What are your thoughts on...?

Question

Jeff Gordon being 317 pts ahead ( i think) and now he has to start with 5000 like the rest...been on top in the points for the last 21 weeks and now he's in 2nd...doesnt make much sense to me...It sucks to be exact!?

Dont you think he should be recognized or get something for being 1st in the points when it the chase starts?

Answer 1

Yeah, I think the points leader after the first 26 races should get a 25 or 50 points bonus. In all 'playoff' systems, the team with the best record always gets some kind of advantage. Usually a bye-week and home field advantage. Since neither of those are possible in racing, a points bonus would make sense.

Answer 2

Yes it does suck!!!! But Jeff is not crying or whining about it Most Gordon haters should realize this!!! But Nascar has already changed it so much that Jeff has lost out on his 5th Championship. He should be well on his way to the 6th this year!!!! The point system was good enough for years--good enough for Petty and Earnhardt Sr. they should have left it alone!!!! Baseball- Basketball-NFL added some wild card teams several years back but the didnt change things every few years to help the fan base!!!

Answer 3

Each driver and car owner knows at the beginning of the season that it doesn't matter if you have a 300 + or a 25 points lead after 26 races the slate is wiped clean.

However Nascar should reward the driver that is leading the points at the end of the regular season nothing like a trophy Nascar should put a monetary value to it.

This would give all of the drivers and team owners more incentives to win not to mention this would defiantly make for better racing. Essentially you would have 2 seasons in one.

Answer 4

I really don't have a problem with it. If you look at other sports, we've seen many, many times where a low-seeded or "wild card" team won it all by getting hot at the right time.
I'm a huge Gordon fan, but if he's that good- he'll get it done over the last 10 races.
You NBA fans will remember when 8th conference seed Denver knocked out #1 seed Seattle in the 1st round of the playoffs. Wild cards have won Super Bowls.

Answer 5

Last year people said the race winners are not getting enough points for winning. Now people are saying there needs to be points for consistancy.

Most championships (Stick and ball), everyone starts at zero.

I like the idea for the Chase. Otherwise, who cares about the championship, other than is Jeff going to blow up and Tony gets closer, but will probably not win. Look at the Busch Series.

Answer 6

Brian France is exploring the idea of rewarding the winner of the first 26 races next year with maybe money and a trophy. Seems he may be realizing how ridiculous the current system is.

http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/09/14/chase.tweaks.possible.ap/index.html

Answer 7

Here's the thing. For more than twenty years some fans and drivers had been suggesting that more emphasis should be placed on winning to determine a champion.

Now winning, judging by some of the posts here, seems to carry too much weight!

I thought that was what y'all wanted.

Consistency or winning; what shall it be?

Personally, I prefer consistency.

Maybe NASCAR should try and mollify both camps by keeping the 10-point bonus for wins and instituting a 10-point penalty for DNF's to set the field for the Chase.

Or, maybe seed the Chase racer's according to average finish through the first 26 and during the Chase awarding points to the Chasers for finishing in the Top Ten only with the winner or highest finishing Chaser getting 10 points, the second highest Chaser getting 5 points and the third highest Chaser getting 3 points. Everybody else in the Chase gets nothing but the prize money for their finish.

In 2007 during the first 26, Johnson had the most wins with 6, followed by Gordon with 4 wins. Johnson had 4 DNF's to Gordon's one DNF. Using the aforementioned seeding suggestion, Gordon would still be on top with 5030 points (avg. finish 8.2) and Johnson (avg finish 13.0) would be in second with 5020 points.

Harvick: 1 win, 0 DNF's 3rd with 5010. (avg. finish 15.5)
Stewart: 3 wins, 3 DNF's 4th with 5000 (12.3)
Hamlin: 1 win, 1 DNF 5th with 5000 (12.9)
Edwards: 2 wins, 2 DNF's 6th with 5000 (14.8)
Bowyer: 0 wins, 0 DNF's 7th with 5000 (17.7)
Kyle B.: 1 win, 1 DNF 8th with 5000 (18.1)
Kenseth: 1 win, 2 DNF's 9th with 4990 (14.8
Truex: 1 win, 2 DNF's 10th with 4990 (15.7)
Burton: 1 win, 2 DNF's 11th with 4990 (16.2)
Kurt B. : 1 win, 2 DNF's 12th with 4990 (17.4)


Just a thought and tweaking, of course, may be needed but I don't see how this structure could fail to deliver good racing through the final 10.

Further food for thought. Dale had 6 DNF's but still managed an average finish of 17.0, better than 3 racers in the Chase, through the first 26 races. Based on some people's opinion of Junior, the Chase has 3 bigger losers than Junior.

Throw out the 6 DNF's and Dale's average finish is 8.73 in twenty races. That, my friends, is Championship worthy. Figuring that in most of those DNF's where his engine failed, he was in the top ten, if his engine had held up, his average finish would have been no worse than Johnson's.

I submit that if Dale had HMS engines this year, he would be atop the standings or no worse than 3rd and the heavy favorite to take it all.

All other things remaining the same, he more than likely would have c-o-n-s-i-s-t-e-n-t-l-y gotten a great finish.

Few can argue that Dale may ever get the best engines at HMS and no one can argue that the worst HMS engine is better than DEI’s best. HMS only lost one engine across 4 teams in 26 races, while DEI lost 8 across 3 teams.

For those who believe it is a racer’s responsibility to race within the limits of his engine, I have a different opinion. It is the engine builder’s responsibility to build an engine that does what it’s supposed to do. Endure.

Case in point: Junior Johnson was possibly the best engine builder and blower ever in NASCAR. Cale Yarborough was perhaps 2nd all time in the engines blown "hall of flame". However Junior Johnson's engines lasted well enough for Yarborough to win 3 straight Cups. Yarborough lost 9 engines in 1975, his first year with Johnson. In 1976, he lost 3 engines, had 9 wins with an average finish of 8.2 and won his first Cup.

A year later, 1977, he lost 0 engines, had no DNF's at all, won 9 times and had 25 top 5's, 27 top 10's in 30 races for an average finish of 4.5, getting Cup #2.

One engine was lost in 1978. He had 2 DNF's, 10 wins, 23 top 5's, 24 top 10's in 30 races, averaged a finish of 6.0 for his 3rd Cup in a row.

I'd say the engine builder, Johnson, figured out how to keep Yarborough from destroying his engines because Cale always raced WFO.

If Dale wants to race WFO, I'd hire Junior Johnson as an engine "consultant".

Answer 8

The most consistent driver in NASCAR ends up penalized and ends up in 2 nd place.
Time for honest and consistent points and championship.

Answer 9

I think it's actually pretty fair. If he was in first place, he doesn't even have to come in the top 5 in order to be champion. Just like other sports, the playoffs is a fresh start, a time when anything can happen,

Answer 10

I think that NASCAR is going to tweak the system so badly
to make money that they'll finally break it and nobody will
watch in anymore.