re: USL to vote on pro/rel

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I don’t know why Americans wouldn’t like it or pick up on it. It rewards the best team(s) across their entire season vs an okay team that peaks at the right time.

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After the 2003 season, Kenseth's championship became a source of controversy and criticism. Critics of the Winston Cup points system, most notably Roger Penske, questioned how a driver could win a season championship despite winning only one race out of 36 during the season. Additionally, the fact that Kenseth led the points standings for 33 weeks despite only having the one victory, as well as already having clinched the Winston Cup title with one week to go in the season (rendering the final race in essence a non-event) led to discussions on how to prevent Kenseth's feat from happening again (by comparison, in 2000, under the same points system, Bobby Labonte had won the Winston Cup championship after leading in points for 31 of the 34 races and also clinched the championship one race early but unlike Kenseth, Labonte won four races in his championship year). Kenseth finished that year with 11 top-five finishes and 25 top-ten finishes.

As a result, 2004 saw the implementation of a new points and playoffs system titled "The Chase for the Nextel Cup" after Winston was replaced as primary sponsor of NASCAR's top series by Nextel Communications. In essence, the system created a 10 race playoff, with only the top-ten drivers in points after the first 26 races competing for the championship. Moreover, the system placed an emphasis, and a points premium, on wins. As a result, the term "The Matt Kenseth Rule" was coined to describe NASCAR's adoption of the current points system. NASCAR acknowledged that the 2003 championship outcome was not the driving factor in establishment of The Chase, as it had been researching methods to adjust the points system to put more emphasis on winning races since 2000. However, the coincidence of the commencement of the new format in 2004 and Kenseth's 2003 championship linked the issues, and were even referred to by NASCAR officials in the interviews and press releases following the announcement of the new format.

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