On Nascar

There was a time when, for about 11 months out of the year, my Sundays were spent watching either racing or football.

No more.

NASCAR has taken all of the interest out of their sport, at least for me. This year was really the tell tale year, as I think I watched 3 or 4 races (the Daytona 500, both Bristol races) from start to finish, and tuned in for parts of only a handful of others.

When NASCAR instituted the 'Chase for the Championship', I was pretty upset - I don't like it, I think it atrificially creates 'drama' where there is none, and I think it screwed up the sport. I became less interested in most of the season, and I'm more interested in who scores the most points in the season, not who scores the most in 10 races.

The held on to me last year because my guy, Rusty, was still around, and still competitive. This year, I have pretty much no one to root for. So interest has waned. (It doesn't help that NBC and TNT coverage is terrible.)

Last night's race at Richmond, a race I did not watch, determined that Tony Stewart, last year's champ (legitimatley so, by the way, as he scored the most points over the entire 36 races) is in 11th, and out of the 'Chase'. In years past, no one would care about this, and would instead be following the tight race between first and second in points, as well as watching who would end up in the top ten at the end of the year, which is quite a logjam.

Want me back, NASCAR? Get rid of the chase. Give more points for winning if you want. Take boring races off the schedule (California). Oh, and race in Darlington on Labor day weekend.