Championships Revisited
Written by John Davison · February 7, 2007
We run this exercise in historical research annually. We’ve finally sat down long enough to calculate all the permutations of last year’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup championship. As we all know, Jimmie Johnson won the Cup with a well driven season, earning the crown before the final race. Who would have taken the crown last year, had a different point system been in place? Read the rest of this (admittedly long) historical report to find out.
(This was written as an exercise in historical research. Since then, we’ve tried to keep it updated. In light of past seasons’ somewhat controversial endings, especially where the 2004 championship is concerned, here’s the version for the year just ended.)
Lunch one Thursday was interesting. We met, as usual almost 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.
Veteran writer Jack Flowers suggested a 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.
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 method to name a champion is that under the system proposed, there’s no need for an injured driver to race. For example, Dale Earnhardt Jr could have sat 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 in the 2003 season, due to poor finishes in a couple of races.
Named for the late Bob Latford, who designed the NASCAR points system that worked so well for so long, 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, even ten races and still score more wins than anyone else. Would this detract from the Cup? Would the public (who are ultimately the buyers of 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 sat at the head table and collected the big checks 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 finishes but fewer wins 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 broadcasters and other media to feed on .
What would have happened in the past if the Latford Cup were the determining factor in NASCAR racing?
1949 and the 1950s:
In 1949, the first year for “Strictly Stock” (which evolved over the years into the formula car in a full body shell we have today,) Red Byron would still win over Lee Petty 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 brother Tim Flock and Herb Thomas with eight race wins to Tim’s seven. In 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 of eight.
No contest whatsoever in the ‘53 season, as Herb Thomas earned 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. 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 markers back.
1956 would see Buck Baker take the point championship and the Latford Cup with 13 wins. Speedy Thompson would place second under the Latford 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, 1959, would see Lee Petty with a big lead in points and wins. The Petty patriarch won 11 of his 42 starts that season while Rex White and Junior Johnson both scored five wins. For the 1960 season, 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 1960s:
The decade 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 system of the time gave the championship to Ned Jarrett with only one race victory. 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. Runner-up 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 point 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 scored: David Pearson took 15 checkers with 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 there’s 1967. Well, what can be said but “Richard Petty.” 27 wins, 6,000 points over Hylton (who is planning to attempt to qualify for this season’s Daytona 500!) 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-up finishes to Richard Petty’s six as both had equal victory totals. 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. Officially, James Hylton took third and Petty fourth.
The 1970s:
Richard Petty owned the 1971 Latford Cup 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 finishes to Yarborough’s 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, second in points that year. America’s Bicentennial Year, 1976, had David Pearson score ten victories over Cale Yarborough’s nine to win the Latford Cup. Pearson did this while 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 official points. The third of Yarborough’s three-straight point crowns came in 1978. His eight wins would earn him the Latford Cup again, over Darrell Waltrip’s six race victories while Bobby Allison would take second in official points or third in the Latford Cup. Darrell Waltrip broke Yarborough’s grip on the both the official championship and 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 finishing only fifth.
The 1980s:
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 scene played out 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.
The 1990s:
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 placer 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. Jeff Gordon is the 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.
2000, 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 2000s
The new Millennium dawned with Jeff Gordon taking six race wins over Dale Jarrett’s four in 2001. 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 2004 season saw another case of the dominant driver in wins losing out in points to a team with more consistent finishes. Jimmie Johnson repeated Ryan Newman’s total from 2003 of eight wins but Kurt Busch, playing a perfectly executed season with near perfect reliability, wound up with another Jack Roush driver at the head table in New York. Johnson ended the season in third place. In the 2005 season, Tony Stewart, newly refreshed after moving back to his hometown in Indiana, again played the point game to perfection as the season ended, grabbing his second big check at the Waldorf Astoria banquet. Stewart scored five popular wins in the year, punctuated by fence climbs that would make any Spiderman fan happy. Leading in wins and finishing behind Stewart with second place in points was Greg Biffle with one more victory than Stewart but slightly poorer luck over the entire season. Last year, 2006, saw Jimmie Johnson finally break his streak of bad luck in points, winning the official cup after the “Chase” with 6475 points over second place Kevin Harvick’s 6419. Interestingly, the driver with the greatest number of wins, Kasey Kahne, scored one more win than Johnson, Harvick and Tony Stewart, yet he placed only eighth in season-ending point standings, with 6183 points.
