i think the Chase is the single worst thing that they've ever done with the rules... and they keep making it stupider and stupider every year... they started it because Matt Kenseth was consistently in the top 5 all year and only won one race on the way to a championship and it started out with 10 teams, but then Dale Jr didn't make it one year, so they made it 12.. then they added some weird provisionals or something to make sure that all the proper big $$$ teams and their big $$$ sponsors got into the chase.. now they are up to 16 with drivers getting eliminated every few races just to create some artificial drama to try to attract viewers away from the football games that are competing for their attention...