Dare to Compare?

There is a lot of buzz going around about Cale Yarborough's record of 3 straight championships is in jeopardy by Jimmie Johnson. Is it fair to compare these two drivers? To me it is simply night and day. Back when Cale won his 3rd championship, which was in 1978, driving was a whole different ballgame. The cars these drivers drove were not all alike and the technology was not there, it was what you call good ole fashion driving. The drivers jumped into their cars, started up the engines and drove with all of their heart. These drivers are the ones that set the standard to what it meant to really drive a stock car. Can we honestly say that today, the drivers are driving stock cars? What is so stock about them? To compare Cale's 3 Championships to Jimmie's possible 3 championships is ridiculous but that is just the way it goes with records. There is nothing written in stone that puts restrictions on records and how they are broken, it is just the nature of the beast.

It is apparent that Jimmie Johnson is on his way to winning his third championship. There is no denying that Johnson is an excellent driver. He has one of the best crew chiefs and one of the best owners in Rick Hendrick. He has all the cards stacked for him and you know they are focusing all efforts on getting Jimmie that third championship.

I remember when they started talking about going to a Chase format and how exciting it would be to have such a thing but can you really say to yourself that the past couple of years have been exciting? How often are you finding yourself flipping channels to football during the race or just ending up changing channels because the race is just that boring and that you are tired of seeing the same drivers either winning or being upfront the entire time. Well if you are a Johnson fan, you are gloating big time but as I was saying, NASCAR has become more business then entertainment. Have you taken a look at the stands during the races and see just how many empty seats are there and do you know why? It is because the economy has taken a hit and people are just not willing to pay the prices to go see a race and spend money on gas and lodging. Don't get me wrong, all sports have increased their prices but what is NASCAR doing wrong? Look at the NFL, a typical stadium seats around 60,000-70,000 fans and they sell out the majority of the time. Why is that? Football is unpredictable, you just never know what is going to happen as in NASCAR you can almost pick who is going to win.

I will always be a NASCAR fan but I honestly can say that I have seen myself not as interested. I use to make it a point to watch qualifying on Fridays, then watching the Busch series on Saturday and then the cup race on Sunday but as I said, I find myself slowly drifting away from the sport. I know one problem of mine is that I don't have my woman next to me watching the races. We do talk on the phone while watching the race but it is just not the same thing, that will be changing soon enough where both of us will be snuggled on the couch watching it together.

NASCAR really needs to take a long, hard look at this Chase format. To be honest, I just say get rid of the whole thing and go back to the way it use to be. Do you think Jimmie would be sitting on top of the points standings right now if they were not in a Chase format? Inquiring minds want to know what you think about this.