NASCAR hopes fans will embrace simplified points system

NASCAR hopes fans will embrace simplified points system


By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(January 26, 2011)

CHARLOTTE , N.C. —Under the mantra of simplification, NASCAR has made the first wholesale change to the points system that determines the champions in all of its series since the system developed by statistician Bob Latford was adopted in 1975.
"Going for the win, especially as we go to Bristol, Atlanta and on to Richmond (the final race before the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup), it's going to create even more excitement and drama," NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said in announcing a streamlined 1-to-43-point structure Wednesday night at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
In the new scheme, the winner of a race will receive a base of 43 points, with 42 points going to second, 41 to third on down to 1 point for 43rd place. A race winner also will accrue three bonus points for the victory. Bonus points also are available for leading a lap (one point) and leading the most laps (one point).
The new points system will govern NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series, as well as regional series.
France also announced a new "wild card" provision that will provide entry into the Chase. After 26 races, the top 10 drivers in the points standings will qualify for NASCAR's playoff, in addition to the two drivers in the top 20 in points who have scored the most victories in the first 26 races.
The top 10 drivers in points each will start the Chase with three bonus points for each victory. The wild cards will receive no bonus points and will start with a base of 2,000 points. That's a departure from the system in place in 2010, which featured a 5,000-point base and 10 points per win to start the Chase.
Penalties for rules infractions will be reduced relative to the new points system. Accordingly, 100-to-150-point penalties, which have been the norm for serious violations over the past few years, should be a thing of the past.
For Jimmie Johnson, who has won the last five Cup championships, the new system is just another variable—and not radically different from its predecessor.
"The same principals apply—I think it's really just to simplify our points systems," Johnson said Wednesday afternoon, drawing his conclusions from a Tuesday meeting between NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports, one in a succession of conclaves between the sanctioning body and its race teams. "I don't have a lot of concern—on top of the fact I was the one who thought the Chase was a crazy idea and didn't want to have anything to do with it, and here I've won five championships in the Chase. So I just kind of eliminate my thought process on that.
"They're going to do what's best for the sport in their eyes, and it's my job to find a way to win under whatever rules are there. I'm really trying not to get caught up in any of those types of changes."
Johnson said the new, simpler system could help "when the math gets tough to figure out."
"Mike Helton (NASCAR president) brought up a point (Tuesday) that if—at Homestead —we had a very compelling event taking place, and the points were constantly shuffling around, and unless you were watching on television to see the calculation on the top of the screen, you really didn't know what was going on.
"So if fans don't have a scanner on, and it's just a casual fan watching from the grandstands, they had no clue where the drama lay on the track. This would be a step in that direction, to help people know what's going on.
"I think, in general, our sport's good, and we're getting down to some smaller areas to make the experience better and better. This probably carries over into viewership at home in making it a little easier, but the way I took it yesterday—and how it was served up to us—was if the fan at the track is going to experience a race for the first time, they get it. There's an argument there that we need to capture those fans."