So now we can officially announce the new point system. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignleft” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]NASCAR Chairman Brian France said the goal was to make the point system simpler. Mike Helton brought it down to the elementary level by saying, “now if you’re 10 points behind, you know you have to finish 11 points ahead of the guy in first to win the championship.”
Is this really different? The winner of a race gets 43 points, with each position below that getting one point less. That means second place is worth 42 points and third is 41 points, and so on. If a driver leads the most laps and finishes second he could score 44 points and the winner would get 46. Different? Well, in a way it is.
The devil is in the details. Drivers now get 3 points for winning a race, 1 point for leading the most laps, and 1 point for leading a lap. This means the most points any driver could achieve in a race would be 48 points. Ironically, that is the car number for current multi-championship driver Jimmie Johnson. Coincidence?
The Chase will be assembled different. The top 10 in points after Richmond in September will automatically be seeded in the Chase with each driver getting 2,000 points and 3 points for each win during the regular season, but there’s more. The final two positions, what France called “wild cards” (stick and ball envy, perhaps?). Winning drivers from position 11-20 in points would be rewarded with a place in the Chase. They will not get bonus points for their wins, however.
NASCAR President Mike Helton commented that the final two drivers would have their bonus by making the Chase. The best thing to call this is the Jamie McMurray rule. McMurray won the two biggest races last year, but failed to make the Chase, so now they’ve fixed that. I guess the powers that be thought it was worthwhile to once again change the system because of one driver.
It happened in 2003 when Matt Kenseth won the Championship with only one win. The Chase was formed. Many say that it happened again when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. couldn’t make the Chase—they increased the field. Now they’re doing it again. Or so it seems.
The real news was the change in qualifying. Qualifying order will now be based on practice speeds, with the slowest cars going first. I suppose this is supposed to create excitement in qualifying, but you and I know that the result will be the same. However, if qualifying is rained out, as happens so often, the starting field will be seeded based on those practice speeds. Go or go home teams will qualify separate from those in the top 35 (something they will never change. If practice is rained out, the field will be set on points as it has in the past.
So, what do I think? It’s much ado about nothing. I don’t know who these fan groups they say they base their decisions on are, but they don’t even resemble the fans I know. Most of them could care less about points, and are more interested in who wins the weekly race and how good the racing is. Yes, there has to be a championship of some sort, but as I’ve said over and over these last few years where they have emphasized the championship from the first race to the last, fans have lost interest. In the days where the race was important and the points weren’t a constant worry, NASCAR flourished.
One good thing came out of these changes. The problem with inclement weather on qualifying day has been addressed, and we should see fewer fields where the point leader starts on the pole (something fans gripe to me about all the time.
And we finally got Brian and Mike to admit that brand identity was important. I guess that the boys in Daytona Beach are trying, even as they continue to manufacture excitement instead of letting the racing speak for itself. Tonight they presented a PR film on just how good the racing was last year to the press. I can’t imagine Major League Baseball or the No Fun League doing this. But those sports are in a period of growth. Maybe that’s the difference.
