MILLER: Making Sense Of Sprint Cup Points

IndyCar

MILLER: Making Sense Of Sprint Cup Points

Beating 42 other drivers deserves more than a 4-5 point separation in the final tally.

Robin Miller | Posted November 07, 2011

According to Miller's math, winning four of the eight race in The Chase should have moved Tony Stewart ahead of points leader Carl Edwards. (LAT)

Let’s go over this slowly. There have been eight Chase races so far in the 2012 Sprint Cup series and Tony Stewart has won half of them. And, drum roll please, its put him ONLY three points behind winless leader Carl Edwards with two races remaining.

I know, I know, NASCAR rewards consistency and its point system has worked well enough to set up this great little two man showdown that many of us will all be watching.

And I’m a jealous hater who wishes INDYCAR could draw a tenth of the interest there is in stock cars.

But beating 42 other drivers deserves more than a 4-5 point separation in the final tally and, despite the rhetoric, winning a Cup race really doesn’t come close to receiving the value it should.

Think not?

Using the scoring systems for three other major sanctioning bodies around the world, Stewart wouldn’t be lighting that victory cigar just yet but he’d damn sure be looking for the matches.

Because the IZOD INDYCAR series awards the largest spread from first to second (50 to 40 points), ‘ol Smoke’s late-season charge would have him holding a 30-point advantage (268 to 238) over Cousin Carl heading to Phoenix this weekend.

The former USAC star would be enjoying even a more comfortable cushion using Formula One scoring (110 to 76 points), which offers a 7-point spread from first to second.

And MOTO GP’s system also rewards performance as Stewart would own a 117-96 edge on the strength of a 5-point swing from winner to runner-up.

Edwards, whose lone win came last March but has an impressive 9.7 finishing average in 34 races, would have a whopping 20-point lead (373 to 353) using USAC’s Silver Crown scoring and be seven points in front based on Grand Am’s numbers.

Of course it’s not like this is the first time consistency could win out over victory lane.

In 1963, Richard Petty racked up 14 wins but Joe Weatherly was the champion with three Ws while Rusty Wallace had twice as many wins as Dale Earnhart in 1994 and four more in ’93 and lost the title both times.

Will Power has the most wins the past two seasons in INDYCAR but lost the championship both times to Dario Franchitti.

Joey Saldana scored the most World of Outlaw victories in 2009 (20 A Mains) and 2010 (13) but came up empty-handed in the final standings.

Mario Andretti earned his initial USAC championship in 1965 with only a single victory compared to A.J. Foyt’s five and big Al Unser’s 1983 and 1985 CART crowns came with only one win each season.

Stewart snared his second Cup title in 2005 without winning once in The Chase. Maybe that’s why he said after Sunday’s triumph at Texas: “I’m going to be real disappointed if people try to make a story out of a guy with four wins who isn’t leading the points. It’s about 10 weeks.”

Sorry Smoke, I disagree and it’s a story. It should be more about winning. That’s why I always loved the old F1 point system: 10-6-4-3-2-1, which served Clark, Stewart, Senna, Mansell, Prost and Schumacher well in their deserved championships.

But my pal Gordon Barrett has a suggestion for universal scoring of all motorsports that would make sanction bodies, sponsors and television producers cringe: one point for a win. I like it.

Robin Miller brings 40 years of experience to his role as SPEED.com's senior open-wheel reporter, and serves as a frequent contributor to SPEED Center and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robin Miller

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