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Points system, part deux

A deeper look at how to fix the current points system

Posted: Monday July 14, 2003 4:41 PM

Last week's patented rant about the evils of the NASCAR points system brought a heavy response. Thanks to everyone who weighed in, especially those of you a) who formulated your own systems and/or b) didn't insult me. (See the questions section below.) I'd say the response was about 60/40 in favor of changing the system. The defenders of the status quo pointed out that the system rewards consistency, while those of you who agree with me had a bevy of reasons. (A lot of you pointed out the absurdity that occurs at least twice a year, including last Sunday, when the guy who finishes second leads the most laps and ends up with the same number of points -- 180 -- as the guy who wins.) To the people arguing that the system is fine as is because it rewards consistency, just allow me to say that I agree with you that consistency is very important -- but the system as it is places far too much emphasis on it.

With my handy spreadsheet, I did some number crunching. First off, let me say that a system in which Matt Kenseth isn't leading is flawed. The guy's average finish is 7.8. Last year Tony Stewart won with a 12.6. However, as I railed on at length about last week, he shouldn't have a lead so wide that no one can catch him. He's been good, but not that good.

So what must we consider in coming up with our own system? Let's make a list:

1. How many drivers get points? As it stands now, everyone gets points. This is my biggest pet peeve. The difference between a win and a 7th place finish is 29 points. The difference between a 33rd and a last-place finish is also 30 points. Clearly the difference between a win and a 7th should be far more significant. In the long run, who really cares is a driver finished 33rd or 43rd? But the two have equal impacts. So how deep into the field does our system go? Half isn't enough, and all is too many. So let's say two-thirds, or 29 drivers. That way, if someone hits the wall on lap 126, they won't go reconstruct their entire car out of Bondo, duct tape and an old sock (like the carbon monoxide filter they have to build from scratch in Apollo 13) and come out and turn laps. If you're 30th or worse, it's all the same.

2. What's the premium for a win? In Winston Cup, it's about 2.9 percent. Industry standard is 25 percent. (An F1 win is 10, second is eight; in CART, a win is 20, a second is 16; in IRL it's 50 and 40.) So we're going to be lemmings and copy everyone else. A win is worth 100, a second is worth 80.

3. What about lap leaders? Sorry. Only the driver leading the most laps should get a bonus. It's silly to give the same number of bonus points to a guy who leads 75 laps as a guy who leads one because he stays out for a lap when everyone else pits. On the other hand, I will give the pole winner a bonus. So much time is spent practicing for qualifying and actually qualifying, it should be worth something. Let's give the driver who leads the most laps five points and the pole winner two.

4. How do we dole out the points through the field? The system should, like the Winston Cup system, have a progressive gap (or regressive if you're going from the top down) between spots in the field. Here's what I've done: winner gets 100, runner-up gets 80. The next driver gets nine points fewer, and from there on, the gap decreases by one with every spot to ninth, meaning fourth is worth 63 (eight fewer than third), fifth is worth 56 (seven fewer than fourth) and so forth. Then when we hit ninth, it decreases by three down until 15th, when it starts decreasing by two. When we hit 20th, it decreases by one, meaning the 29th place finisher gets the last point. (It's sort of halfway between the CART and IRL systems, only with bigger numbers.)

What does all this mean? Well, wins are far more important. And every position in the front of the field becomes key. But we no longer differentiate between a bad day and a really bad day. (For instance, Junior lost more ground to Kenseth than Bobby Labonte did Sunday, because Labonte finished 36th and Junior was 38th. In my book, a pair of finishes that bad shouldn't be treated differently.) If you run the numbers with this year's standings, you don't see a huge change. Kenseth leads with 910 points, Labonte is second with 835, Earnhardt is third with 823 and Jeff Gordon is fourth with 820. So it's the same guys at the top, only spots two through four can catch Kenseth next week. They'd have to win to do it, but that seems fair. The rest of my top 10, with their NASCAR position in parens:

5. Kurt Busch 675 (9)
6. Ryan Newman 623 (16)
7. Michael Waltrip 607 (5)
8. Tony Stewart 595 (8)
9. Jimmie Johnson 572 (6)
10. Kevin Harvick 493 (7)

So there's not a major shakeup, but guys like Newman and Busch have been able to make up for a few bad results by winning races, which seems logical. Plus, you've got a handful of guys who can overtake the leader next week, but Kenseth can hang onto the lead with a decent finish. I like it. I trust many of you won't.

Tony Stewart. He's up to 8th, and as good as he is historically in the second half of the season, the guys in front of him might want to watch out. (He might also lobby NASCAR to adopt our little points system - it'd make his comeback easier.)

