume that will be something like you get an automatic 1000 point bonus each segment if your car is green with the number 10 on it?

LOL! Like Richard Petty said, the only way she will win a championship is if none of the other drivers show up. I guess she might be a contender if you handicapped her points.

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

This whole points thing baffles me...

Go here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NASCAR_Sprint_Cup_Series_champions

and look at the points margins. Richard petty won one year by over 6000 points. How you say well obviously the points system has been changed several times. Why do you think that was? Uh maybe when the championship is decided I'll watch football?

The first year of the chase was 2004 and so looking at the years before that only like 11 were decided by less than 50 points - 11 of over 50 - like 20% or so - clearly the latter part of the season mattered little in most and I mean most years. Why in the world would you hang onto that kind of system? I read somewhere that the last race of the year has only mattered 4 times ever in terms of producing a different winner than the points leader.

Brian France "gets it" - now he has to figure out how to "get it right" - tradition is rarely best in anything.

-Ed-

PS And as for Denny I am glad Michael Jordan is his mommy. :mixed-smiley-010: (gotta stir something up! :applause:)