Fan's Eye View ~Just Because It Was First Doesn't Mean It Was Right11/20/2014 |
Fact: The 2014 NASCAR
Sprint Cup Championship was awarded under new rules and a new Championship
format. The old format under which so
many Championships were won and so many fans were familiar with was ditched
about ten years ago. Fact: I was hardly
ever a fan of the old Non-Chase Latford system, when a
driver, just
because he was consistent each week, could clinch a Championship with multiple
races remaining in the season. Dale
Earnhardt The Elder once showed up at Phoenix, with that
race and Atlanta still yet to be run, already in his Championship leather
jacket. Fact: The only time I
ever liked that early clinch scenario is when it was my favorite drivers who
were in that position. Fact: I was entertained this year, but then I love racing,
so I usually am…but it was something more this year. Yes, I get it. Some
of you might not like the Chase in its new and current format, and some of you
might not like it in its old format, and some of you might not like it at all,
and want to go back to the old Latford system. I wonder if the fans of NASCAR bellyached
when the Latford system was introduced… Yes, introduced. You
might or might not know, but that old 175 points for the winner and 170 for
second place and 165 for third place and so on, decreasing by 5 then 4 then 3
points until the last driver in the field of 43 ended up with 34 points…yes,
you have to remember. It’s the one we
used until Brian France and his Fun Loving Futility Flock in Florida decided it
was too difficult for us stupid racin’ fans to figure
out. Now we just count backwards from 43
until we get to one, and award some bonus points when deserved. So, anyway…want some background? If you believe the story there’s a place in Daytona Beach
called theBootHill Saloon…well, before we even get to
the old Boot Hill Saloon. In 1949, NASCAR’s point system was similar to what we have today;
except that it only paid points for the top ten finishers, and then it
multiplied those numbers by a percentage of the race purse. So, different races paid different amounts of
points, based on changes in the purse money.
If we did that today, the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 would be worth
so many more point that the other races.
How about Dale Earnhardt, Jr. earning close to 4,300,000 points for
winning the 2014 Daytona 500. A few
years later, NASCAR changed it. OH WHAT
HORRORS!!! The sanctioning body decided
that instead of the top ten getting in on all the action, it would expand the
point payouts to the top twenty-five. In the late 60’s, NASCAR did it again! They changed the rules! The winner of a race would get 50 points, and
the multiplier changed from purse money to the length of the race. So, now races would pay off different amounts
based on the points collected, multiplied by a piece of the distance. Those of you who
don’t like the Chase now, check this out.
1968… David Pearson and Richard Petty win the same number of races,
which were 16 each. The total distance of the races won by Petty was 2438
miles. The total distance of races won
by Pearson was 2689 for a difference of 251, and Petty even started one more
race. Petty didn’t even finish in second
place that year. He was third. What’s that?
Oh, so glad you asked. Bobby
Isaac was second. Isaac ran the same amount
of races, but won 13 fewer races than Petty.
Petty had four more top-five finishes, one less top-ten, 9 more poles,
607 fewer laps completed than Isaac, won almost $40,000.00 more, led 2858 laps
more than Isaac, and had 13 more lead lap finishes than Isaac. Isaac finished 126 points behind Pearson
while Petty was another 250 back. I’m
sure that was easy to follow in the days before Internet. That’s okay though.
In 1972, we had yet another system.
The points for each event were doubled, and then the number of laps led
by a driver was factored in as well.
