Happy Hour: Rain, Kenseth’s return, and oh yeah, the championship

Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to [email protected] or @NickBromberg. We’ll post them here and have a good time.

Guess what? If the Chase was cumulative, Jeff Gordon would have a one point lead on Carl Edwards. Joey Logano would be 15 points back. Nine drivers would mathematically have a title shot. Yeah, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, but this would be one hell of a finale.

1. Jeff Gordon 2,334
2. Carl Edwards 2,333
3. Joey Logano 2,319
4. Kyle Busch 2,318
5. Martin Truex Jr. 2,317
6. Kevin Harvick 2,306
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2.305
8. Brad Keselowski 2,304
9. Kurt Busch 2,297
10. Denny Hamlin 2,293
11. Ryan Newman 2,286
12. Jimmie Johnson 2,270
13. Jamie McMurray 2,263
14. Paul Menard 2,237
15. Matt Kenseth 2,197
16. Clint Bowyer 2,174

After rain shortened the Phoenix race by 93 laps, rain was easily the dominant topic of this week. Let’s start with that.

@nickbromberg should #NASCAR allow Chase races to be rain-shortened, or should it follow the MLB/World Series route and require full length?

— Philip Jones (@philgoodstory) November 19, 2015

@NickBromberg NASCAR really would not end the final race 1/2 way, and hand out a trophy, would they?

— Andy R. (@andyacr) November 19, 2015

Does NASCAR want to hand out the trophy while NBC has Sunday Night Football on?

We don’t want to fret about rain. Who knows. It could rain. It may not. But there’s no need to add to the hand-wringing already going on about the forecast for the weekend. Since it’s warm in Florida (newsflash!) and there could be a decent wind off the shore, track-drying may not take that long.

Ultimately, NASCAR will do whatever it can to finish the race, and having a full race bumped to NBCSN is better than finishing early – assuming there’s a chance to finish the race in the evening – and keeping the race on NBC.

We like the idea of a full race guarantee in the Chase, though it could produce some logistical issues for teams. What if a race gets delayed to Tuesday? But is the possible pressure on the teams worth it for making sure every race is run to completion? We lean to yes.

@jaybusbee @NickBromberg what of the championship winner fails post race inspection? Do they still get championship after being illegal?

— TJ (@tjmingo22) November 18, 2015

This is the disaster scenario for NASCAR. It also may depend on where the teams finish in the race. NASCAR hasn’t taken wins away from drivers and what if the winning driver also wins the race? Will he get a points penalty but keep the win? Will that affect the points standings?

This is the bad outcome mailbag.

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To help eliminate what caused the problems between Kenseth and Logano NASCAR should adopt the rule they use at Toledo Speedway here in Ohio. For some of the series that race there, if a driver cannot bump and run without spinning or wrecking the car they are trying to pass, both drivers are asked under the resultng yellow whether it was their fault. If neither driver admits it was their fault, both or either car that can continue go to the tail end of the restart. If this rule were in effect at Kansas, Logano would probably have tried to miss Kenseth rather than let their cars make contact. – Dave

This seems like an absolute cluster. Would Logano have admitted fault? And issuing penalties for what happened at Texas would make the criticism from fans that NASCAR has gotten after the Kenseth penalty seem very quiet.

I know Matt was mad & I don’t blame him for what he did. I think nascar is picking & choosing who to punish without any set format. if they have one why wasn’t Danica punished for doing the same thing? maybe after Brad K. or Joey L. get someone hurt or killed they will start to look at the difference between hard racing & dirty racing. Just my view point. – Allen A.

Danica Patrick was punished for running into David Gilliland at Martinsville. The incident between Patrick and Gilliland had been brewing for the entire race and neither were in contention for the win or the title. Completely different circumstances.

And what the hell? Why single out Logano or Keselowski? Both of them have been the victims of the most vicious purposeful punts in recent NASCAR history. Were those hits coming because of incidents on the track? Yes. But were they things that put other people in serious jeopardy? With the exception of what happened at Talladega (a disturbing trend not limited to Keselowski and Carl Edwards), no.

@NickBromberg What will be your quintessential memory of the 2015 Sprint Cup season? Can 2016 be as screwy as this year was?

— Brian Cullather (@Briancullather) November 18, 2015

No. But at the same time, the track caught on fire in Daytona and we never saw that coming. As Jay Busbee and I talked about in the podcast below, NASCAR truth is always crazier than NASCAR fiction. Sure, people like to have their favorite black helicopter theories, but the realistic stuff that people make up doesn’t come close to the things that actually happen.

2016 should be fun for what happens on the track because of the low downforce rules. We hope, anyway.

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