NASCAR's Point System Sucks
It's Time for a New System
Who out there that consider themselves true NASCAR fans likes the current point system? I know for sure that I am one of many that does not like this point system. It shows that hard work and winnging take second place to consistency and luck. With the rules that followed before or after the point system change, you can see that NASCAR has used the point system as a marketing tool, degrading the intergrity of the sport and its fans.
The point system as of today is outlined in the above graph.
Keep in mind that the above point system does not include bonuses, such as winning the pole, leading the most laps, leading a lap, etc. As you can see, the winner of the race only has a 10 point lead. Let's take a hypothetical situation and say that the second place finisher wins the pole, giving him 10 bonus points; leads the most laps, giving him 5 more bonus points; and since he lead a lap, he also receives 5 additional bonus points. That gives the second place driver a total of 190 points for finishing second.
This is just one example of how winning the race does not necessarily give the driver the most points. Even if the first place driver lead a lap, which, of course, he would have to, it would only give the first place finisher 185 points, still leaving the second place finisher with 190 points. As you can see, even if the first place driver were to win the race with all the bonuses added to the second place finisher, he still comes out second in the standings overall.
How does that make the drivers race to win? Exactly, it doesn't.
Now the most confusing part of this point system is that after the first 26 races, only the top ten drivers, or those within 400 points of the leader, are able to compete for the Championship. This means that if a driver is in 11th place with 401 points, he is completely out of the running for the Championship.
Then NASCAR resets the top ten drivers' points to where there is a 5 point difference from each place. If there are any drivers outside of the top ten yet they are within 400 points of the leader, their points are reset to five points below the tenth place driver.
See the above graph for an example.
So I ask once again, how does this current points system make the drivers race to win, not race for consistency?
It doesn't.
Since this new points system has come into play, the drivers have stopped racing to win races; they race to 'make it to the chase'. They race for the points and numbers, not the thrill of racing or winning. It has taken the fun out of the sport and replaced it with racing to get points.
Let's take this year for example. Who has the most wins? Kasey Kahne has 5 total wins, which puts him in 9th place. Okay, let's see who has the most pole positions? Kurt Busch, with five pole starts and one win, which puts him in 14th place-out of the Chase for the Championship. Now, let's see who has the most top five finishes. Matt Kenseth with a total of 13 top five finishes, which puts him in 3rd place.
So what does the above information tell you? That it is better to have MORE top five finishes then it is to have more wins. This just proves the point that it does not matter how many races you win in order to win the Championship.
In my opinion, the above graph needs to be used in order to have the drivers compete for a win and not points. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion. NASCAR is not likely to change the points system again for some time, though they value the opinion's of their fans.
As you can see, the new point system gives the most points to the winner of the race. Also, if the second place driver did receive all the bonuses, he could not have more points than the winner. It gives the drivers incentive to finish in first place but also not to finish in the bottom 30. I personally think that this points system is a far better set up than the current points system. You could either leave or remove the Chase for the Cup for the last ten races; it would not matter much if a driver was consistent enough to win the most races.
Published by Rian Wing
Hi! I'm Rian from Arschloch Web Design. I've owned this company for a little less than a year. I enjoy anything that has to do with technology. You can check out my page at www.proawd.com. View profile
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- 9 out of 10 times, the first place finisher never lead a lap.
- Most pole position winners do not win a race.
- If you are in 11th place & 401 points behind the leader, you are knocked out of the Championship.
9 Comments
Post a CommentMichelle, Robert didn't say NASCAR fans are unpatriotic or un-American. He was pointing out how ironic it seems that people who say they support the troops are the same people who cheer for wasting fuel. The connection he's drawing is the idea that if we didn't waste so much fuel maybe there wouldn't be a war. It's very easy to SAY you support the troops because the statement is pretty meaningless. If you asked people to make sacrifices like we did in WWII, you might find fewer people "supporting our troops".
I wholeheartedly agree that there should be more points for winning, and that drivers are racing just for points instead of a win. Bonus points are okay, but they do not currently award points for getting the pole.
Much agreed, Rian Wing. And right on, Michelle.
Robert, his article had nothing to do with economy, troops, fuel or anything else. The article was about the NASCAR point system. Had his article been about something other than that, perhaps your disagreement would hold weight. Are you aware of how much money NASCAR and individual drivers donate to causes? It's a sport, like any other, and just because you don't like the sport, doesn't make the article a bad one. I see no glaring typographical errors in this article, but one should read his own response(you have a couple of typos there)before casting stones about typos. Lastly, I would imagine that the pic is an AC formatting issue more than it is the author's issue. In the end, you are making a huge leap of logic that anyone who is a NASCAR fan must be either unpatriotic or un-American, slipperly slope logic at the very least. Take the article for what is was worth-an opinion piece for entertainment.
This argument, in my opinion, is simple opinion devoid of enough facts to make a good article. Your article also contains some typographical errors which take away the integrity of what you're writing. The picture you've provided is difficult to read even when enlarged. You might want to look into how the Nascar industry brings in billions of dollars a year for a sport that wastes valuable fuel and resources for cars that go in circles. On a recent NPR broadcast, a journalist brought to like the fact that the Nascar fan majority would say they support America and their troops, while they support such a wasteful sport. Those billions could go to researching new alternative fuels and fans could be putting those billions into another place other than wealthy men's pockets.
-Robert
Now, now. That wreck with Jr., Jimmie, and the other dumba** made me rather upset. You see, Jr. is the guy I like and well, let's just say the remote went flying across the room when that wreck happened. Though I do like watch other people get wrecked. Just not my guy.
Tiffany, that's why I watch it too - exactly!
I agree completely
Yep.