NASCAR NEXTEL Cup 2004 - A Commentary
Written by John Davison · November 22, 2004
Well, it worked out once again that the guy with the most wins sits in the crowd while someone else is at the head table for the banquet.
The late NASCAR historian and designer of the old points system Bob Latford himself admitted that some things needed tweaking in the point system but right now he’s smiling at all the controversy that arose over the point system “failure” last year. He’s smiling at the apparent lack of controversy over a similar situation this year too.
All the attention this year was focused on the “Chase” and not on the relative records of the competing drivers. Just like last year, and several years earlier with other sanctioning bodies, Jack Roush’s teams played the rules to their best advantage. They might not have gone for race wins, but they chased after points with a relentless focus on the season’s end.
For two years running in NASCAR’s marquee series, Roush-owned teams have played the game to their own best advantage. Busch won only three races to Jimmie Johnson’s eight, Earnhardt’s six, and Jeff Gordon’s five. That’s right; THREE drivers in the “Wins” column beat Busch. He had only ten top fives finishes, to Johnson’s 20. Johnson edged out Busch in top tens as well, with 23 to the new champion’s 21.
The next column in NASCAR’s table of point standings tells the true tale however. Busch had only three DNFs (Did Not Finish) while Johnson had seven while both Gordon and Earnhardt had four.
Without the distraction of the “Chase,” this year might have been just as boring as last year, only with Jeff Gordon ahead on points as the season wound down. Somehow though, the only constant in NASCAR seems to be variability.
Next year’s season will be another season of changes. The biggest change so far announced appears to be the new two-day show for Cup teams at many events. Teams will arrive on Friday, unload and set up their garage space. Following a long practice session on Saturday morning, teams will qualify and NASCAR will impound the cars until the start of the race on Sunday. This will result in some drastic drops in qualifying speeds as teams concentrate on race setups without having to configure cars for qualifying and then for the race.
There’s also another reduction in rear spoiler height, the new rear gear rule and likely more changes I’ve forgotten or have sneaked in under the tent flap. In my memory, there haven’t been many seasons like the last two for frequency of rule changes. Some of these changes have been welcomed by all, such as the no racing back to the yellow. Yet, even the implementation of that rule left something to be desired. Instead of the simple, “everyone else does it this way, revert to the last green flag lap,” NASCAR decided to “freeze the field” at the time the yellow flew. That created some problems the first few times the rule was implemented, but things seem smoothed out now.
NASCAR, where one of the primary constants is change
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While not defending the Chase points setup (I still have reservations), many forget an old racing axiom that’s true at every level of the sport.
“You have to finish, to win.”
And lets face it with 36 events, and the possibility of adding more, gathering points like eggs on Easter morning will remain important.
The days of King Richard winning 25-30 races a year are long gone, the cars are too equal in performance.
Consistancy should count for a lot in such a long marathon as 26 races. But winning should also pay a premium.
My suggestion is for each race win a top ten driver collects, he should be awarded 3 bonus points at the time of reseeding for the final ten. It will make winning more important and provide drivers with a lock to make the top ten an incentive to keep racing right throught the full 26 race schedule.