The top twelve in the Chase for the Sprint Cup is changing week by week.  Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson seem to have the top three positions locked up, with Kurt Busch seemingly also locked in, provided he doesn't do any more stupid stunts like Chicagoland's closing laps.  Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman also seem comfortable in fifth through seventh, and then it gets dicey.

Eighth through 12th are separated by an eighty-odd points and these positions change weekly, it seems.  Kyle Busch is either winning or finishing at the back, consistency not being his strong point.  Matt Kenseth has fallen to last in the Chase, despite winning the first two races of the season.

Does the Chase scoring need to be tweaked yet again?  NASCAR has said it is a "work in progress" and has proven that by increasing the chase contenders from ten to twelve, but in my opinion, they most important tweak has not been implemented.

NASCAR sports analysts have suggested tweaks over the years and last year NASCAR awarded 10 points per win to the Chasers, once the Chasers had been determined, but I think they have that all wrong.

I've long been a supporter of the winner of the race receiving more than the 5 points they do now.  I truly believe the winner of the race should receive a bonus 25 points at the time of the the win.

This, in my mind, it the most important factor, not awarding them to the drivers who have already been determined as Chasers.  We have seven races until the Chase begins, and with the top twelve fluctuating as they are, it could be a different story.

The Chase has often been called the "Matt Kenseth" rule, because of Matt's Championship run in 2003 when he was the most consistent driver, but had only one wins.  It was the first year that I started calling for more points for wins, but NASCAR's solution was the Chase. 

If NASCAR initiated points for the win at the win, Matt would have an additional 50 points, Jimmie and Tony would have an additional 50 (okay, so Tony doesn't need them really), Jeff would have an additional 25.   Mark Martin and Kyle Busch, who haven't had that consistency, would also have an addtional 100 points each, rewarded for their wins. 

With MY points, the Race for the Chase would look like this:

Tony Stewart   2934
Jeff Gordon 2734
Jimmie Johnson  2712
Kurt Busch 2551
Denny Hamlin 2457
Carl Edwards 2438
Kyle Busch 2398
Mark Martin 2396
Ryan Newman 2385
Kasey Kahne 2361
Matt Kenseth 2345
Juan Pablo Montoya 2321

There really isn't that much difference, but the winners, so far, are further up the ranks, where they belong, in my opinion.

The question is, are we rewarding consistency? Or wins?  I thought it was wins.