Posted on 01/27/2011 1:26:33 PM PST by alancarp
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR on Wednesday announced that it has added a wild-card element to setting the Chase for the Sprint Cup field and it has simplified its points system for 2011, making it easier for fans, competitors and the industry to understand.
While the 12-driver Chase field remains intact, the final two spots will be determined by the number of victories during the first 26 races.
The top 10 in points following Race No. 26 -- the "cutoff" race -- continue to earn Chase berths.
Positions 11 and 12 are "wild-card" qualifiers and will go to non-top-10-ranked drivers with the most victories, as long as they're ranked in the top 20 in points. The top 10 Chase drivers will continue to be seeded based on victories during the first 26 races, with each win worth three bonus points. The wild-card drivers will not receive bonus points for wins and will be seeded 11th and 12th, respectively. It's a move aimed toward rewarding winning and consistency during the regular season.
(Excerpt) Read more at nascar.com ...
1. You finish first and get 43 points. 2nd gets 42. Last gets 1 point. Interestingly enough, this lowers the penalty for not making a race at all.
2. Winners get a 3 point bonus.
3. Based on the article, I believe there is still a bonus for leading any lap (1 point) or leading the most laps (1 more point).
4. 12 drivers will compete for the Cup after race #26, but the top ten get in on points alone. Slots 11 and 12 are decided by number of races won, but only among drivers who are in positions 11-20 in points standings.
Other Changes for 2011:
1. Kyle Busch can't win multiple championships. He has to choose one series only. The Busch-whackers can still drive in other series', but you can only gain championship points in ONE chosen series. I presume you have to declare this up front.
2. Qualifying order is no longer based on lot draw. Slowest practice speed goes first; fastest last. That oughta make for some interesting strategies.
3. ONE FEWER SET OF TIRES. See article for details. This might matter a lot.
4. Closed loop fueling system - eliminates the "catch can man" over the wall, and thus reduces risk (6 crew members over the wall instead of seven).
A NASCAR list ping would be appreciated.
Coming Up!
Nascar at FR Ping!!
Coming soon to a track near you..
More Change!!! :-]
Wonder how long it’ll be before France dictates that the Smart Car, the Leaf and Chevy Volt are NASCAR eligible?
I am only semi kidding.
I honestly believe that NASCAR is becoming far too PC for me.
Should go back to the original system and make wins worth more points.
I sure miss EA Sports’ annual NASCAR video games. They were a great way to get a normally passive viewer like me to start following the sport.
The real question, would anything worth talking about have changed with this system in place for last year and the year before. My guess would be no, but that is just a guess. Unless someone down stream had some wins, and them the number 11 and 12 in points would have been very disappointed.
I;m a Ford guy & until Ford gets competitive again I ain’t watchin. I think the same Chevy guys winning over & over don’t help the sport.
That being said I don’t believe in making rules to make Ford competitive. Let them do it on their own.
I probably would have come up with a much more complex points system myself, though the simplicity of this is appealing.
In my view....
1. Since DNFs are often not your own fault, I would have to “mulligan” races available — if you race and complete at least 50 laps, you can throw out your 2 worst points days per year. That would also create some interesting scenarios coming in to Richmond.... or Homestead.
2. I’d give 1/100th of a point for every lap led. That gives credit for “domination”, which we know isn’t always rewarded at the end of the day.
3. That’s a start.
I guess I forgot to mention the ethanol fuel change this year. Weird.
For every lap 43 for 1st, 42 for 2nd...1 point minimum if you are still on the track.
This will put more emphasis on getting the setup right and give the fans racing for the entire race not just the last 50 laps. This will also reduce the start and park should points and $$$ be linked to each other. It would also increase the number of cars reentering the race rather than parking and licking their wounds.
Bud Shootout: FEB 12
Twin 150's (or whatever they're called this year): Feb. 17
DAYTONA 500: Feb 20.
I’m with ya on that.
I think I like the Formula 1 point system better.
The total points one can get for the win is .........................................wait for it.............................48
Let the conspiracy begin because JJ only uses this number for everything, he’s superstitious. :P
And, if you’re Jenna Fryer and you ask them to answer the questions about problems in the sport...............
She asked Question: This is a little bit of a follow up to David Newton. Not so much why you changed the points, but what else are you looking at? Because the list that the feedback we get, the list of things wrong with the sport is very, very long, and I know you’re not pleased with attendance, and I know you’re not pleased with television ratings, so what your plans and what are you looking at to attack some of those issues?
BF in his put down voice......Answer: There’s a positive start to the season.
(Laughter.)
Look. We’re very satisfied with the most important thing, the level of competition. Obviously we want to be trending up, not down, and television ratings we want to see the economy get better. We want to see a lot of things with attendance improve. Of course, we want to see the driver merchandise, the drivers become more popular, we want to see so we’re doing the things we also want to be good stewards of the responsibilities that we have, taking the sport in a smart, green direction, bringing technology forward to help our manufacturers and our young fans. We want to enjoy, consume NASCAR and different mediums in different ways.
So it’s easy to pull out one thing or another. And we’re 63 years old. Every sport is going to have periods where, for lots of reasons, you’re in a peak or a valley.
But over the long term we’re very confident that we’ve got the right partners, our collaboration with our teams, we’re setting ourselves up to work through any issues that we have, take the sport in a smart direction over many, many years and make sure the business models for all of the NASCAR community work properly. That’s an important thing.
And we’re going to have moments where you can select something that’s not going well. That’s fine. But we are on our course to deliver the most exciting racing in the world, and we’re going to get there. We are there on that.”
I think the points between first and second (JJ and Hamlin) with this scoring would have been 5 instead of 39 if I heard correctly. The sound was horrible on the streaming Nascar page as was SPEED>
No catch-can man. Bummer. I looked for them all day.
I would have come up with something more like CART’s point system up until about the mid-2000’s.
What if no one in positions 11-20 win a race? Unlikely I know but still. I guess number 11 and 12 based on points totals would go in?
You got it! We support no restrictor plate posting ! ;-]
WestCoastGal will be popping up race threads in just a couple weeks..
one less set of t’ars. Ouch.
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