Nate Ryan

USA TODAY Sports

The most troubling aspect of crowning a winless driver as the champion of a new format predicated on winning is how much NASCAR tacitly suggested it was highly unlikely.

In trotting out the Chase for the Sprint Cup overhaul during a nationally televised news conference in January, NASCAR chairman Brian France made 25 references to either "wins" or "winning" in stumping for a playoff designed to weed out the scourge of pesky "points racing" – settling for a solid result rather than striving for greatness -- that often had dominated its championship storylines.

"It's going to make winning the most important thing by a wide margin," France said. "Everything is focused around winning, and that is exactly what our fans want."

So how will those fans react if Ryan Newman becomes the first winless champion in the 65-year history of its premier series?

Those are the stakes for France's brainchild entering Sunday's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 11th edition of the Chase has produced unprecedented desperation, compelling moments and incessant pressure, living up to its billing of a new and improved championship with nonstop dramatics.

And yet it could be overshadowed – and undermined to a great degree – depending on how the title is awarded at Homestead.

It doesn't seem probable that Newman, who enters the championship round as an overwhelming underdog to fellow contenders Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick, can win his first championship without a victory.

But it also didn't seem probable that the Richard Childress Racing driver still would be eligible for a title.

He and his team have gamed the system perfectly and maximized their only route to a title during a season in which the No. 31 Chevrolet hasn't flaunted the speed to keep pace with the favorites.

If he emerges as the highest finisher among the final four while adhering to the methodical and plodding style that carried him to Homestead, Newman justifiably won't be apologizing for it.

"It doesn't matter to me," he said when asked Sunday about his lack of a victory. "The fastest car may not win. The best car on a restart may not win. You just never know."

Newman shouldn't care about perceptions.

But NASCAR should.

Newman has led 41 laps this season (compared with a series-high 2,083 for Harvick). He has four top fives. He hasn't been the highest finisher of the 16 Chase qualifiers in any of 35 races (including the regular season).

Those statistics belie the championship standards that France laid out in unveiling the revamped Chase.

"Ultimately, it will reward a very worthy champion at the end of each season, with the best-of-the-best, winner‑take‑all showdown," France said. "Although consistency is important in our sport, and it remains important, it's just less important, so (fans) like that."

The equivocating party line from NASCAR – along with the hollow tropes paralleling Newman's team with a wild card in any other sport's playoff (which conveniently omits the fact those teams must win to advance) -- has been that consistency will cease to matter at Homestead.

This is extremely specious.

By definition, the concept of consistency will be negated by a points reset to ensure the championship is determined by one race. Everything that Newman has done to advance to Homestead won't carry into the race.

It doesn't mean, though, that Newman can't win the championship with the same yeoman style. Depending on the fortunes of Hamlin, Harvick and Logano, he still could outpoint them with a finish as poor as 40th and as pedestrian as 13th – his average finish and starting position in a 2014 campaign that has embodied consistency.

This might seem a remote scenario if it didn't emerge as an evident trend when modeling this system in past years.

In two of the past six seasons (Dale Earnhardt Jr. last year; Harvick in 2008), the champion would have been winless under the 2014 format.

NASCAR has tried to dismiss those as flukes that would be excised as teams adapted to new title parameters.

"I think the overall influence for us was just race wins," executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O'Donnell said in January. "Could we have a scenario that's different from that? Sure.

"But we feel like in all of our discussions with the race teams and the drivers, almost to a person they say the strategy changes completely. We don't think it's anything that you can project in 2014. (The new format) is going to fundamentally change how they race."

It has changed drivers' mores and philosophies – witness the weekly controversies over balancing respect with hard racing, or Newman's last-lap takeout of Kyle Larson at Phoenix International Raceway to earn a shot at the championship.

But it couldn't change the fundamental underpinnings of a points-based system that is skewed toward punishing poor finishes more greatly than rewarding outstanding results. Matt Kenseth has led the circuit in victories twice but is remembered most for his one-win title in 2003 – a season in which Newman had a series-high eight victories.

Wins don't always equal championships in NASCAR.

At least one win always has, though, and that certainly was expected to be the minimum criteria this season.

"Riding around and being pleased because the format rewards consistency, those days are going to be pretty much over," France said in January.

What happens if they're not Sunday at Homestead?

Nobody in NASCAR will win except a winless Newman and his team.

Follow Ryan on Twitter @nateryan