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Happy Hour: Fake crowning Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, 2015 and more

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.

Happy offseason! Or is it sad offseason? I know we'll all get the itch for cars to start going in circles pretty soon, but it's time to enjoy the break for a little bit. Though if you still need your fix, Formula 1 is at Abu Dhabi this Sunday and thanks to its own championship format gimmick, the title situation is more dramatic than it could be under the previous format.

Lewis Hamilton leads the points over teammate Nico Rosberg, but the race is for double points. If the race was for the normal points, Hamilton needs to finish sixth if Rosberg wins the race. But because the race is for double points, he has to finish second.

Speaking of old systems, under the old Chase, we'd be celebrating Joey Logano's championship. Logano mentioned after Homestead that he'd be the champ under the old system, and while it's nice to know that Logano was paying attention to that statistic, it also has to be incredibly annoying to him. Remember all the talk about how the new format was rewarding Logano after he won two of the first four races? Well, the opposite was true.

Logano would have been the champion over Kevin Harvick by seven points. Here's how the points standings would have looked:

1. Joey Logano, 2,396
2. Kevin Harvick, 2,389
3. Brad Keselowski, 2,361
4. Ryan Newman, 2,353
5. Jeff Gordon, 2,348
6. Matt Kenseth, 2,334
7. Denny Hamlin, 2,331
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2,301
9. Carl Edwards, 2,288
10. Kyle Busch, 2,285
11. Jimmie Johnson, 2,274
12. Kurt Busch, 2,263
13. AJ Allmendinger, 2,260
14. Greg Biffle, 2,248
15. Kasey Kahne, 2,234
16. Aric Almirola, 2,195

As you can see, three of the four in the final race would have finished in the top four with Denny Hamlin as the outlier in seventh. So while Newman winning the title would have been a walking contradiction of the emphasis on winning, Hamlin's actually a better example of how avoiding bad finishes is more important than excellence in this Chase format.

Let's get to it.

Anyone think there's too much wonder about the future for Chase Elliott? Sure, it's the offseason and it's a fascinating thing to discuss given the myriad number of possibilities now that the most obvious option is apparently out of the equation with Kasey Kahne's contract extension at Hendrick Motorsports.

But let's be real, don't you think Hendrick has something lined up for the future, whether it be with Stewart-Haas, HScott or even internally? When you're an organization with the pedigree that Hendrick has, you're not flying by the seat of your pants with contracts.

(Side note, Jeff Gordon's Twitter account posted a chat on Wednesday from October 16 where he said he wasn't planning on retiring. There's an example of a truly coordinated message right there.)

With the Stewart-Haas alliance, there are options there, even if it doesn't look like it at the time. Plus, HScott has just one car. If there's sponsorship, Elliott could move over there. I don't see him leaving the Hendrick area anytime soon, and there will be a place for him sooner, rather than later.

Speaking of a Stewart-Haas car, here's Danica Patrick's 2015 paint scheme. What in the heck?

As I said on Twitter when I first saw it, that car looks like it'd fit in with Rich Bickle's 10-10-345 car or Robert Pressley's Cartoon Network car.

I'm an admitted simpleton when it comes to paint schemes, but I'm not sure how anyone can consider Patrick's car a good-looking car.

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Assuming format stays relatively same, 2015 Cup champion is? - Rob

Jimmie Johnson.

The No. 48 bunch will be the most analytical when it comes to assessing the strategies involved in the new Chase and I expect the team to be faster overall in 2015. The lower-downforce package could help drivers like Johnson, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards, who has been advocating for less downforce for years.

I think Edwards is like 2014 Harvick in 2015 as well, assuming the Joe Gibbs cars have the speed they didn't have at times this season.

SHHH! Don't spoil any potential surprises!

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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!