Halfway bonus is back

T

The_Mad_Hatter

Guest
I always liked that in the past, thought it was cool idea. Glad it's back.

From Jayski:

New Mid-Race Award: A race's halfway point means the race is "official." But this season in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, halfway has added significance. A new contingency program called the "MBNA Mid-Race Leader" award pays the mid-race leader (provided he is participating in the program) $10,000. In addition, if the Mid-Race Leader Award winner goes on to win the race he gets a $5,000 bonus “ or maybe, more. If the bonus isn't collected, it rolls over to the next week's event; thus, at Atlanta, the bonus will be worth $15,000. After three races this season, there have been three different MBNA Mid-Race Leader Award winners: #15-Michael Waltrip, #2-Rusty Wallace and #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr.(NASCAR PR), no word on if a driver gets the award if the halfway is under yellow at the time or if the award is given out if the lead is not participating in the program and if it would go to the next place car at the time.(3-6-2003)
 
In the past it did not matter whether halfway fell under caution or not and I would not think it would matter now. The driver leading at halfway can hardly control what may have happened a few laps before, he was just good enough or smart enough to be the one to cross the line at that halfway point. Years ago I recall a few times that drivers intentionally stayed out for mid race cautions to collect that bonus, with the level of competition stepped up as much as it is now I dont know if a driver would take that chance of not pitting with the rest of the field just to get the bonus. I love anything that adds another level of strategy to the racing.

As far as participating goes, I would guess that would just involve a sticker on the car. Easy enough unless one of your sponsors or associate sponsors is a competitor to MBNA.

Kel
 
Yeah, I doubt if $10,000 means as much to teams today as it did a decade ago. But it's one more thing to compete for.
 
Hey 10 grand is 10 grand.

It is very likely, make that certain, that if a mid pack or worse team is given the chance to not pit with the leaders and hold the lead til midpoint under caution and only sacrifice track postion they never had anyway, they will go for it.

Teams now will not pit initially just to get the 5 bonus points for leading a lap.

And I don't think that whether halfway falls under caution should make any difference. But I am a little surprised that if the award has been in effect all season, which it seems it has, Jayski with all his alleged sources could not find that out. I wonder about that boy sometimes.
 
They do this to increase competition at the mid point of the race. What they oughta do is give 5 points for leading that lap. We'd see some competition then.
 
Thats cool I like dthat idea. It made for good racing at the mid point of the race for the money!! Is there a list of the drivers that are in this program??
 
Originally posted by TN-Ward-Fan@Mar 6 2003, 01:23 PM
They do this to increase competition at the mid point of the race. What they oughta do is give 5 points for leading that lap. We'd see some competition then.
Click to expand...
Didn't NASCAR use to give 5 points for leading at half-way???
 
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