[Jason Oldfield]

Well, you bring up a good point Rock. I guess I feel slightly different about one person following another up if the two of them are locked in a tight points battle at the end of the season. In this case, the one driver is not trying to get himself or herself an easy round win by going duck hunting, and could be doing themselves a complete disservice (if they lose that round, they most likely lose the entire championship).

I'm still not sure I agree with it though. Though these types of scenarios are exciting, as a whole I think I would still rather see the chips fall where they may because during the course of the season I think you have more people duck hunting than you do trying to match themselves up against the people they feel are the biggest threat to their championship success.

Trying to get matched up with a particular person is still possible with a ladder, though it would be highly unlikely with the number of cars we have in the .90 classes. Though, how many times have two title contenders in the .90 classes ended up facing each other in the first two rounds where "random" pairings are done? I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I just don't know how often it does (unfortunately, I've never been in that situation!)

I know a couple of contenders squared off last year, at the Vegas divisional I think, but that was in approximately round 4 where they were already on the ladder.

Anyway, my $0.02 (and I don't think anybody would even pay me that for it). I'd still rather see everybody put on a ladder for first round based upon qualifying closest to index without going under. In my fantasy world, the higher qualifier would get lane choice, and the number one qualifier would have first shot at the bye run.