Being the most popular NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was hoping that he could get a chance to compete for the Chase Sprint Cup. But even though he did not land as the top driver for the finale, Dale look back and realized that the changes made in the NASCAR pattern was well worth it.
He said "I thought it couldn't have gone any better for NASCAR. I always go back to thinking about how I ran and what I could've done, but looking at the event as a whole, I thought it was great for NASCAR. I thought the right guy won the championship and I thought it was good to have a mix of different seasons, if you will -- you had the guy with no wins and all the consistency, you had the guy with one win, a couple of guys with multiple wins, youth and experience. Everything across the board was represented and we got to see it play out."
It was Kevin Harvick who reigned during the said final race. He zoomed on the road with fresher tires at the end of the Ford EcoBoost 400 and he quickly surpasses race lead Ryan Newman to grab the checked flag.
Earnhardt said "I thought those cautions at the end changed the strategy, but they were all legit. There was a lot of stuff happening on the race track and it was an exciting race even without the championship battle involved, but I loved the way it played out. I think that NASCAR has got to be really pleased."
Although Earnhardt was not able to race for the title, he said that the new system has given him memorable runs and exciting moments throughout the event.
He said "I like his idea as far as us racing under a separate points system where you have 16 drivers and you get 16 to 1 point regardless of your finishing position, you're just graded against the drivers in the Chase."
He adds "I think that's fair and I think that would be easy and simple for the fans. I don't particularly know that it would've played out any differently, but I believe yes, it'd be simpler and not so challenging for the drivers. It would allow us a little freedom to race a bit more aggressively, knowing that well, I'm just going to cost myself a couple of points versus 20. Much different scope and you can definitely race with more freedom because I felt, at times, stymied a little bit, by my ability to go out there and be aggressive. I felt sort of hog-tied and racing with too much caution, just trying to do X instead of thinking about Y and Z."
