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The NASCAR Playoffs have held fans to opposite ends of the opinion scale for decades now. This weekend heading to the Homestead-Miami Speedway it has been nearly 20 years since the inaugural NASCAR Playoffs finale, or as they were known as then, the inaugural NASCAR Chase for the NEXTEL Cup finale. So today we are going to look back at this historic race and see just how the 2004 Ford 400 is so special and changed the game forever for NASCAR. We look at what might be the greatest NASCAR finale of the modern era?
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Outro Song:
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Songs:
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#NASCAR #Motorsports #racing
33 comments
What do you think the greatest NASCAR finales are?
Jeff Gordon’s 1998 Atlanta win
I’m going with the 2 obvious ones: 1992 and 2011.
2011.
What happened with Kurt Busch with that tire was one of the most luckiest things in NASCAR history in my opinion. Tire came off, he barely missed the water barrels, the tire came onto the track which caused a caution, and he stayed on the lead lap
Still a sore point if you were a Jeff Gordon fan…would have likely had 5 if not for that lucky tire.
@The Holiday I was watching this race with a friend who was a Kurt fan…I was not a happy camper. I will say over the years I got to like Kurt a bit better, but didn’t have a great opinion of him when this race was happening.
@Blake EYou mean Johnson fans. Johnson was 2nd in points.
1992 Is probably the best championship fight and race of Nascar history
But everyone forgets about
04 05 06 07 10 11 14 and 16. All great fights and days to be Nascar fans
Everyone remembers 2016. If that late caution that set up the restart where Edwards wrexked hadn’t happened, it would be forgotten
@DoomusRLC I am more talking about the playoffs. It’s in my opinion the best playoffs under the bracket format.( Outside and even arguably 2014) but no one talks about it. But yes that race is iconic for multiple reasons
One of the greatest NASCAR season finales ever.
If I recall correctly, Kurt missed the barrels by about 6 inches, going by what I heard before on the Nostalgic TV Show that used to come on the now defunct Speed Channel “The 10”
Just proves that the finale was a race of inches.
I’m sorry, I’ll go.
I remember watching this on TV I have my eye on Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson I booed when Kurt Busch won
Can you do a video on the 1998,1999,2000,2001 points differences before all this talk about switching back to points…. Yes it’s tight now, the system is built for wins to get in, not points.
(Noticing a lot of videos suggesting switching back)
I still don’t know how Jeff Gordon didn’t win the title in 2004 even though he finished ahead of Kurt on the track. It really confused me as a young Gordon fan. Also the race was taking too long for my liking too.
Another thing to point out is when Homestead Miami added banking to the track could’ve also added lights to the track so that the truck series race doesn’t start late Friday afternoon but they didn’t and took them until 2005 for lights.
The first of 3 titles he got screwed out of. Of course, without the late damage at Dega and the busted shock at Atlanta, he’d have won it going away. The one that kills me is 2007. Aside from being far and away the best all year, his Chase stats were: 9 top 10s, worst finish 11th, with 2 wins and he STILL got 2nd. Complete bullshit
Gordon gave away the title that year. He dominated Kansas all 3 years, but in 2004 finished 14th. Pitted for fresh tires at Talladega (the year tires meant everything at the plate tracks) and only moved up 4 spots in 5 laps (3 of those were wrecked cars). Atlanta, broke a gear leaving the pits. Darlington, crew gets the air hose stuck on the final stop after he dominated, finished 3rd. Even 9th at Martinsville is below average for him. At the time it seemed like a “oh well, we’ll get them next year”, but now it looks like a huge missed opportunity.
Fun Fact: The 2004 Ford 400 would be the last race for Terry Labonte driving the 5 Car for Hendrick Motorsports
I still vaguely remember this race, even at the young age of 5
2004 is a great one that gets overlooked. I think 92 will always be #1, and 2011 #2. This has gotta be #3 though
The luckiest championship ever!
2:14 Is that the trained assassin dispatched on covert missions around the world?
It’s a toss-up between this race and 2011 for me. 2021 Xfinity finale is up there too.
