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Happy Hour: Claims of getting an edge, Tony Stewart and tweaking the points format

Happy Hour: Claims of getting an edge, Tony Stewart and tweaking the points format

Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg.We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy.

Y'all were quiet this week. Did Brad Keselowski's pass bore you or something? Here it is again just because it was a rare moment.

Spoiler alert, I'm afraid the chances of this happening throughout the next nine races are slim-to-none, but I'm not going to complain in the slightest if I am wrong.

Wednesday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that Stanley and DeWalt would sponsor Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth respectively. It means that Richard Petty Motorsports is going to be down a sponsor for 2015, but given that there's a driver change a the No. 9, it's not terribly surprising. It'll be interesting to see how much sponsorship is tied to RPM's impending driver search.

Let's get to our topics this week. And the onus is on y'all to break out some good questions next week.

What Brian is referring to is a deleted tweet by a now former road manager for Dale Earnhardt Jr.. The tweet referenced flaring of the right sideskirt on Keselowski's car. Tuesday, he resigned from his position.

It's an odd situation and one we clearly don't know the dynamics to, so unfounded speculation would be irresponsible.

The claims themselves, however, are interesting. Remember in 2012 when Keselowski referenced the Hendrick cars potentially pushing the rules? If anything was wrong with Keselowski's car it would have been found in post-race inspection. Nothing was announced.

Teams are going to always push the rules, and sometimes people get caught. That happens. But I don't think this will be a storyline going forward. Unless Jimmie Johnson's garage partitions return. Then we can all start up the black helicopters again.

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I think it is (cow manure) that they are charging Tony. The kid got out of his car and was wearing black he almost got hit by another car. All drivers know not to get out of their car only if it is on fire. ... This ticks me off of they way they do this. Tony is already hurt about it the kid was dumb for getting out of his car and it was dark and a dirt track at that CASE CLOSED that's what they should do and leave Tony alone. - Cherrie

I post this for two reasons, first because it's a wonderful symbol of the ignorance that has been pouring into our inboxes over the past month. (This letter was edited for spelling and length.)

Secondly, and possibly tied to the first point, it shows incredible ignorance about how this legal process has gone.

There have been so many people who have been quick to vilify Stewart for hitting Ward and Ward for going down the track. Why? Is this a movie? Do we always have to have a good guy and a bad guy? Are there regrettable actions that happened in this scenario? Of course. But to assign positive or negative caricatures to them is quite childish. Plus, it shows a lack of critical thought. There are still so many details in this case that are not public knowledge. How can you come to a concrete decision?

If you think Stewart is being charged with anything for the incident on August 9, you need to read what Jay Busbee wrote on Tuesday. Now. You can come back to this column. I won't be offended.

This is simply due process of the law in New York. Is it possible felony or misdemeanor charges could come against Stewart in the future? Yes. Is it possible that he may not be charged at all? Yes. Our knowledge of the outcome of any possible indictments did not change one bit on Tuesday. We simply just found out that the process had moved on to its next step.

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I hate the Chase, it's stupid, contrived, and gets worse every year. No matter the tweak, the championship still rewards consistence over wins. Plus, it has done little to "create" excitement. Soon the Chase field will be the top 25 because NASCAR wanted to let some popular driver in.

So instead of just complain I offer yet another alternative, one that heavily incentivizes wins.

Points will be eliminated and only wins, top 5 top 10 and DNF are tracked. Driver with the most wins, wins the championship. Hey what a concept. Tiebreakers will be most top 5's, followed by most top 10's and then fewest DNF. This still rewards consistency but makes it clearly secondary to wins.

NO CHASE. So, when some driver gets 8 wins, something that rarely happens anymore, he/she wins the championship as he/she should. They were the dominant driver of the season.

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Looking at this year's field the proposed format would be awesome as the top seven drivers have 4,3,3,3,3,2,2 wins. Talk about wins being important in the final 10. - Tim

I'm going to guess that a lot of readers had the same driver in mind when reading Tim's first paragraph.

If winning is truly everything, this isn't a bad alternative at all. As I've harped on many times before, the "winning" angle was the flaw in this description of the Chase. Anyone with a brain knew that consistency was still going to be a major factor because of the large number of spots and the way the Chase format was broken down.

There's a large segment of NASCAR that likes the consistency aspect of it. After all, it's what the old system rewarded and there are certainly some vocal folks who want it back.

No system is going to be perfect, however. I think the Chase is here to stay. This format? If past history is our guide, it's only got about three years before it'll be changed again.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!