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Full Story At That's Racin'
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – If you went back through every football game played this season and gave 20 points for touchdowns and only three for field goals, you'd have some very different final scores and team records.
But if touchdowns were worth 20 points and field goals only three, far more teams would go for it on fourth down. The way the game is played would change so much that it would be pointless to apply the "new rules" retroactively.
The same holds true for stock-car racing.
How many times this year have you wondered what the Winston Cup standings would look like if the points system used in the Indy Racing League or Formula 1 were applied?
The other night, my wife was reading a recipe for maple glazed meatloaf sandwiches in some magazine. That recipe has as much to do with the 32 Cup races run this year as the IRL or F1 systems do.
With four races left, Matt Kenseth still is in command of the race for the 2003 title. After finishing 14th Sunday in the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, he's up 240 points on Kevin Harvick. If Kenseth scores 501 more points in the final four races – averaging a 12th-place finish – he wins the title.
That's the only math that really matters, but there must be a thousand ways to add up a 36-race season. Just about everybody's got an about how a champion should be determined.
For several years, The Observer and Thatsracin.com kept something we called the Competition Index. It gave drivers more points for winning races and poles and leading miles and took away bonus points now given for leading a lap and the most laps in a race.
Under that system this year, Ryan Newman's eight poles and eight wins would put him 14 points behind Kenseth at this juncture, with Jeff Gordon 178 back and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 200 behind.
And if Aunt Myrtle had chest hair and an Adam's apple, she'd be Uncle Fred.
Yes, it's true that Kenseth hasn't won a Winston Cup race since March 2, back when Matt Doherty was coaching North Carolina basketball and Arnold Schwarzenegger was just another mediocre actor.
Kenseth hasn't had a top-five finish since Labor Day and has led 10 fewer laps in the past seven races, total, than Joe Nemechek led Sunday at Martinsville. But Kenseth's people at Roush Racing are still busy working on designs for his championship T-shirts and figuring out seating charts for the really good tables at the banquet in New York.
That's the system, and it's not an indictment on Kenseth, crew chief Robby Reiser and their team to say that the system is stupid.
College basketball's rules used to allow teams to run time off the clock when they had the lead. When enough people made enough noise in protest of such tactics, the college game went to a shot clock that limits the effectiveness of a stall. And the good teams adapted their strategy to the new system.
If NASCAR had a different points system in place, one that made winning races so important it would actually hurt teams not to make that their overriding purpose, good teams like Kenseth's would race differently in their quest for a championship. It has been said a thousand times, but whether you call it "points racing" or what, the leader's team's approach to this season has been smart racing.
Remember, Kenseth won five races last year, more than anyone else in NASCAR's top series. But Tony Stewart won the championship and that's what it'll always say in the record books.
Kenseth, Reiser and the gang on the No. 17 Fords have taken the system that's in place this year and made it work for them. If Reiser had put some kind of exotic set-up under Kenseth's car for a race in the past few weeks and had it backfire on the team in some way, people – like me – would be asking why he'd do such a foolish thing and risk a perfectly comfortable points lead.
Newman has eight wins this year and Kenseth has only the one. Some people, therefore, don't understand how Kenseth could be behind Newman in the standings. If Newman has won eight "games" and Kenseth only one, shouldn't Newman be ahead?
That kind of stick-and-ball analogy can be used both ways. In 32 races this year, Kenseth has beat Newman 20 times and finished behind him just 12 times. Kenseth is 21-11 against Tony Stewart, 20-12 against Jimmie Johnson, 18-14 heads-up against Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon both and 17-15 straight up on Harvick.
Interesting? Perhaps, but again it's also irrelevant.
Several weeks ago, there seemed to be real momentum toward making changes in the points system for next year. Tight races for titles in the Busch and Truck series under the same system used in Winston Cup may have stunted that momentum, but they should not. No disrespect to NASCAR's top support series, but the International League standings rightly have no bearing on October's playoff schedule in baseball's big leagues.
It's true that no championship points leader has won a Cup race since Sterling Marlin did it at Darlington in March of 2002 – 64 races ago. That's a joke, but it's also the system's fault. The path to a championship ought to be routed more directly through Victory Lane, but unless and until it is, don't blame Kenseth's team for staying on it.
