NASCAR Nation, Why all the emphasis on winning?

With the limited practice and the chase then the first 26 races are just practices for the chase. It would give them a little more incentive to win if championships were based on wins. But if that happened then there would be no need for the chase.

The whole problem is there was nothing wrong with the system to begin with. I liked the systems before the chase. Now after what they do from here on out it's just going to make it worse. I say go back to the old system and tell everyone to like it.

Victories are their own reward. Whoever wins a race has one to add to their records. Consistencies win championships and that is where everyone is getting confused.

I think consistency is very important and should be rewarded BUT I like to watch good racing as well. I think some (not all, but some) of the drivers just race for points and by finishing top 10-15 for the better part of the season gets them in the Chase so they may not take unnecessary risks, or any risks for that matter to try for a win. I want to see all 43 guys battling for a WIN not just settling for a decent finish.

If there were bigger emphasis on wins, (don't get me wrong I am not against somebody winning for being consistent) if the teams are awards more bonus points for winning I think every race would be like the last few before the Chase, they would be battling from start to finish and that is fun to watch.

well, the emphasis this week was caused by ecclestone from formula one trying to change the rules so that the driver there with the most wins in a season was the champion. that change has been rescinded--mainly because those trying to make the change didn't read their own rules, which state that everybody must vote unanimously for a change made so late in the year (or so close to the next one).

in nascar, however, the debate over consistency and winning and which should be more important has been a long-running one. 2003 showed what putting too much emphasis on consistency does--it produced a champion that won one race while a driver winning eight races wasn't even close.

even since the chase format has been put into place, the tinkering between consistency and winning has changed. the first few years, the top-10 (and later top-12) were all given 5000 points then staggered by five points from first to tenth. again, this still really favored consistency over winning as a consistent driver could get in first after 26 races and end up with 5050 points, and a driver who had won more races but was less consistent could easily end up with fewer points starting out the chase.

so finally, nascar decided to put some emphasis on actually getting the win. in the same year, they not only raised the point differential given to the winner of a race from 5 to 10 points, but they also added the "chase bonus points" by which a driver got 10 bonus points for each win if and when he got into the chase and the "staggering" was removed. so a driver received 5000 points plus 10 for each win. for example, last year kyle won eight races before the chase, so he got 80 bonus points going into loudon. many of the drivers finishing in the top 12 last year had no wins, so they all started with 5000 points.

but even with that, Busch only went in with a 30 point lead over second place, and even though 30 points might seem like a lot to overcome for a single race, for a ten race chase it means nothing. personally, i'd like to see those bonus points raised to maybe 25 per win. that would put more emphasis on winning without going overboard. kyle would have gone in with 200 bonus points, but others would have been only 75-100 points behind, which is not impossible to overcome in a ten race chase.

finally, they had a great set of interviews with drivers on the speed report last night (i think it was the speed report). they asked nascar drivers about the "most wins makes the champion" rule F1 was pushing and every one of the NASCAR drivers said it was a bad idea. at every racetrack, the leader coming off the last restart had better seriously look out. why? because second place then means essentially nothing, so why not knock the heck out of the guy in first even at your own risk?

a better balance needs to be struck between the two--winning and consistency--and nascar has been working on that and my guess is, they will continue to do so. i further predict that no matter what rule nascar comes up to "resolve" this issue will be met with widespread disagreement amongst the fans and the drivers, for the most part, won't care as long as the rules are the same for everybody.

I agree with you, I think?? I think they should give more points for a win than they currently do but a win shouldn't be everything. A 2nd should be worth more than 4th. A 10th should be worth more 15th and so on and so on. The only complaint I have about the current system is it seems its more about how many bad luck days you've had rather than how many great days you've had. Kenseth and Busch have both won 2 of the 5 races. They're 4th and 10th in points. A win and a 40th should get more points than two 15th place finishes IMO. "Winning" is different in racing than other sports. Every single team is playing in the same arena. If you finish 7th, you just beat 37 teams and lost to 6. Put a 37-6 win-loss record on the board in any sport and you'd be leading the League more than likely. Yet some fans get so upset when a driver seems content to finish "only" 7th. And I don't a driver "settles" for a decent finish. I think everyone is going as hard as they can all day. You could give a million points for 1st and it isn't going to change much about how people race.

I agree. I think finishing 2nd at every race should be more rewarding than winning 10 races, but finishing in the 30s every other race. The reason why they made more points for a win was to basically make for better racing. The more points they make for a win, the more likely the 2nd place guy with ten laps to go will go for the win and make it more exciting. If winning a race was only 5 points more than 2nd place, the guy in 2nd might just take it easy and not risk messing up and wrecking. If winning a race was 50 points more than 2nd place, you would see the end of races a lot more hectic. Basically NASCAR just want better finishes.

I was actually glad to see NASCAR change the points to put more of an emphasis on winning. There is nothing wrong with being consistent, but the problem is that drivers start to get too conservative when they are thinking about “big picture” racing. They will settle for a top 5 when they have a car that can win the race. I’d rather see a competitive race then drivers playing nice, and trying to gain points.

Don’t get me wrong, a championship should not be determined just on wins alone. (eg: F1 new system) But I think that an emphasis on winning forces drivers to be competitive, and that’s what I want to see.

The reason is because they don't want a driver holding back and just 'big picture' racing, when they could be up fighting for the win. Sometimes a driver will settle for a top 5 because they don't want to risk losing points trying to get wins. I think consistency should be more important but it's not

At the end of every drivers career..the only two numbers that matter are the number of wins and the number of championships.

People talk about Richard Petty..200 wins, 7 championships.

How many times did he finish a race 10th?

How many times did he finish a season 4th in points?

No one remembers..wins and championships. That's what it's all about.

They have more of an emphasis on winning now because of the chase format. Back when they had the old point system consistency really paid off because if you could build a big lead no one could catch you. They've somewhat taken consistency out of the picture down the stretch when they reset the points.

Look at what happened with Matt Kenseth.

He only won 1 race the year he was champion. But he had VERY CONSISTENT FINISHES for the rest of the season.

A whole bunch of people got there panties in a knot because of that.

Thus, the change in the scoring, and the Chase is on.

It's a shame, no other racing series does it this way.