In a move that left many drivers shaking their heads and purists angry, NASCAR announced sweeping changes to its championship points system Tuesday. The altered system, designed to inject more drama into the end of the season, changed the structure so radically that theoretically four of its last five champions wouldn’t have won under the new procedure.
On paper, Jimmie Johnson rather than Matt Kenseth would be reigning champion from 2003. Kurt Busch, not Tony Stewart, would have won the Winston Cup in ’02 and Sterling Marlin rather than Jeff Gordon would have been champion in ’01.
Only Bobby Labonte, the 2000 champion, would have won under either structure. And it would have been Labonte’s second straight title–with the new system, he would have beaten Dale Jarrett in 1999.
But this is all theory, in that drivers would have raced with different strategies to fit the new season criteria.
The biggest change is the enormous weight placed on the final 10 events of the 36-race season–such a difference that “It’s going to be a different era,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose late father won seven titles under the old system.
“This is almost 1971 all over again,” Earnhardt added, referring to the beginning of the “Modern Era,” when Winston came in as series sponsor and lifted NASCAR out of the backwaters.
Essentially, the new system will place the top 10 on almost equal footing, in a sort of cavalry charge down the stretch for this year’s inaugural Nextel Cup.
“This is not a playoff system,” NASCAR Chairman Brian France argued, even though regular-season point deficits will vanish for what NASCAR chooses to call the “Chase for the Championship” rather than “the playoffs.”
What France meant in denying a playoff structure is that there’ll be no elimination of teams. All drivers will continue competing through the final race of the season.
Officials have admitted for weeks that the changes are intended to enhance public attention during the fall, when NASCAR must compete with baseball playoffs and the NFL for TV ratings.
“This format change . . . is to grow exposure,” NASCAR President Mike Helton said.
The standings for 2003, the final Winston Cup season, would be considerably different under the new format, according to a model NASCAR statisticians developed.
Kenseth, the current champion, would have finished sixth in the standings, largely because of a mild slump late in the ’03 season. Johnson would have won based on the throwing out of some bad-luck races earlier in the season.
Ryan Newman, winner of the most races last year, eight, would have been third, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick. Then Kenseth, who won just once last year, would have been sixth.
Drivers and owners were largely less than enthusiastic about the change in a championship format that had been in place since 1975.
“I guess we’re not crowning a season-long champion anymore,” said team owner Ray Evernham, who as a crew chief directed Jeff Gordon to three of his first four Winston Cups. “We’ll be crowning a 10-race champion.”
Kenseth, understandably, also wasn’t happy with the changes.
“Honestly, it’s worse than I thought,” he said. “Because I at least felt if you had a 300-point lead going into the final 10 races, they might knock it down to 100 going in. But five points isn’t really that big of a deal, so I’m really not in favor of the change.
“I feel this is entertainment-driven, and it definitely is nothing like what it was when racing started for most of us. I understand the need to keep people interested and understand there has to be entertainment value, but from my vantage point as a competitor, I’m disappointed.”
Earnhardt seemed almost to be choking back criticism and trying to resign himself.
“I’m not in approval of it,” he said, “but once the decision is made, it doesn’t do anybody any good for me to go any further than that.”
But then he added, “The only thing, personally, that’s important to me is, if and when I win a championship, how is it going to be compared to the championships my father won? Is it the same, is it better, is it not as good?”
The statistical bunching for the stretch run will be difficult to swallow for teams that lose big points advantages built in the first two-thirds of the season, Evernham predicted.
“If you have a 100- or 200-point lead and it gets reduced to five points, that’s going to be tough,” Evernham said.
But track promoters love the plan.
“We’re in the entertainment business first, second, third, fourth, all the way through 10th priority, and I don’t even know what the 11th one is,” said H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Lowe’s October race will be right in the middle of the championship frenzy.
The new points system gives a major boost to Homestead-Miami Speedway because it is the last race of the season.
As usual in NASCAR, nothing is written in stone: “If we see [the new structure] isn’t right, we may adjust it,” Helton said.
New NASCAR points system vs. the old
NASCAR changed its scoring system for the first time since 1975 on Tuesday to set up a showdown for the championship over the season’s last 10 races. The new format will take effect after the first 26 races. The drivers in the top 10 and any others within 400 points of the leader will earn a berth. The first-place driver will begin the final 10 races with 5,050 points, the second driver 5,045, with incremental drops of five points for all those involved in the showdown. Matt Kenseth won the 2003 championship despite finishing first in just one race. Here’s a look at how different the points standings would have been in 2003 if the revised points system had been in place:
2003 standings
DRIVER W T-5 T-10
1. Matt Kenseth 1 11 25
2. Jimmie Johnson 3 14 20
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2 13 21
4. Jeff Gordon 3 15 20
5. Kevin Harvick 1 11 18
6. Ryan Newman 8 17 22
7. Tony Stewart 2 12 18
8. Bobby Labonte 2 12 17
9. Bill Elliott 1 9 12
10. Terry Labonte 1 4 9
New system
DRIVER W T-5 T-10
1. Jimmie Johnson 3 14 20
2. Jeff Gordon 3 15 20
3. Ryan Newman 8 17 22
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2 13 21
5. Kevin Harvick 1 11 18
6. Matt Kenseth 1 11 25
7. Bobby Labonte 2 12 17
8. Terry Labonte 1 4 9
9. Kurt Busch 4 9 14
10. Michael Waltrip 2 8 11
Out: Tony Stewart, 7th; Bill Elliott, 9th
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