Points System, For Fans or Teams?

Fan Commentary by Grandstand Bob

Whenever a driver starts breaking away from the rest of the pack in the Winston Cup title chase, as Matt Kenseth has, the great debate over the points formula starts. Everyone, except Kenseth’s team and his fans, seems to be pondering ways to make the rest of the season more interesting, which brings up a very good question: should the Winston Cup title be structured to maximize fan entertainment or should it be designed to reward the team who has the best season?

As it stands now, the points system rewards teams for having remarkable seasons. To win a championship, a team must be nearly flawless for nearly 10 months over 36 races, and I said team, not driver. Mistakes in the shop back in Concord or on pit road are often every bit as costly as driver mistakes. A great driver doesn’t get very far without a complete team effort behind him.

Consistency is the most important factor in today’s points system. You don’t have to win a lot of races – in fact, you can win no races – and still win the championship. You just have to be a contender week after week. No one can argue that consistency is a very good indicator of a championship team; however, when consistency gets in the way of competition, then the attraction of the sport suffers.

Drivers are careful when they talk about “points racing,” because most fans don’t want to hear about it, but you can hardly blame a driver for being conservative when his points position is attractive. Maybe they follow the leader from third place, never really trying to win, just conceding ten points to someone lower in the standings. Maybe they pit a little earlier than others, not wanting to chance running out of gas in a bid for the win. Whatever the case, when your eyes are on the “big picture” of the Cup championship, a win isn’t all that important.

But racing is about winning. Almost all of the 43 drivers who take the green flag envision themselves in victory lane at the end of the race. There are some who know that they are good for only a few laps before “handling problems” send them to the garage, but that’s for a later column. These guys have a hard time holding back, but the Cup championship is pretty good motivation for conservative driving.

So, if we want to encourage drivers to be more aggressive, and the races to be more entertaining for fans, we need to change the points system to reward aggression and risk-taking. To do this would make every race like The Winston, where winning is the only prize, and that kind of drama would keep butts in seats until the checkered flag flew.

What sort of points system is capable of prompting this type of competition? Obviously, you have to put a premium on winning and a somewhat lesser premium on finishing among the top five. Currently, drivers earn 175 points for winning a race, while the second-place finisher takes home 170, and subsequent finishers finish with five fewer points than the driver ahead of them. Five points are awarded for leading a lap, and five more for leading the most laps. Thus, there is only a 50-point difference between first and tenth, and 25-point difference between first and fifth. To fire up the drivers, the points system would need to be reworked to award substantially more points to the highest finishers.

If we were to do this, I recommend awarding the winner 200 points, and second through fifth finishers, 150, 140, 130, 120 points, respectively. Sixth through twentieth could start at 110 and go down in five-point increments. All drivers would get 25 points for just starting. The race for the win would be inherently competitive, as a winning driver would stand to earn 50 more points than anyone else, but don’t forget about the race to finish in the top five or top twenty. Those big leaps in points would have drivers fighting for position all around the track.

Even more important, each week would be make-or-break, no matter a driver’s points position. If they wreck early in the race, they end up with 25 points. If the drivers behind them are within 100 points, they automatically lose positions. It would be possible to make up 175 points per race, making the championship wide-open throughout the year.

However attractive as this is for us fans, it probably isn’t fair for the teams competing. A broken camshaft and a pit road mistake should not destroy an entire season of running in the top five. I believe that the drivers are already competitive enough, wanting to win at least as badly as their fans want them to win. Thus, I favor leaving the system alone, unless of course, we can replace five points races with five “All-Star” events like The Winston, where we can watch our drivers run wide-open with no worry of points. What do you think Mr. France?

Grandstand Bob Profile and Past Columns

note: This opinions expressed in this column are those of writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of ARS Racing Outlet or its parent company, Beydler and Bell, LLC.