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The ‘Bubba Cup’ (Amended)

Lunch Thursday was interesting. We met, as usual every week, at the local Lions’ Club for their cheap hot dogs. This gathering has included at times, Chris Economaki, drivers, crew, retired drivers and owners, journalists, etc. The weather and home crises cut into attendance this week but it was still an interesting group. Retired writer Jack Flowers had a suggested scheme to end all the controversy over points, drivers racing injured for points and the Playoffs, errr, Chase for the Championship. Flowers’ idea is that we simply rate the year-end standings based on number of wins. The driver with the most wins is the champion for that season. In case of a tie, then the number of second-place finishes breaks the tie. I’ve named the fictional trophy for the late Bob Latford, one of the men who helped to make NASCAR stock car racing the hugely popular sport it is today. Bob helped many a fledgling reporter, including this writer, get started in the sport and continued to be a friend and helper right to the end.

This suggestion is, of course, far too simple to be accepted by the powers that be. One problem with it is that it eliminates the huge public relations (propaganda) blitz leading up to the final ten races of the season. If the leading driver going into the final ten races of the year has only five wins, then it’s entirely possible (but very unlikely in the current drive for a level playing field) for someone else to overtake that number of wins.

Another advantage of this suggested way to name a champion is that under the system as proposed, there’s no need for a driver to race injured. For example, Dale Earnhardt Jr could sit out a couple of weeks to allow his burns to heal and still have a shot at more wins than any other driver in the field. Under the current system, if he misses a race, for any reason at all, he loses so many points that he’s likely out of the picture. The same thing happened to Ryan Newman last year, due to poor finishes in a couple of races.

The Latford Cup system would allow someone to sit out a race or two or three. If they still had a good enough season, it’s possible that a driver could miss five or ten races and still score more wins than anyone else. Would this detract from the Cup? Would the public (who are ultimately the customers for the product) notice, or complain if someone cherry-picked races, only ran about half the season, and still wound up as champion? Would sponsors, whether series, team or individual say anything negative if a driver did this?

Would NASCAR, or any other sanctioning body ever adopt “The Latford Cup” point scheme? Not very likely. It’s too simple and according to some, wouldn’t reward consistency. Well, it would still reward consistency. But it would eliminate the perceived problem from the 2003 season when the dominant driver, Ryan Newman, had eight wins but some poor finishes dropped him out of competition for the Cup while a supremely consistent Matt Kenseth earned all the marbles at season’s end.

Which driver is a more deserving champion? According to some comments, Newman should have been champion on the strength of his win total. According to others, and the point system, Kenseth’s season of good but fewer winning finishes rewarded him with a seat at the head table in New York.

Would anyone in power support such a simple, uncomplicated method of determining a champion? Nope. Not on your life! There’s not enough “drama” in it for the broadcast networks to feed on.

What would have happened in the past if the Latford Cup were the determining factor in NASCAR racing? In 1949, Red Byron would still win over Lee Petty but with only two victories in an eight-race season. The next year, Curtis Turner would have won with four victories over Dick Linder’s three. Bill Rexford won the championship that year with only one victory out of 17 starts. In 1951, Fonty Flock would have beat out Herb Thomas and brother Tim with eight race wins to Tim’s seven. On the points of that season, Thomas beat out Fonty by 146 points. The next year, Tim Flock turned the tables on Thomas and Lee Petty, winning on points but not on victories. Thomas had eight wins and seven runner-up finishes to Flock’s five runner-up finishes and similar win total.

No contest whatsoever in the ‘53 season, as Herb Thomas had 12 checkers, over twice as many as next runners Dick Rathman and Lee Petty. Thomas beat out Petty by over 600 points in that season. He smoked Petty again in 1954 with another dozen wins to Petty’s seven on his way to finishing second on points to Petty, some 283 points behind Petty. The 1955 season was a runaway for Tim Flock with 18 wins, triple Lee Petty’s six. Buck Baker was second in points to Flock, over 1500 points back.

1956 would see Buck Baker take the point championship and the Latford Cup with 13 wins. Speedy Thompson would run second under the Flowers system with eight wins. Baker repeated in ‘57 and would easily win the Latford Cup at 11 wins over Fireball Roberts’ eight wins. Lee Petty returned to the point lead in 1958 and would win the theoretical Latford Cup with seven wins over the six scored by both Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson. The next year would see Lee Petty with a big lead in points and wins. The patriarch of the Petty family won 11 of his 42 starts that season while Rex White and Junior Johnson both scored five wins. Rex White closed out the decade by winning six races out of 40 starts with a cushion of nearly 4,000 points over Richard Petty but one win more than both Lee Petty and Ned Jarrett.