Have your abacus ready? Don’t be
so fast to bring it out and waste time figuring out that system, because in
1974…you guessed it. New
system. Care to hear about this
one? This one was based on money won and
then was multiplied by the number of starts, and then divided by 1000. Here’s how the 2014 season would have finished if that was
still in play. 2014 Rank Driver Starts Money Won Multiplier 2014 Points 5 Brad Keselowski 36 $ 7,532,456.00 271,168,416 271,168.42 6 Jeff Gordon 36 $ 7,095,464.00 255,436,704 255,436.70 11 Jimmie Johnson 36 $ 6,849,944.00 246,597,984 246,597.98 1 Kevin Harvick 36 $ 6,780,006.00 244,080,216 244,080.22 4 Joey Logano 36 $ 6,666,324.00 239,987,664 239,987.66 7 Matt Kenseth 36 $ 6,356,898.00 228,848,328 228,848.33 10 Kyle Busch 36 $ 6,137,494.00 220,949,784 220,949.78 8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 36 $ 5,918,384.00 213,061,824 213,061.82 20 Austin Dillon 36 $ 5,395,854.00 194,250,744 194,250.74 14 Greg Biffle 36 $ 5,357,708.00 192,877,488 192,877.49 So, think about how those sponsorship dollars work, you know
where if Josh Wise finished 38th he gets $40,000.00, but if Kevin
Harvick finishes 39th, IN THE SAME RACE, he gets $138,000.00. A sponsor guaranteeing money to a driver
could probably have almost bought a Championship back then, I would think. And then…the Boot Hill Saloon. Through all of these points structure changes and convoluted
methods of addition and multiplication and division and Please My Dear Aunt
Sally, Big Bill France and new Series sponsor R.J. Reynolds said, “Slow down
there, cowpoke.” The drivers couldn’t
figure it out, the teams couldn’t figure it out, and the fans certainly
couldn’t figure it out. So, France
turned to Bob Latford, a public relations official who
had gone to school with his son, Bill Jr. Rumor, lore, myth…whatever it is, has it that Latford and his friends Phil Holmer
and Joe Whitlock sat in the Boothill Saloon and drew
up the system most of us were familiar with before the Chase was created. (Godwin Kelly stated in an article that this
wasn’t the whole truth, just part of it.
Latford had the bulk of the plan already drawn
up in his head, and they were working out the details on the napkins, such as
the bonus point structure.)
So, we ended up using that structure for thirty plus years
and when Winston had to roll out, so did that system. It seems it was created for them and ushered
out with them. Titles were won and lost
under this system by 10, 12, 18, and 26 points sometimes, while others it was
won by hundreds. Then we had the Chase
invented, blamed on Matt Kenseth winning a Championship and only one race,
clinching the title a week or so early. We rolled that little gem around for about ten years,
changing first the number of drivers allowed, then number of bonus points put
into escrow for a win, and then finally the points structure itself, from the Latford sliding scale to the one point reduction from first
to last. We applauded and booed each
week, and in the last week we did so even more, but hopefully with a little bit
of respect to the one who would go onto sit at the head table a few weeks
later, be it at the Waldorf Astoria in New York or in the shiny lovely sparkly
land of Las Vegas, because he was indeed the Champion of our sport, no matter
what method was used. Now, you can certainly say that Jeff Gordon should be the
rightful Champion since under the Latford decrease by
5 then 4 then 3 system, he scored the most points
during the season. Or you can say that
under the original Chase format, whether it was the Latford
system or the revamped France decrease by one method, since he scored more
points in the final ten races, Joey Logano is the rightful Champion. You can say that all you want, but the truth
is that under the recognized system, Kevin Harvick is the Champion and will be
until another is crowned next year, and he earned it because he performed the
best under the rules that were in play.
Now, please believe me that I have no doubts that in X number of years,
NASCAR will look at the structure again and decide that it either needs a tweak
or a complete overhaul, and maybe we will begin counting the number of laps
lead divided by the number of pit stops for hover fans and rocket fuel (it will
be the future), multiplied by the square root of the sum of the combined digits
of the driver’s birthday divided by the number of sunny days in the year. But whatever they choose, we as the fans are
going to have to deal with it until they decide to change it once more, and
then we will deal with it again.
Feel free to leave comments below, and be sure to follow me @RaceFansJim on Twitter, because sometimes I give stuff away!