December 14, 2003

Hello Race Fans, long time no see! I have been gathering up my thoughts on various subjects relating to the Winston, oops Nextel, Cup series. With so many good things to write about, I came up with a modest proposal about the points system, AKA "The Thing That Makes NASCAR the Laughing Stock of the Racing World", that even NASCAR can understand.

At first glance the 10 race runoff is a good idea. It makes the series more visible and will most definitely get the series more ink and video, therefore more money. But if you still have the same system of determining the top 10 as before, aren't you just putting new makeup on an old face? Why not make a core change in the points system itself?

My modest proposal entails a simple idea that even the least educated among us, i.e. NASCAR officials, can understand. It is simple, makes sense, and wasn't written on a napkin in a bar in Daytona. Therefore it will never happen.

The first part of this entails giving each qualifying position a value. Give 10 points to the first 36 qualifiers, that is those teams that actually qualify for the race. Places 37 - 43 have no value. If you are given a freebie, why should you get a point? Therefore each of the 36 qualifiers have 10 points to begin with.

Also only giving points to those teams that do qualify might cut down on the "field fillers.". There might be short fields, but in all is that a bad thing? Just split the money that would go to a field filler to those who do qualify. It might cut down on the number of field fillers that complete 1 lap and have "Rear End Failure."

There is a simple way to make the use of the aforementioned awarding of points unnecessary. This is to let the fastest 43 race and each one gets the 10 points, no provisionals and no "Past Champions" Happy Horse Manure. if you can't cut the mustard, go to the house and try next week. NHRA does this and with a much smaller number of positions to try for also.

The pole position would be worth an extra 10 (20 total) points to the top qualifier. If you qualify 1st you deserve something. The others get no extra points.

The points earned in the race would be much more spread out than they are now. Winning would be worth more than second place. The other places behind the winner would have enough spread that actually racing for position might really mean something. Places 20 -43 would decline more and they would be all the same in places 20 - 25, 26 - 30, 31 - 35, and 36 - 40. They would be as shown in the following chart:

 
  1 = 135       11= 75       21= 25       31 - 43= 10
  2 = 125       12= 70       22= 25     
  3 = 120       13= 65       23= 25     
  4 = 115       14= 60       24= 25      
  5 = 110       15= 55       25= 25      
  6 = 100       16= 50       26= 20      
  7 =  95       17= 45       27= 20     
  8 =  90       18= 40       28= 20
  9 =  85       19= 35       29= 20
 10 =  80       20= 30       30= 20

This point system doesn't radically change the points system, it just cleans it up somewhat. Notice that positions 31 - 43 fewer points. This might be an incentive to keep rolling wrecks off the track after "The Big One". if you aren't going to get many more points, why risk your neck?

And to make the whole shebang more interesting, give 10 extra points for leading laps under the green flag only. Laps led under a caution should not be rewarded. Race for the goodies, no freebies.

There it is, my proposal. I realize that it is way to simple to ever be implemented. But at least it is a more equitable system. While there may be a runaway winner, he will have earned the points by racing and he will have finished well in all the races, not just 10. He had to race his heiny off to get to the banquet and he won the most and finished the highest. Also he was a good qualifier to boot. Consistency is rewarded and a bad qualifier or finisher is punished appropriately.

Merry Christ's Birthday and a Happy New Year!

You can send feedback to Rob at: Insider Racing News

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