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On Sunday NASCAR is going to crown its first champion under the new chase format that was introduced this season. The new format has been met with some push-back from NASCAR fans who do not like the format. While the jury is still out on whether or not this format will improve NASCAR over the long haul, there has without question been more action and drama this season. The new format has given four different teams and each manufacturer the chance to win a title on Sunday. The other thing that this new format may produce is the first winless-champion in NASCAR history. This will happen if Ryan Newman wins the title without winning this weekend in Miami.

Earlier this week NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France spoke about the new format and whether or not it has produced what NASCAR hoped that it would.

It’s exceeded what I had hoped for, and it’s done precisely what we thought we wanted to do, which was recalibrate competition-or winning, rather-and still have a strong place for consistency and all the rest, but recalibrate that balance. It’s only year one, but clearly we’re on our way.

France was then asked whether there would be changes made to the format going into next season as well as what he thinks about Newman winning a title if he doesn’t win a race.

Modest to zero changes (in regards to the format for next season). The best team will win on Sunday. What I mean, though, is any format that we’ve ever had always has the possibility that somebody might win the championship without winning an event, short of us-which we’re not going to do-making it a hard prerequisite that you have to win a race to qualify. That takes it out of balance, frankly.

The one thing that some fans seem to forget is that regardless of who won races in the third round of the chase there was still one spot left for a driver to advance based on points. In fact, that’s how every round of the chase has been setup. In theory Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski all could have advanced to the finale via wins (the favorites heading into the chase) and Newman still could have gotten there on points and won the title. So, the fact that Newman is there over some other drivers is something that some fans needs to let go.

As far as making modest changes to the championship format in 2015 goes, what changes would you like to see made? Be sure to comment below and tell us what little tweaks would improve the current format.

Christopher Olmstead is the Editor of BeyondTheFlag.com on the FanSided Network. Follow us on Twitter @Beyond_The_Flag and “Like” us on Facebook.

~Unless otherwise noted any quotes in this article were obtained from press releases via the driver or the team.~