Results of the Latford Cup compared to the actual championship:
1949 Point Winner Red Byron Wins: 2
1950 Point Winner Bill Rexford Wins: 1
Latford Winner Curtis Turner Wins: 4
1951 Point Winner Herb Thomas Wins: 7
Latford Winner Fonty Flock Wins: 8
1952 Point Winner Tim Flock Wins: 8
Latford Winner Herb Thomas Wins: 8
1953 Point Winner Herb Thomas Wins: 12
1954 Point Winner Lee Petty Wins: 7
Latford Winner Herb Thomas Wins: 12
1955 Point Winner Tim Flock Wins: 18
1956 Point Winner Buck Baker Wins: 13
1957 Point Winner Buck Baker Wins: 11
1958 Point Winner Lee Petty Wins: 7
1959 Point Winner Lee Petty Wins: 11
1960 Point Winner Rex White Wins: 6
1961 Point Winner Ned Jarrett Wins: 1
Latford Winner Joe Weatherly Wins: 9
1962 Point Winner Joe Weatherly Wins: 9
1963 Point Winner Joe Weatherly Wins: 3
Latford Winner Richard Petty Wins: 14
1964 Point Winner Richard Petty Wins: 9
Latford Winner Ned Jarrett Wins: 15
1965 Point Winner Ned Jarrett Wins: 13
1966 Point Winner David Pearson Wins: 15
1967 Point Winner Richard Petty Wins: 27
1968 Point Winner David Pearson Wins: 16
1969 Point Winner David Pearson Wins: 11
Latford Winner Bobby Isaac Wins: 17
1970 Point Winner Bobby Isaac Wins: 11
Latford Winner Richard Petty Wins: 18
1971 Point Winner Richard Petty Wins: 21
1972 Point Winner Richard Petty Wins: 8
Latford Winner Bobby Allison Wins: 10
1973 Point Winner Benny Parsons Wins: 1
Latford Winner David Pearson Wins: 11
1974 Point Winner Richard Petty Wins: 10
1975 Point Winner Richard Petty Wins: 13
1976 Point Winner Cale Yarborough Wins: 9
Latford Winner David Pearson Wins: 10
1977 Point Winner Cale Yarborough Wins: 9
1978 Point Winner Cale Yarborough Wins: 10
1979 Point Winner Richard Petty Wins: 5
Latford Winner Darrell Waltrip Wins: 7
1980 Point Winner Dale Earnhardt Wins: 5
Latford Winner Cale Yarborough Wins: 6
1981 Point Winner Darrell Waltrip Wins: 12
1982 Point Winner Darrell Waltrip Wins: 12
1983 Point Winner Bobby Allison Wins: 6
Latford Winner Darrell Waltrip Wins: 6
1984 Point Winner Terry Labonte Wins: 2
Latford Winner Darrell Waltrip Wins: 7
1985 Point Winner Darrell Waltrip Wins: 3
Latford Winner Bill Elliott Wins: 11
1986 Point Winner Dale Earnhardt Wins: 5
Latford Winner Tim Richmond Wins: 7
1987 Point Winner Dale Earnhardt Wins: 11
1988 Point Winner Bill Elliott Wins: 6
1989 Point Winner Rusty Wallace Wins: 6
1990 Point Winner Dale Earnhardt Wins: 9
1991 Point Winner Dale Earnhardt Wins: 4
Latford Winner Harry Gant Wins: 5
1992 Point Winner Alan Kulwicki Wins: 2
Latford Winner Bill Elliott Wins: 5
1993 Point Winner Dale Earnhardt Wins: 6
Latford Winner Rusty Wallace Wins: 10
1994 Point Winner Dale Earnhardt Wins: 4
Latford Winner Rusty Wallace Wins: 8
1995 Point Winner Jeff Gordon Wins: 7
1996 Point Winner Terry Labonte Wins: 2
Latford Winner Jeff Gordon Wins: 10
1997 Point Winner Jeff Gordon Wins: 10
1998 Point Winner Jeff Gordon Wins: 13
1999 Point Winner Dale Jarrett Wins: 4
Latford Winner Jeff Gordon Wins: 7
2000 Point Winner Bobby Labonte Wins: 4
Latford Winner Tony Stewart Wins: 6
2001 Point Winner Jeff Gordon Wins: 6
2002 Point Winner Tony Stewart Wins: 3
Latford Winner Matt Kenseth Wins: 5
2003 Point Winner Matt Kenseth Wins: 1
Latford Winner Ryan Newman Wins: 8
2004 Point Winner Kurt Busch Wins: 3
Latford Winner Jimmie Johnson Wins: 8
2005 Point Winner Tony Stewart Wins: 5
Latford Winner Greg Biffle Wins: 6
2006 Point Winner Jimmie Johnson Wins: 5
Latford Winner.Kasey Kahne Wins: 6
It’s interesting that under the “Latford” system, Dale Earnhardt Sr would have only two championships in spite of his perceived domination of the sport. Cale Yarborough would have only one, Dale Jarrett none, Darrell Waltrip would have the same total (three) he does under the traditional system and Harry Gant would have won a championship. Jeff Gordon’t total would be only half his current four cups. NASCAR’s first three-time champion, Lee Petty, would have scored no championships while his son Richard would have only a pair instead of the seven he took. Rusty Wallace would have a pair of crowns, both coming well after his 1989 points win.
Point Winners Wins Latford Cup Winners Wins
Dale Earnhardt Sr: 7 Jeff Gordon: 6
Richard Petty: 7 Richard Petty: 6
Darrell Waltrip: 4 Darrell Waltrip: 5
Jeff Gordon: 4 David Pearson: 4
Cale Yarborough: 3 Bill Elliott: 3
David Pearson: 3 Cale Yarborough: 3
Lee Petty: 3 Herb Thomas: 3
Buck Baker: 2 Rusty Wallace: 3
Herb Thomas: 2 Buck Baker: 2
Joe Weatherly: 2 Dale Earnhardt Sr.: 2
Ned Jarrett: 2 Joe Weatherly: 2
Terry Labonte: 2 Lee Petty: 2
Tim Flock: 2 Ned Jarrett: 2
Tony Stewart: 2 Bobby Allison: 1
Alan Kulwicki: 1 Bobby Isaac: 1
Benny Parsons: 1 Curtis Turner: 1
Bill Elliott: 1 Fonty Flock: 1
Bill Rexford: 1 Harry Gant: 1
Bobby Isaac: 1 Matt Kenseth: 1
Bobby Labonte: 1 Red Byron: 1
Dale Jarrett: 1 Rex White: 1
Matt Kenseth: 1 Ryan Newman: 1
Red Byron: 1 Tim Flock: 1
Rex White: 1 Tim Richmond: 1
Rusty Wallace: 1 Tony Stewart: 1
Jimmie Johnson: 1 Kasey Kahne: 1
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