by Darrell Waltrip

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The guys in the Chase need to have their own point system. Some people say, "Oh, that's ridiculous. If you have a bad finish, you have a bad finish. You need to pay for it." But if that's the case, why even have a Chase? The whole point of the Chase is to keep the title race close and exciting so it's unpredictable from one week to the next. When you've only got 10 guys, and you start to eliminate one every week, you're right back to what we've had in the past. It becomes a two- to three-man race for the championship, and that wasn't the intent of this system.

Two of my favorite things are the blind obvious and rule of unintended consequences. When you make a decision or a rule, you have to see how it's going to work. You've got to give it a little time to determine the unintended consequences. After three years of the Chase, everybody would agree that first year was phenomenal, but I don't think anybody understood the format. It was new, and everybody was wondering how it would work. We got really lucky going to Homestead with a bunch of people in contention to win the title.

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But NASCAR people figure out systems. When NASCAR makes a rule, pretty soon, the teams figure out how to get around it. It's just like the lucky dog/free pass, which teams have learned to play. A driver doesn't care if he loses a lap early. If he's the only car a lap down, he'll get it back. Teams figure out how to get around a lot of things that NASCAR does. That's the way the Chase has gone. The teams have figured out what they've got to do to get in it.

Teams that make the Chase have to focus on those 10 races. They've got to keep doing what got them there. They have to make sure they finish so they can't take any chances. Some teams that were in the Chase last year aren't in it this year because they couldn't experiment. The teams that aren't in the Chase can try different setups, make crew changes., get different crew chiefs, change drivers or do anything else because they aren't racing for the title.

If you're locked into those top 10 spots, you're not going to mess with chemistry. You're going to keep doing the same thing over and over. Jeff Gordon is a perfect example. He didn't get in the Chase last year so he said, "OK, I've got to work on that." He changed crew chiefs. Roush Racing's teams are another example. All five were in last year's Chase that they didn't have an opportunity to experiment with anything. When the 2006 season started, lo and behold, they found out that they were behind. Non-Chasers started doing things to their cars that the Chasers couldn't last year. There's no down side to running for a championship, but being in the Chase may affect how you perform the following season.

My formula is simple. Sometimes it seems like we have a problem keeping it simple stupid, but my formula is simple. It's a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scenario. If you apply those points to the first two races, you've got a much tighter race among the top 10. Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch are still in trouble, but it's tighter at the top. If you took that formula, right now, Jeff Gordon would lead with 18 points. Jeff Burton would be one point back with 17. Denny Hamlin would be third with 16 points so he would only be two points behind the leader. Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick would have 13 points. Mark Martin would have 10. Junior and Johnson — not Junior Johnson — would have eight and seven points. Kahne would have five and Busch would have three. Obviously, the guys that are in trouble under the current system would be in trouble no matter what kind of formula you would apply. You've got to maintain some semblance of consistency, but a 10-point system just for the Chasers gives them a better chance to catch up.

I've heard other drivers like Jeff Gordon and other drivers in the Chase call for their own system. I think Tony Stewart agrees. They don't want to be eliminated because of bad luck. They're racing 10 guys for a championship, but 33 other guys don't care. You're mixing 10 championship contenders with 33 guys on a totally different agenda so NASCAR should take that into consideration and cut the guys in the top 10 some slack with a competition amongst themselves. You've separated them from everybody else so you need to separate the points that they get from everybody else.

That's my take on the Chase. The 26th race at Richmond was exciting. Now, we're just in a wait-and-see mode. We'll wait until the last race or two to see how things are going The most experienced guys are at the top of the heap, and that's kind of how I thought it would go. If you look at statistics, Gordon is in a league of his own. He always has been. Burton has to be a sentimental favorite. Hamlin is doing exactly what I predicted. In March, I said that there would be a rookie in the Chase, and a rookie would finish in the top 10 every week. Those predictions came true for the most part with Hamlin in the Chase and a rookie finishing in the top 15 in every race.

With the resources of Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart coaching and helping Hamlin while the No. 20 crew chief Greg Zipadelli helps No. 11 crew chief Mike Ford, Hamlin is a contender, and he's surprised everybody. He's in the position that I would like to be in. He hasn't got anything to lose. Keep an eye on him. The way the system is right now, six guys — Burton, Gordon, Kenseth, Hamlin, Harvick and Martin — are in the Chase, one guy — Dale Earnhardt Jr. — is sitting on the fence and three others — Jimmie Johnson, Kahne and Busch — are pretty much done.

NASCAR is thinking about making some adjustments. I just hope they make some good adjustments. They don't have to get carried away and go crazy, but they do need to figure out a way to keep every race exciting. I'm sure they will. They always come up with something that makes me say, "Well, that's not the way that I would have done it." But more times than not, they're pretty close to right.