The decade of the 60s would start with a big change. Joe Weatherly would win the Latford Cup for 1961 with nine wins over the seven for Junior Johnson and Rex White. The points at the time gave the championship to Ned Jarrett with only one win. Rex White was second in points and Weatherly only fourth. Weatherly would have won in ‘62 as well with nine wins over eight scored by Richard Petty and Rex White. Weatherly won on points that year as well with nearly 2,400 points more than Richard Petty. Petty would have trounced the opposition in the Latford Cup for 1963 with 14 victories. Next place would have gone to Ned Jarrett and third to Junior Johnson, who finished only twelfth in points. Joe Weatherly easily won on points that year, at over 2200 points ahead of Petty. 1964, the first year of Richard Petty’s points crowns, would have him second to Ned Jarrett in the Latford Cup with only nine wins to Jarrett’s fifteen. But he scored over 5,000 points more than Jarrett under the system in use that year. David Pearson and Fred Lorenzen both won eight races that year. 1965 would be another close one in the Latford Cup. Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson both scored 13 wins but Jarrett wins on the tie-breaker. Jarrett won on points too, beating out Dick Hutcherson by over 3,000 markers. “Hutch” would have placed third in the Latford Cup. 1966 is no contest, no matter how it’s scored. David Pearson took 15 checkers and just under 2,000 points over James Hylton. Richard Petty would run second in the Latford Cup with eight wins on his way to third in the point scheme of the day. And then 1967. Well, what can be said? Richard Petty. 27 wins, 6,000 points over Hylton. Second place in the Latford Cup would be Bobby Allison with only six wins out of the 49 races contested that season. Then in 1968, David Pearson turned the system to his advantage. Both Pearson and Petty had 16 wins but Pearson won the points crown that year and would win the Latford Cup with 13 runner-ups to Richard Petty’s six as both had 16 victories. Bobby Isaac took second in points over Petty but Cale Yarborough would have scored third in the Latford Cup with six wins. He placed only 17th in points. Bobby Isaac would leapfrog from sixth in the points for 1969 to the Latford Cup championship with 17 wins over David Pearson’s 11 and Richard Petty’s ten. Pearson won on points that season, over Petty and Hylton. Isaac only scored a sixth-place finish on points. The last year of the decade, 1970 Latford Cup belongs to Richard Petty with 18 wins, seven more than Bobby Isaac. In spite of this, Isaac won the point championship by 51 points over Bobby Allison, who had only three wins. James Hylton took third and Petty fourth.

Richard Petty owned Latford Cup 1971 as well, first under the checkered flag 21 times, a full ten ahead of Bobby Allison. Allison finished fourth in the official points that year, with Hylton taking second again and Cecil Gordon third. Bobby Allison would have won the Latford Cup in 1972, taking ten victories over Richard Petty’s eight. The official points table shows Petty ahead of Allison by 127.9 points. (Don’t ask, nobody understood the points in those days.) David Pearson, running only 17 of the season’s 31 events, would have been third in the Latford Cup with six wins. 1973 was the season of one of the most dramatic point finishes ever, with Benny Parsons taking the championship at the last race as his team repaired a badly damaged car and sent him back on the track at Rockingham’s season-closer. David Pearson would have won the Latford Cup in ‘73 with 11 races won over Richard Petty’s six. Pearson contested only 18 of the races that year and wound up 13th in points. Petty was fifth in points at the end of the season. 1974 would almost be a dead-heat between Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough as both claimed 10 victories. Petty had eight runner-up four, giving “The King” another crown. 1975 belonged to Richard Petty, no matter how it’s scored. He had 13 wins to Buddy Baker’s four and scored 722 points more than Dave Marcis. The Bicentennial Year, 1976, had David Pearson score ten victories over Cale Yarborough’s nine to win the Latford Cup. Pearson did this running only 22 of the 30 races that year. Cale Yarborough took the points crown, followed by Richard Petty, 195 points back. Pearson finished ninth in points. Yarborough won his second NASCAR championship in 1977, taking nine race wins on his way to a 386-point margin over Richard Petty. Darrell Waltrip won six races that year to take second in the Latford Cup championship while finishing fourth in the points. The third of Yarborough’s three-straight points crowns came in 1978. His eight wins would earn him the Latford Cup again, over Darrell Waltrip’s six race victories. Bobby Allison would take second in the points chase or third in the Latford Cup. Darrell Waltrip broke Yarborough’s grip on the Latford Cup in 1979 with seven wins while both Richard Petty, the eventual points champion, and Bobby Allison had five race wins. Allison’s eight runner-up finishes gave him the bridesmaid position to Petty’s seven second-place finishes. Cale Yarborough would have taken the 1980 Latford Cup over Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip with six race wins over the five wins they earned. Earnhardt won the points contest over Yarborough, with Waltrip only finishing fifth.