What people didn’t know or and many still aren’t aware of is that Ryan Newman also had 7 finishes of 37th or worse and an average finish over 3 spots lower than Matt. He was over two races behind after the final race and Matt even had a DNF that race, but so did Newman… That’s the story that didn’t seem to be told about that season.
also the greatest Chase overall as the unpredictability of the inaugural Chase lived up to the hype NASCAR was dreaming of…
This race, the very tragic 2011 Indycar season finale in Vegas (in which Dan Wheldon was killed) & the extremely controversial Abu Dhabi GP a couple of years ago in F1 are the season finales I remember the most. That 2011 Indycar season finale I particularly remember quite well because I watched it live & because of the $5 million in prize money that was offered to the winner which became absolutely meaningless after the accident that killed Dan Wheldon. Looking back it is one of the stupidest/dangerous things Indycar has ever done in my view especially having that many cars on a track like Vegas.
How can you not remember the 2011 NASCAR finale??? They literally ended up tied in points and had to resort to who had more race wins
Maybe not a single race but the 2010 Chase is extremely underrated to me. You have Jimmie Johnson having broken the consecutive title record the year before, everyone thinking the 11 would be his greatest challenge and then needing knee surgery early in the season, the resurgence of Harvick for one of his best pre title seasons. But then the Chase itself was wild. You have a crazy final 100 laps at New Hampshire just for the winner to be penalized after, multiple chasers losing engines at Cali, Jamie McMurray winning Charlotte, Hamlin coming thru at Martinsville to close the points, the chaos of Talladega with the 48 playing safe, the 11 losing a lap, the 29 getting damaged, all three coming out within reach.
Then Texas. Boy oh boy that Texas race!! Trevor Bayne debut, all three title guys at the back, Biffle dominating early, Kyle speeding on pit road and flipping the bird on TV and being held two laps for it. Burton accidentally wrecking Gordon under caution and Gordon rightly instigating the shoving match afterwards, Chad Knaus taking the 24 pit crew afterwards. All while the championship 3 make their way to the front but as the 11 takes the lead with the 17 running him down the caution flies. Jimmie staying out but Harvick and everyone behind him taking tires and the 16 restarting in front of him who is missing 2nd gear. Hamlin and Kenseth have an epic two lap duel for the finish while Jimmie desperately tries to hold on to every point he can, but the race ends with a change in championship leader.
But then there’s Phoenix where the 48 again lacks speed where the 11 dominates, but they miscalculate the fuel strategy and allow the 48 to close to within 15 points going into homestead, and the 29 still less then 50 behind.
To me, the 2010 Chase was like Super Bowl 49 only spread out over 10 races. 2004 may be more fondly remembered and 2011 may be the actual closest finish but 2010 was, in my opinion, the closest battle between the three best teams all year long. None of them snuck up out of nowhere, and they didn’t need elimination races or stages to develop drama. It happened naturally.
That was definitely one of the best ones. I just wish I was able to see it. I only just started watching Nascar at the time, but only saw 4 races on TV. The Daytona 500, the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta in March, the Subway 500 in Phoenix in April, and the Talladega spring race. Also, as much as I like both the original Chase format of 10(later on would be 12 in 2008), drivers competing for the championship and the elimination style format, I do like the original format more mostly because of nostalgia growing up with it from 2011-2013.
As a Gordon fan, this one still stings. Not so much this race but the previous race at Darlington where the pit crew got the hose hung under the tire. Cost Gordon i believe at least 15 points if not 20. Would have been the difference probably.
As a Gordon fan watching that tire come off of Kurt’s car was so gut wrenching. Just another one of Gordon’s 7 titles that was taken away.
To be fair it started around 2000 when NASCAR wanted to shake up the points format and stop runaway champions. Kenseth was just the last one, and he’s said in interviews with Scene Vault/DJD and others that Brianc France was sick of everyoen talking about points and wanting wins to matter, and yet here we are years later talking about points every week of the playoffs, who is in, who is out