NASCAR's New Championship Structure, Good, Bad or What?

Life is change, growth is optional. Someone else said that long before I came along, but I love that statement, mostly.  And every year NASCAR embraces the part about change.  This year, there's been a lot of change.

There's the new qualifying rules and now there's the new Chase rules, which "we" did chat about almost two weeks ago.

Well, it's official.  Each race is going to be even more important, and bad luck will be even more evil than ever before.

NASCAR is going to make a few changes.

First up, they're allowing up to 16 drivers into the Chase.  It used to be 12.  And before that, 10, but Tony Stewart missed the field once, and they then upped it to 12.

A driver can get into the Chase by various methods and one of them is by winning a race.  This new aspect over-rules the process of having the most points.  If there are fewer than 16 drivers with wins, then points will settle out the field to 16.

This means that one can be the absolutely most consistently performing driver of the season, have 26 second place finishes, and not be rewarded for it.

This new focus on wins is designed to induce a tizzy about winning a race during the season.  Or, technically speaking NASCAR is putting the focus on winning.

And here's another new and interesting wrinkle.

After the Chase for the trophy commences, every three races, the field or contenders for the Championship will be reduced by 4 drivers.  I don't know about you, but adding 4 eligible drivers who will be getting eliminated in a few races seems moot.  But it should add some drama or excitement to talk about during this post season.

And then, after every few races of these final 10 of the year, we won't be playing the "mathematically possible" options any more.

To be honest though, most contenders who aren't in the top-five to begin with, usually aren't competitive.  Usually, I said.

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And then for me, here is the MOST DISAPPOINTING aspect of the entire process, because it's not about points in the last race, it's about who has the least amount of bad luck, which means someone could barely squeak into the final race and still win the championship:::

"Four Drivers, First-to-the-Finish Championship Finale

The 36th and final race of the season will be the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Simply stated, the highest finisher in that race among the remaining four eligible drivers will win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

Bonus points for laps led will not apply in the season finale, so the official finishing position alone will decide the champion."

Word is that some drivers are surprised and not so happy with the change,

I think the diagram leading off this article says it all, but I'll let the press release speak for itself.

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press release (after the page break):

NASCAR Gives Chevy BIGGER Advantage in New Manufacturer Points System

NASCAR Says They Improved The Manufacturer Points System

At the end of the first week of January, NASCAR announced a new and simpler points system for the Manufacturer Points system with the sport.  They declared that the newest system to score points for the manufacturers now is the same for all three series and the points awarded the manufactures mirrors the point system for owners points.

Winning nets a brand 43 points, while last place will get 1 point.  Wins get a bonus point for the brand.

Additionally,

"The single highest finisher for each manufacturer will receive one additional bonus point for leading a lap, and one additional bonus point for leading the most laps.

At the end of the season, if two or more manufacturers have the same number of points, the manufacturers’ championship will be awarded to the manufacturer with the greatest number of first-place finishes. If there is a tie in victories, the greatest number of second-place finishes, third-place finishes, etc. will break the tie. If a tie still remains, the manufacturer having the earliest win of the current season will prevail. "

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I can appreciate trying to simplify things for everyone, and I don't mean to be critical of NASCAR, but this looks like more of a bookkeeping simplicity for NASCAR and not the fans.

Before this "simpler" system came along for 2014, it used to be that the winning manufacturer of the race received 9 points.  The next placed logo, 6, the third placed logo, 4.  And that was that.

It seemed to be the simplest form of points winning there ever was.  Ha, what was I thinking!?

But now, they say that it is "simplifying it for fans, competition and the industry, while amplifying the already passionate rivalries between each auto maker."

Simpler?  Nah... Now you have to start balancing out who finished where and start tallying up points across the field.  Before, it was, hey, there goes 1 of the 30 Chevys!  That's 9 points.  Ah, a Toyota was right behind him. That's 6!  That means Ford gets 4!  You're done!

But no longer.

Now, we need our calculators or abacus' to figure out the entire field, then add it all up.  THIS IS NOT SIMPLER and in fact, this stacks the system in favor or the big money spender in NASCAR, Chevrolet.

Taking a look at the major teams, visually, the on-track odds of doing better are in Chevy's favor, if they're going to award points across the entire finishing field.

