By: DJ DeSpain

In case you are not aware, and you are four races behind now if you weren’t aware, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is now in the “Race to the Chase” segment. There are some people I have spoken with that were not aware of this and thought I was confused or had been standing out in the sun too long.

“No DJ, the Chase doesn’t start until after Richmond.”

“Robbie, I know the Chase starts after Richmond, I said we are in the Race to the Chase.”

“There’s no such thing!”

Yes, Robbie, there is a Santa Claus, I mean there is officially a Race to the Chase. The Race to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup spans 10 events from New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 28 through Richmond International Raceway on September 12. I tried to look up when the phrase originated and became common usage, or at least common enough to be noticeable, but the best I could pin down was finding a 2006 article that had the official Race to the Chase logo attached to it. This is kind of discouraging given my side role as Research Editor for our Over the Wall podcasts. However, given that the Chase format itself started in 2004, I’ll settle for 2006 as an origin date for The Race to the Chase phrase.

But what about the other 16 races prior to The Race to the Chase? Should they remain nameless? 16 races seems too long a stretch seeing as the Chase itself is only 10 races. Maybe we could split up the first 16 into two 8-race segments? But again, what do we call them?

For the 8 races prior to The Race for the Chase, how about one of these:

“The Sprint to the Race to the Chase”

“The Stretch and Pull Warm-up to the Race to the Chase”

“The Preseason Race to the Chase”

And for the first 8 races of the season:

“The Man, I Gained How Much Over the Winter Series”

“The What’s My Crew Chief’s Name Again Series”

“The Which Network Are We On Series”

Whose responsibility is it to name these things anyway? Too much work.

What do you think? Let us know what you want to call the first 16 races on Facebook (facebook.rubbingsracing.com).