Notebook: Harvick will be test case for new points system

Notebook: Harvick will be test case for new points system


AVONDALE, Ariz.—Kevin Harvick is in a position he would have preferred to avoid.
With an engine failure and a 42nd-place finish in last Sunday’s Daytona 500, Harvick is a guinea pig for NASCAR’s new simplified scoring system.
Consensus is that the new format, which awards 43 base points for a win down to one point for 43rd, will penalize poor finishes more than the old system, which paid 185 points for a victory (exclusive of bonus points) and 34 points for last place.
The math supports that. Under the scoring system in place from 1975 through last year, last place earned 18.4 percent of the winner’s point total. Under the format adopted before the start of the 2011 season, last place gets a mere 2.3 percent of the race winner’s share, thereby widening the gap between the top and bottom of the scale.
How many races will it take Harvick to climb back to the top of the standings? Odds are it will take him longer than it would have last year. Fortunately for Harvick, the driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet had plenty of company at the back of the field at Daytona, as many of the drivers who typically populate the top 12 also had issues in the 500.
“The good thing for us is all the good cars had problems last week,” Harvick said. “I mean, there was maybe one or two guys that didn’t have problems. We’ve just got to do what we do on a week-to-week basis. I couldn’t even tell you who half the top 10 are. If you’re going to have a problem, last week was a good week to have it.”
Edwards takes the plunge in Las Vegas
Don’t tell Carl Edwards to go jump off a building—he just might do it.
Edwards, who isn’t averse to the occasional off-the-track adrenaline burst, jumped off the tower at Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower earlier this week, as part of a promotion for the March 6 Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Edwards had a harness for protection and a cable to slow him, but that didn’t make the driver of the No. 99 Roush Fenway Ford any less nervous as he stood on the platform ready to jump to a landing pad 108 stories below.
“When they first said, ‘Hey, you can jump off the Stratosphere,’ they showed me a video of it, and I thought, ‘OK, no big deal—you’re all strapped in,’ ” Edwards said Friday afternoon at Phoenix International Raceway, where he’ll race in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race. “It’s not like you’re free-falling or something, but when I was standing (up there), I was literally 50-50.
“If there weren’t all those cameras and stuff, I might have just said, ‘I think I’ll just go down the slow way.’ I did not want to jump off that thing. But it was one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever done, so it was really fun.”
Busch gets his thrills on the racetrack
Kyle Busch doesn’t jump off tall buildings like Edwards does.
Nor does he dive out of airplanes like Brian Vickers or brave the perils of street luge like Andy Lally.
“I’m not really an adrenaline junkie,” Busch said Saturday at PIR. “I think I get enough of my share, thanks. I have three races this weekend. I’m good. I’m plenty set. I don’t need my hair or my fingernails to grow any faster.”
Busch won Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at Phoenix and started from the pole in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race. He wraps up the weekend with the Sprint Cup race Sunday.
“Skydiving is not me,” he said. “I’ve never done skiing or snowboarding or anything like that. I don’t know if I’m not a fan of cold or too lazy to go get skis and go to a lift or whatever.”
Off the racetrack, Busch gets his thrills—not surprisingly—by driving something.
“Sand cars, there you go,” Busch said. “Going out to the desert, having fun out in the sand and jumping across areas of sand dunes.”
When it comes to that pursuit, Busch is still on the bunny slope—unlike off-road ace Robby Gordon.
“He’s nuts,” Busch said. “I can’t keep up with Robby Gordon—he’s crazy.”
By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(February 26, 2011)