NASCAR Charlotte 2014 weekend recap: Chase format creates playoff drama

The juxtaposition NASCAR intended when it revamped the Chase for the Sprint Cup occurred Saturday night.

In one section of Charlotte Motor Speedway, a driver was celebrating victory. A win that erased a year’s worth of demons and, more importantly, assured his playoff future for another round.

As Kevin Harvick poured beer and breathed a sigh of relief, a series of confrontations were unfolding within the Charlotte garage.

An enraged Matt Kenseth attacked Brad Keselowski, and what transpired was a scuffle Dale Earnhardt Jr. compared to something out of the television show Cops. Keselowski’s antics also drew the ire of Kenseth’s teammate, Denny Hamlin, who had to be restrained from going after Keselowski.

The uprising of raw emotions weren’t just confined to post-race. At various junctures of the Bank of America 500 Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, they of six Sprint Cup championships, were bickering like an old married couple in desperate need of counseling, while Danica Patrick’s team encouraged her to seek retribution against Joey Logano, who had spun her.

All the transgressions can be attributed directly to a new Chase format where a playoff victory guarantees advancement to the subsequent round along with a series of eliminations every three weeks. One bad race and you could easily be bounced.

That fervor is accentuated by a points reset, which only regenerates the intensity and systematically has turned competitors into something they otherwise are not. Witness the normally mild-mannered Kenseth and his WWE-esque blindside charge of Keselowski.

“That’s how intense this whole Chase is,” Harvick said. “When you see that emotion out of Matt Kenseth, you know that NASCAR has done the right thing to this Chase because everybody is on offense and gouging for every single position that you can get every lap.”

Despite the constant pressure cooker Chase drivers now find themselves in, the revised playoff format has garnered widespread acclaim. Those in championship contention praise a system that offers reward instantly in the form of a free pass.

In the aftermath of a dominant Charlotte victory, Harvick paid little attention to the championship implications. Where is the focus instead? On next week’s Round 2 elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway.

While Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt roll into Talladega, where speeds flirt with 200 miles per hour and ferocious wrecks are routine, desperately needing a win to prolong their stays in the Chase, Harvick can enjoy some peace of mind.

“It has been so intense and so crazy,” Harvick said. “My wife can tell you, it’s like you go home and all you do, you lay up at night and you think about, ‘OK, what do I have to do next week? OK, what do we need to do, who do I need to talk to?’ And it consumes everything that you do.”

The Charlotte race winner isn’t the only one singing the praises of what is a drastic departure from previous methods to determine a champion. Fresh off a runner-up finish Saturday night, Jeff Gordon preferred not to discuss his drive to second, but the hard racing on the track and theatrics off.

“There’s a lot on the line,” Gordon said. “I think we all knew it would make the emotions get out of whack by who’s in, who’s out, who’s on the bubble, how your races are going. When you have just these three‑race segments and then they clean the slate and start all over, it creates a lot of drama. That’s why (NASCAR) did it. It’s only going to intensify from here on out.”

With the drama almost guaranteed to amplify at Talladega, the question is whether another skirmish will breakout. Then again, considering the events of Saturday that question almost seems rhetorical in nature.