We were one tap away from a Chase apocalypse tonight

One tap. That's all it would have taken. One tap that would have made a total mockery of the entire Chase. All that had to happen tonight was one missed turn, one turned tire, and Mark Martin and Kyle Busch would have gone into each other, wrecked each other out, and the Chase picture would have been in total disarray.

Finishing off the lead lap probably wouldn't have put Martin out of the Chase, but it certainly would have torpedoed Kyle's hopes. And that would have meant -- and, lest we forget, still could mean -- that the two guys who have the most wins this season in NASCAR, who between them have nearly a third of all victories, could both miss the Chase.

That's just stupid. And while I don't root for anybody to miss the Chase, it's kind of like college football -- somebody needs to get screwed, some undefeated team has to miss out on a chance to play for a title, in order to start to get real change enacted.

There's been plenty of talk on "fixing" the Chase format, ranging from minor tweaks to blowing it up entirely. Personally, I think the Chase format itself is just fine as it is. I like the idea of culling the herd, of letting the best race the best. (I'd love to see some combination of elimination of Chase contestants or Chase-only races, but that's never going to happen.)

It's the points that are the problem. You can't have a regular season where there's so little merit given to regular-season victories. I get that the idea is to prize consistency, but you're looking at a guy in Carl Edwards who hasn't won a single race, and yet is firmly in the Chase hunt, while seven guys with victories are either already out of the Chase or on the bubble. That, friends, ain't right.

You get a 10-point bump for winning a race; someone can bite off half that total by just pitting out of cycle and leading one lap. Ten points aren't enough; you need more credit for winning. Playoff teams in other sports either get home-field advantage or outright byes; it's high time NASCAR did more to reward regular-season domination.