The air was crisp, the north wind had a bite, and the playoff atmosphere was tangible.
Not just for the Yankees and the Red Sox fighting for home field advantage or for Michigan struggling to revive its tattered bowl prospects, but for NASCAR’s very own playoff season kicking off at New Hampshire Int’l Speedway.
The fourth edition of The Chase for the Nextel Cup was under way with fanfare worthy of the NFL playoffs or the Bowl Championship Series.
The Chase was created for the 2004 season in the hope of avoiding a repeat of the previous campaign, the last under the Winston Cup banner, when Matt Kenseth effectively locked up the title on sheer consistency by the time the fall stretch arrived. Not coincidentally, the main competition on television at that time of year is the National Football League, the only sports property which NASCAR will freely admit to trailing in popularity.
Kenseth joined Ned Jarrett (1961) and Benny Parsons (1973) as drivers capturing NASCAR’s premier series with a single victory.
No one claimed Kenseth was an unworthy champion, but there was a compelling argument for a new system. So, it became 10 races, 10 drivers seeded in the order of their “regular season” points. For 2007, the field was expanded to 12 drivers with seeding by victories rather than points, but the concept has endured for good reason — it has worked.
Kurt Busch was the first Chase-crowned champion in 2004, followed by Tony Stewart in 2005 and Jimmie Johnson in 2006. Each year the title was legitimately open entering the season finale in Homestead.
Some events where ticket sales had lagged, including the October races at Charlotte and Atlanta, saw more fans in the stands given decent weather. Perhaps most importantly, the general sports media has embraced the concept.
There are a couple of concerns in this corner, however. First of all, The Chase is not really a playoff in the team sport sense.
The Chase qualifiers race on the same track as those who have been eliminated from title contention. By contrast, if the White Sox or the Twins don’t make the American League playoffs, they clean out their lockers and go home. They can’t influence the playoff outcome, but non-Chase drivers can. 
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but in an era of multi-car teams one can construct a scenario where non-Chase Driver B creates a caution situation valuable to his Chase-qualified teammate Driver A. It’s said that in a simpler era 30-some years ago, independent Dodge driver Buddy Arrington did just that for Richard Petty on more than one occasion. Buddy’s payoff, so the story goes, was a discount-shopping spree at the Petty garage in the off-season.
There have been a signficant number of old-fashioned championship battles that have gone right down to the wire in 2007. The IRL title fight was absolutely riveting theater: the two contenders racing each other for the race win and the championship into the last lap of the season. The Grand-Am Rolex Series went into this weekend’s finale with three teams in serious contention. The World of Outlaws seems to be heading for a showdown between Donny Schatz and Joey Saldana. And of course there’s Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton dueling for the F-1 title.
Those facts seem to make a strong argument to keep the title format simple and to rely on the parity of competition — something the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series has in greater measure than any other major series on the planet.     
Those concerns aside, The Chase is here to stay. After covering round two at Dover next week, I intend to settle back with suitable refreshments and watch the title contest and its sidebar stories unfold via my television.
In other words, just the way the creators of The Chase intended it to be.