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – If you went back through every football game played this season and gave 20 points for touchdowns and only three for field goals, you'd have some very different final scores and team records.
But if touchdowns were worth 20 points and field goals only three, far more teams would go for it on fourth down. The way the game is played would change so much that it would be pointless to apply the "new rules" retroactively.
The same holds true for stock-car racing.
How many times this year have you wondered what the Winston Cup standings would look like if the points system used in the Indy Racing League or Formula 1 were applied?
The other night, my wife was reading a recipe for maple glazed meatloaf sandwiches in some magazine. That recipe has as much to do with the 32 Cup races run this year as the IRL or F1 systems do.
With four races left, Matt Kenseth still is in command of the race for the 2003 title. After finishing 14th Sunday in the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, he's up 240 points on Kevin Harvick. If Kenseth scores 501 more points in the final four races – averaging a 12th-place finish – he wins the title.
That's the only math that really matters, but there must be a thousand ways to add up a 36-race season. Just about everybody's got an about how a champion should be determined.
For several years, The Observer and Thatsracin.com kept something we called the Competition Index. It gave drivers more points for winning races and poles and leading miles and took away bonus points now given for leading a lap and the most laps in a race.
Under that system this year, Ryan Newman's eight poles and eight wins would put him 14 points behind Kenseth at this juncture, with Jeff Gordon 178 back and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 200 behind.
And if Aunt Myrtle had chest hair and an Adam's apple, she'd be Uncle Fred.
Yes, it's true that Kenseth hasn't won a Winston Cup race since March 2, back when Matt Doherty was coaching North Carolina basketball and Arnold Schwarzenegger was just another mediocre actor.
Kenseth hasn't had a top-five finish since Labor Day and has led 10 fewer laps in the past seven races, total, than Joe Nemechek led Sunday at Martinsville. But Kenseth's people at Roush Racing are still busy working on designs for his championship T-shirts and figuring out seating charts for the really good tables at the banquet in New York.
That's the system, and it's not an indictment on Kenseth, crew chief Robby Reiser and their team to say that the system is stupid.
College basketball's rules used to allow teams to run time off the clock when they had the lead. When enough people made enough noise in protest of such tactics, the college game went to a shot clock that limits the effectiveness of a stall. And the good teams adapted their strategy to the new system.
If NASCAR had a different points system in place, one that made winning races so important it would actually hurt teams not to make that their overriding purpose, good teams like Kenseth's would race differently in their quest for a championship. It has been said a thousand times, but whether you call it "points racing" or what, the leader's team's approach to this season has been smart racing.
Remember, Kenseth won five races last year, more than anyone else in NASCAR's top series. But Tony Stewart won the championship and that's what it'll always say in the record books.
Kenseth, Reiser and the gang on the No. 17 Fords have taken the system that's in place this year and made it work for them. If Reiser had put some kind of exotic set-up under Kenseth's car for a race in the past few weeks and had it backfire on the team in some way, people – like me – would be asking why he'd do such a foolish thing and risk a perfectly comfortable points lead.
Newman has eight wins this year and Kenseth has only the one. Some people, therefore, don't understand how Kenseth could be behind Newman in the standings. If Newman has won eight "games" and Kenseth only one, shouldn't Newman be ahead?
That kind of stick-and-ball analogy can be used both ways. In 32 races this year, Kenseth has beat Newman 20 times and finished behind him just 12 times. Kenseth is 21-11 against Tony Stewart, 20-12 against Jimmie Johnson, 18-14 heads-up against Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon both and 17-15 straight up on Harvick.
Interesting? Perhaps, but again it's also irrelevant.
Several weeks ago, there seemed to be real momentum toward making changes in the points system for next year. Tight races for titles in the Busch and Truck series under the same system used in Winston Cup may have stunted that momentum, but they should not. No disrespect to NASCAR's top support series, but the International League standings rightly have no bearing on October's playoff schedule in baseball's big leagues.
It's true that no championship points leader has won a Cup race since Sterling Marlin did it at Darlington in March of 2002 – 64 races ago. That's a joke, but it's also the system's fault. The path to a championship ought to be routed more directly through Victory Lane, but unless and until it is, don't blame Kenseth's team for staying on it.
