OK, so I get that the people who run NASCAR aren't high-end mathematical theorists. But you'd think they could add one plus one and wind up with two at least half the time.

I mean, they've tinkered and tweaked and any other "T" word you want to summon up, and still they can't get it right. Still we come down to the last two races with a situation where the guy who by all rights should be ahead in the points, and by a fairly wide margin, is still five points off the lead.

Really. Tony Stewart's now won exactly half the eight Chase races, and somehow Carl Edwards still leads by five points? How exactly does that work?

I'll tell you how: Because NASCAR still, after all this time, doesn't fully reward a driver for getting to Victory Lane. The difference between first and second place (where Edwards finished Sunday) is five points. And so Stewart, who came in trailing Edwards by eight points, still trails him by three despite winning again.

Here's how it ought to go: Double the points between first and second. No, check that. Triple it. If winning a race isn't worth at least 15 points more than second -- at least 15 points more -- then why risk winning when you can points-race your way to the title?

That, essentially, is what Edwards is doing right now, while Stewart dominates the Chase. How's that right?