Fan's Eye View ~ The New NASCAR Point System?
1/15/2014
Jim Fitzgerald
There has been so much talk this week about change in NASCAR, and I agree completely that our sport should change when the time is right. But who am I to judge if the time is right or not? Oh that’s right, I’m a fan. As a fan I know what I want to see, and the fans should be the real rulers of this kingdom.
(Much applause!)
We already have the Court Jester in place.
(Polite laughter.)
So, recently the topic was how to make racing, well, racier. How can we get the drivers to race harder for wins? Should we incentivize them with more points or more money?
I’m not quite sure that is a possibility. I will choose not to believe you if you tell me that the driver in second place, or even third place, is not running as hard as he or she possibly can when the race is in the closing stages. With twenty laps to go in most cases, I’m pretty sure that anyone who can sniff the leader’s exhaust is pushing as hard as possible to close the gap and pick up as many spots as possible before the end of the race. Points are points, and you have to make hay while the sun shines. The drivers have to grab as many points as they can, and aside from the single point for leading a lap, those points are only awarded at the end of the race. The only thing awarding more points and more money would accomplish would be giving more points and more money to the driver who was going to win the race anyway. No, the end of the race is fine. It’s usually the middle of the race that is the point of contention when it comes to “Hey, this race is boring.” So, let’s focus on that. Would it be incentive enough to allow the drivers to score more points during the race itself?
Bong! Lightning strike!!
Let’s completely blow up the points, and when I say blow them up, I mean Blow. Them. Up.
The plan would be to have the leader of the race score a bonus point for every lap led. Yes, I know that means that some races will award more bonus points than others, 500 at Bristol versus 400 at Dover versus 300 at Loudon versus 188 at Talladega. If a driver leads every lap of a race at Bristol, and the race runs the full distance, the winner would get 500 bonus points for leading 500 laps. Then because that driver led the MOST laps as well, tack on another 100 point bonus.
So, does this mean then that the laps and lap bonus awards pay more points than the races?
The answer to that question is “absolutely not.” We’re going to blow those up as well.
Instead of giving 43 points for a win, we’re going to give 4300 points. Second place gets 4200, third gets 4100 and so on and so forth. Of course, the winner would get those extra bonus points as well for winning, so in today’s version, a “perfect day” of winning the race and leading the most laps nets a point total of 48. In the new version, that “perfect day” would score a total of 4800 points, PLUS any points score for leading any individual laps. At the end of the day, if a driver won a race at Bristol, while leading the most laps, and in fact led every lap, that driver would score…
Get ready for it…
5300 points. Let’s put that on the grand scale, then, and think about what that would mean for a season’s worth of races. If a driver won every race and led every lap in a standard season, without a Green-White-Checkered finish, that driver would score…
Get ready for it…
132,168 points. And then when you reset for The Chase, you bump the Chase drivers up to 200,000 points, and award the escrowed bonuses of 300 points each. In this case, our dominant driver would begin the first race of the Chase with a hefty point total of…
Get ready for it…
207,800 points. Totally ridiculous, right? I agree, and it’s okay, because it will probably never happen. I had to put “probably” in there, because, well, with NASCAR, you just never know.
In my humble opinion, NASCAR is barking up some trees lately, and though they may not be exactly to right tree, or our favorite tree, at least, at least they are willing to bark. So, while their emphasis is trying to make the overall racing product more attractive, I don’t think incentivizing (is that even a real word?) the drivers to race harder by money or point increases. The tree they should be barking up is the one they already are. The Car.
NASCAR, you’ve got a pretty racy buggy out there on the track now. The racing last year, in my opinion, was better than it was the previous year. Go, Gen Six!! It is a definite step in the right direction. But keep stepping. The answer is in the car. When you make it easier to pass, you’re going to get more passes, and when you get more passes, you’re going to get more lead changes. More lead changes among more drivers in more competitive cars equals fan satisfaction.
By the way, just because it was my idea, I wouldn’t mind
them going to my point system. Really,
the 2014 Champion should win with a total point count of 258,970. Or...
Get ready for it...
We could just keep working on the
car.
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