Darrell Waltrip won the points crown in 1981 and would have easily taken the Latford Cup laurels that season as well. He claimed a dozen race wins, over the five scored by second in points Bobby Allison. 1982 saw Allison close the gap on Waltrip somewhat, earning eight race wins but still fell short in both wins and points to Waltrip who had 12 wins that season. 1983 would be another close season with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip both scoring a half dozen victories. Waltrip had eight second-place finishes, ] bumping him ahead of season points champion Allison who had five runner-up slots. In the race for the Latford Cup in 1984, Darrell Waltrip had over twice the wins of any other driver, with seven. Bill Elliott, Harry Gant, Geoffrey Bodine and Cale Yarborough all had three each. Terry Labonte, that year’s champion by 65 points, had only two race wins. Waltrip placed fifth in points. 1985 was Bill Elliott’s year, at least in races won. The Georgia redhead scored 11 wins, well ahead of Dale Earnhardt’s four. In spite of that, Darrell Waltrip, with only three wins, took the points crown by 101 points over Elliott’s total. Tim Richmond, capable of better car control than an entire field of other drivers, (he was the one sent out by NASCAR to test a track after a rainstorm) earned the 1986 Latford Cup with seven wins over Dale Earnhardt’s five. Earnhardt played the points game better than anyone else that year, earning his first points crown, beating out Waltrip by almost 300 points and another six ahead of Richmond. Earnhardt dominated the next year, 1987, with 11 wins over Bill Elliott’s six. The point totals were similar, with Earnhardt 489 points ahead of Elliott and season’s end. 1988 was another close year, with both Rusty Wallace and Bill Elliott taking home six race trophies. Again, too close to call on the tie-breaker with the information readily at hand, but Wallace had 19 top fives to Elliott’s 15. We’ll have to keep checking. The same story played in 1989 with Wallace and Darrell Waltrip both scoring six wins again. Waltrip scored a pair of runner-up finishes to lose out to Wallace’s four. 1990 was no contest. Dale Earnhardt scored triple the wins of anyone else that year with nine to the trio scored by both Geoffrey Bodine and Mark Martin. He also pipped Martin for the official points crown by only 26 points.

1991 saw Dale Earnhardt take the points crown yet again but only four wins. Davey Allison and Harry Gant both had five wins each with Gant claiming three third place finishes to Allison’s pair after both scored a pair of seconds. The next year was even closer, with the younger Allison also featuring in both the points and race totals. Allison and Bill Elliott both scored five wins while Allison had only one runner-up to Elliott’s pair, giving Elliott the Latford Cup for the year. Alan Kulwicki took the championship officially that year, clinching at the last race of the year, beating Elliott by only ten points and Allison by 63. Latford Cup 1993 easily goes to Rusty Wallace with ten wins to official champion Dale Earnhardt’s six. Earnhardt beat Wallace’s point total by 80 markers. Rusty Wallace takes another Latford Cup home for the 1994 season with twice as many wins as next place Dale Earnhardt. Wallace’s eight wins came along with 17 top fives. Earnhardt took the point crown that year by 444 points over Mark Martin. The first of Jeff Gordon’s point championships came in 1995, along with his first Latford Cup. Gordon had 7 victories over Dale Earnhardt’s five and 34 points more than Earnhardt. Gordon “won” the Latford Cup again in 1996 with ten wins, twice as many as next man Rusty Wallace. Terry Labonte won the points chase with only two wins while Wallace finished in seventh. Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett finish one-two in 1997 regardless of how the season is scored. Gordon had ten wins to Jarrett’s seven that year. 1998 was all Jeff Gordon again, as he claimed 13 wins over Mark Martin’s seven. They finished one-two in the points chase also. Gordon is winner of the 1999 Latford Cup championship trophy with seven race trophies against Jeff Burton’s six and Bobby Labonte’s five. In spite of this, Dale Jarrett took the official crown over Bobby Labonte with Gordon finishing the season sixth and Burton fifth. The final year of the Millennium had Tony Stewart take six checkered flags over Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton and Rusty Wallace who each scored four wins but Burton won the Latford Cup on five second-place finishes over Labonte’s four and Wallace’s one. According to the official points totals, Bobby Labonte won the championship over Dale Earnhardt. Stewart finished only sixth in points.

The new Millennium dawned with Jeff Gordon taking six race wins over Dale Jarrett’s four, Gordon earned the points championship as well, beating out Tony Stewart. Jarrett finished fifth in points. Current point champion Matt Kenseth eased ahead of the field in 2002 with five wins, one ahead of Kurt Busch’s total. In spite of that, Tony Stewart, with only three wins, took the official championship. Everyone knows that Ryan Newman doubled Kurt Busch’s win total in 2003, at eight to four but in spite of this, Matt Kenseth took the points crown with only a single win while Newman finished sixth in points.

The results of all this make for good conversations but really don’t change anything. It’s an intellectual exercise, much like the old chats about changing NASCAR’s points system to the Formula One system or some other means of determining the championship. Have fun with it.

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