Bobby Labonte. I don't know that anyone has been caught up in more stuff that hasn't been their fault. He's cruising along, minding his own business, and the next thing you know he's on fire.

Dale Jarrett. This is getting weird. He's finished 30th or worse in seven of his last nine races. He can't be that bad. Can he?

Diamond Rio vs. Greg Zipadelli. Tony Stewart said of his crew chief: "My buddies from Diamond Rio (who sang the National Anthem) say they're the reason that we ran good today. They put the magic setup on the car, which Zippy neglected to do this morning, so we appreciate that." OK, he was clearly kidding. Slow week for feuds.

"I smell like a barbecue pit, but other than that I feel fine."
-- Bobby Labonte looks on the bright side after a rather scary wreck. .

Ken Schrader claims a quote that he is contemplating retirement was sort of taken out of context. He's the oldest Winston Cup driver, you know. I can see him retiring, but I can't see him not racing somewhere, even if it's in someone's yard.

Jerry Nadeau might make an appearance in New Hampshire. Before he gets back in a stock car he's going to start driving a go-kart for a few weeks. No word on when that might be.

Ok, this is my favorite thing of the week. Apparently Las Vegas Motor Speedway is looking for a mascot. Three other Speedway Motorsports tracks have mascots: Atlanta Motor Speedway has Monkey Wrench; Lowe's Motor has Lugnut; and Texas Motor Speedway has Sparky. So what should Vegas's be? I'd love to know what you think -- drop a line. Personally, I'm thinking either "Snappy, the $4.95 all-you-can-eat-buffet lobster," "Ted, the morally appalled pharmaceutical industry conventioneer from Tulsa", "Randy, the hormonally overloaded aspiring actor from L.A." (he'd be played by a big horned toad), or "Max, the maxed-out ATM card."

A busy week in the question department. (Thanks and keep them coming, by the way.) Several of you wrote in with your theories as to which McDonaldland character would be the best athlete. We'll examine this question next week. We also had an unusually high number of mean-spirited letters -- and for a change most of them did not come from my immediate family. One of you whose name I can't remember (I'm not inclined to look it up) from Vegas called me a "butthead" (and then another kind of "head" that we can't reprint here) because of the points rant. Apparently "butthead" passes for the kind of witty riposte that will earn you a seat at the Nevada Algonquin Roundtable. Clever. Another of you snarkily suggested someone who writes for a living ought to know that "aggressiveness" isn't a word, and that what I really meant to write was "aggression." Uh, no. "Aggressiveness" is most certainly a word. It doesn't have its own entry, but if you look up "aggressive" you'll see that "aggressiveness" is the noun form of the word. And it means something completely different than "aggression."

Among the many polite folks who wrote in, Ron from Columbus, with whom I've been having an ongoing debate over the merits of Bernie Kosar, checked back in. Actually, Ron, I agree with you on Pele. It's just that growing up as a Cleveland sports fan doesn't leave much opportunity for hero worship; trying to convince people that Miguel Dilone had one of the greatest seasons by a leadoff hitter in 1980 gets a little tiresome. (Look at the numbers, though. A .340 average and 60 steals. Come on.) So Bernie's always been my main man. But objectively, I can't argue with Pele, if for no other reason than he is credited with coining the phrase "beautiful game" to describe soccer.

Josh from Colorado Springs wants to know "With Greg Biffle getting his first NASCAR win last Saturday in the Pepsi 400, will he see more success in the future or will he be a one win wonder?" Tough call, Josh. Biffle's a great driver (his history in other series tells us that) in a great car, but these days there are a ton of guys like that. My gut tells me Biffle's going to stick around. But will he win another race this year? My gut tells me no. I think next year he'll be a top 15 lock and a top ten contender. (He's pushing the top 20 now and he missed a start earlier in the year before his provisionals kicked in.)

Next week we'll deal with McDonaldland characters and Vegas mascots.

Off to the much-maligned track in New Hampshire, which is constantly being repaved and coming apart at the seems and yielding wire-to-wire winners. (Well, maybe not constantly.) Said Stewart: "I mean, we don't know what's going to happen when we get there. There's going to be a Modified race before we get there, and I think they run Busch North this upcoming week too. So you never know what's going to happen until you get there and really get running and get into the race." Stewart always acts like he just gets in the car and drives, like he hates the planning aspect of things. If he does, this is right up his alley. So I'll take him.

Mark Bechtel covers NASCAR for Sports Illustrated and SI.com.
Click here to send him a question.

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