Looking back at 2013, Check it out:

CHEVY
Chip Ganassi Racing
Circle Sport
Furniture Row Racing
Germain Racing
Hendrick Motorsports
Hillman Racing
JTG Daugherty Racing
Phil Parsons Racing
Phoenix Racing
Richard Childress Racing
Stewart-Haas Racing
Tommy Baldwin Racing

FORD
Brian Keselowski Motorsports
Front Row Motorsports
Go FAS Racing
Leavine Family Racing
Randy Humphrey Racing
Richard Petty Motorsports
Roush Fenway Racing
Team Penske
Wood Brothers Racing

TOYOYA
BK Racing
Joe Gibbs Racing
Michael Waltrip Racing
NEMCO-Jay Robinson Racing
Swan Racing

Or breaking it down by full-time car/driver,
Chevy had 17 cars on the track, Ford, 12, Toyota: 10.

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This new system now will give Chevy the statistical edge here.  I mean, they always have had the edge, with  more cars on the track, available to cross the finish line first and thus clinch a "title."

Looking back, Chevy has won the last 11 seasons.  They've dominated because they have the help of having more rubber on the track than any other brand.  And having strong drivers behind their wheels.

Now, giving points to every finishing spot, will just buffer their chances every more.  Despite what NASCAR claims, about making the Manu Points Race more exciting.

To simplify how I'm looking at it, pretend you have a bag of balls.

If you were to award 1 point for the first ball to hit the ground in a pack of 50 balls thrown up in the air, and 40 of the balls are blue, then 8 red, 2 green, well, you do the probability of what color hits the ground first.

{Champ charting:  jayski.}

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Will The New NASCAR Points System Pay Out Again in 2012?

The 2011 Sprint Cup Series season had an incredible points finish.  But in all the hoopla, did anyone notice the other 10 or 11 top-10 spots in the points in all the different NASCAR National race series?

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Last year had some of the best racing in NASCAR that I've seen in a long time.  The race-starts were fun, the many restarts, though begrudged by many, were also fun.  And there were quite a few exciting finishes last year.  The only dark mark on the television viewing experience is what TV fans call the snoozer middle section of most races, yet overall it was a fun 2011 season.

One of the fun factors for the season was that NASCAR went to a new points system last year.  And I presume, the new system did the job it was intended to do and that's give fans a very exciting season ending fight, with what appeared to be tighter appearing point spreads.

And yes, the Sprint Cup Series season ended needing a tie-breaker.  Admittedly, the sleeping giant called Stewart-Haas Racing woke up and pile-drove to the front of the charts and that's what made it incredibly exciting.  They were the true star of this action-adventure points race.

But aside from that awesome media frenzy of fun, there was something that nagged at the back of my mind to the point of worry.

In the Nationwide Series, there was a 45-point difference between 1st and 2nd.  Then 117 point spread between the points leader and third place.

In the Camping World Truck Series, there was a 6-point difference between 1st and 2nd...  and 29 points between 1st and third.  (OK, that wasn't so bad.)

Points to Regular Season Leader?

NASCAR is considering creating a reward for the winner of the "regular season" in response to the huge points lead Jeff Gordon built before the Chase for the championship.

(Here we go again.. more adjustments.. Hello? We already had that and you added the Chase for the Cup!)

NASCAR chairman Brian France said earlier this week he is willing to explore the idea of rewarding the driver who is leading the points at the end of the 26th race of the season. Gordon built a lead of more than 300 points, but lost all of it when the field was reset this week for the Chase for the championship.

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said Friday that the sanctioning body will discuss the issue during the offseason. Among the ideas being kicked around are awarding additional bonus points to be used in the seeding, more prize money or a trophy different from the Nextel Cup.

(Is it me, or are they starting to go back to the old system for the first 26 weeks.. if they're not careful, it'll become a 16 week season with the Chase to the Chase to the cup!! When the chase started, the leaders were seeded as they were postitioned. Then this year they added the victory bonus to the chase. TAKE THE VICTORY BONUS AWAY FROM THE LAST 10 races and just give them MORE points for winning in the first 26 races, like everyone's been suggesting since the inception of this beast. That will reward winning, and then seed them as they used to be seeded. 'Nuff said.)

See the whold article at NASCAR