Over the few years that the new format of the Chase for the Cup has been in effect, many people have complained about the new systems flaws. With an abundance of wishes to return to the previous format, fans and those involved in the sport should take a closer look.

During the first 26 races, drivers duke it out with hopes of earning enough points to earn a spot in the coveted top-12. Over the final 10 races the drivers that have clinched a spot in the Chase will then try to amass a further collection of points to be named the Cup Series champion.

With a similar system to the Chase, the PGA has made it clear that some adjustments will be made as the 2008 FedEx Cup victor Vijay Singh did not have to finish the final tournament to collect the championship.

College football has their own controversial system. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) uses a combonation of humans and computers to assemble who will qualify to participate in the bowl games. With three teams that have only one loss to their records in the same conference, only one will be able to compete in the conference championship leaving the other two teams who worked just as hard without a shot.

Bobby Labonte, a NASCAR champion in both the Cup and Nationwide Series, comments the new Chase format.

“It’s simple," stated Labonte. "If you score the most points in the first 26 races you are going to be included in the ‘chase’. A computer can’t vote you out, a human can’t vote you out and you can’t argue against performance and points earned on the track. We all know the rules when we begin the season in Daytona and know them when it ends in Homestead.

“The champion is then crowned over the final 10 races. What makes the ‘chase’ great is that there is still the level of excitement. It’s really, really hard to make it a complete runaway over the final 10 races. This year Johnson did his best to make it a blowout, but you still had to tune in at Homestead to make sure Carl (Edwards) didn’t catch him. Racing is so unpredictable that you just never know what’s going to happen.It was still a possibility that something could have gone wrong for Johnson, unlikely, but you had to watch it."

With a high number of people figuring up different championship procedures, Labonte notes that while its fun to come up with different ideas the current method works just fine.

“It’s fun to debate different ways to do the ‘chase’ and you can even say it should have never been changed, but I think it’s working," Labonte said. There is excitement and it’s fair to the competitors.

Labonte concluded, "I’m a Texas Longhorn fan and I’m scratching my head this morning wondering what happened. After looking at that system, I think the ‘chase’ works out pretty well.”