NASCAR: What it Takes to Win a Championship

In 2003, some fans felt that Matt Kenseth may not have deserved the Championship since he won only one race. They feel that wins should have more affect on the outcome of the Championship. But, what good would it do if a football team could only score by the foot of its kicker? In baseball every player has an average and teams win with RBI's as much or more than with home runs. Homers are a big stat, maybe comparable to wins in NASCAR and sure a home run can bring a lot of RBIs as a win can bring a lot of points, but in NASCAR you can't secure the trophy on wins alone. Gorman Thomas hit a lot of home runs at one time, but was he that good? Even chubby George Ruth stole bases.

Kenseth's average finish was 10.25, comparative to every champ after 2000. In 2001, Gordon averaged 10.97, followed by Stewart with 12.61 in 2002. In 2004 Kurt Busch averaged 12.47 and won the first Chase for the Championship, but Gordon, Earnhardt Jr and Johnson all had better averages. In 2005 Stewart averaged 9.92 and in 2006 Johnson averaged 9.62, the best average since 2000.

What makes it a little more interesting is that Kenseth's 2003 season was similar to super seasons by Dale Jarrett in 1999 and Bobby Labonte in 2000. Jarrett averaged 6.76 and Labonte averaged 7.44, missing only nine laps the entire season. Kenseth was averaging 7.7 with only 8 races to go before blowing an engine at Talladega then crashing while avoiding a wreck at Kansas. If not for a crash in the Daytona 500 in 1999, Jarrett could have averaged 5.9, almost an average top five finish.

It shows that wins don't always have as much to do as leading races, leading laps and your average finish do. Here are more examples of that;

2002; Tony Stewart won the Championship with a 12.61 average, probably the highest average in NASCAR history. Mark Martin finished second with a better average of 12.17. Stewart led Martin in wins 3 to1, and most laps led 4 to 1, so he won the Championship as much by leading laps as with wins. Luckily for Martin, two of the three engine failures he had was in the Budweiser shootout and the All-Star race. Stewart averaged 10.12 his rookie season of 1999, as good as either of his championship seasons and as good as Kenseth in 2003 and any championship season since 2001.

1990; Wins alone can't win the trophy and a big example of that is when Martin finished second to Dale Earnhardt despite out-averaging him 6.6 to 8.0. Earnhardt won 9 times to Martin's 3, but his races led (22 to 15) and laps led (2438 to 451) gave him more extra points than the wins did. They both had 23 top tens and Earnhardt had only 2 more top fives. Martin finished worse than 14th on only two occasions and was penalized during the year. There was only an average of 38 cars in the field, so the drivers year-end average would not suffer as much if they had a DNF.

1996; Gordon won more races than Champion Terry Labonte (10 to 2) and led 1300 more laps than him, but Labonte's average was 8.2 compared to Gordon's 9.5. They both had 21 top fives and 24 top tens. Second-place Dale Jarrett's average was even better than Gordon's. So, Gordon beat Jarrett due to wins (10 to 4) and laps led (2314 to 755), but lost to Labonte due to consistency.

1995; Dale Earnhardt had a better average than Gordon and had two more top fives. Gordon only had 2 wins more than Earnhardt, but he led 1000 more laps, leading me to believe that the laps led clinched the championship.

1997; Martin, finished third despite having a better average and more top tens than Gordon and Jarrett. Gordon won 10 races, Jarrett 7 and Martin 4. Jarrett led 2076 laps, Gordon 1647 and Martin 798. In the closest three-way battle in NASCAR history, the season seemed to be won with wins and laps led throughout the year and guts on the final day.

1985; Bill Elliott won 11 races, but lost the crown to Darrell Waltrip who won only 3.

In summary of what it takes to win a championship, the key is - the driver must know what it will take depending on the season. People may question if Dale Earnhardt would have won his 8th championship and he would have if Bobby Labonte didn't have a super season in 2000. In 2002, he probably would have outclassed the field and maybe 2004, due to the high average finishes of all the drivers those seasons. He would have battled his son, also in 2004. I believe the drivers should try to focus on finish average and not so much crashing going for the home runs. Why do you think Dale Earnhardt Sr. would have that smirkish grin after a third or fourth place finish. He knew what wins championships.

This year Jeff Gordon has that look. After 22 races he was averaging 6.3, compared to 1998 when he averaged 5.8 for the season, a mark set as one of the greatest seasons ever. Nowadays, due to the amount of competition it could be absurd to think that a driver could average anywhere near this and it is true. Gordon spun out with 2 laps to go while leading at Watkins Glen and this would have dropped his average to 6.1. But, his average is at 8.2 now the best of anyone since 2000. If it wasn't for a crash at Richmond in 1998 Gordon would have averaged 4.7 on the year.

Cale Yarborough finished in the top five in 70 of 90 races from 1977 to 1979 and he averaged 4.5 in 1977. Dale Earnhardt won 6 of the first 8 races in 1986, Gordon won 7 of 9 in 1998, Stewart won 5 of 7 in 2005 and Petty won 10 straight in 1967. A championship can be won with sheer dominance, strategy, laps led, races led, average finish or by a single lap. In 1992, the late Alan Kulwicki won the championship with one lap.