Scoring change impacts all parts of race
Event now more like boxing with points awarded after each round
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In a sport known for tweaking and adjusting, nobody does it better — or more — than NASCAR. Yet even by NASCAR’s standards, the scoring changes that the series has made ahead of this season, which will begin Sunday with the Daytona 500, are remarkable.
Gone is the season-ending chase-for-thechampionship format.
In its place is stage racing, which essentially divides all races into three distinct segments, each having a point value that carries with it championship consequences.
Think of baseball’s innings, or football and basketball’s quarters, or hockey’s periods. Now add extra value to which team is ahead at the end of each inning or quarter or period. That’s what NASCAR is trying to do. An even better example might be a boxing match, with a fighter rewarded with points after each round.
Whatever the analogy, NASCAR’s vice chairman, Mike Helton, said the sport’s rule makers were influenced by fans’ desire for more excitement in the beginning and middle of its races, and by drivers’ desire to be rewarded for how they race throughout a competition, rather than where they stand when the checkered flag is waved.
The only wrinkle is that there has been no dry run to the new format. Instead, its unveiling arrives with the start of the 2017 season. NASCAR also announced a new penalty structure along with some rule changes, though nothing as earthshaking as the thunderclap of a change in the format for deciding who is the sport’s top driver.
“There are no off weeks,” said Denny Hamlin, the defending Daytona 500 winner. “Every single race matters. Not only that, but every lap of every race matters.”
In the first test of the new format, Sunday’s Daytona 500 will be divided into two stages of 60 laps (or 150 miles) and a final 80-lap (or 200-mile) stage. The winners of the first two stages will receive 10 points.
The winner of the final stage — that is, the winner of the race — will earn 40 points. Several drivers got a head start on the system by earning points Thursday night in the pre-500 Duels races, meaning that as many as 70 points could be had in NASCAR’s opening week.
Other races during the season will carry a maximum of 60 points, divided into three stages. Duel races during the season will also continue to earn championship points incrementally, with the winner again receiving 10 and the 10th-place finisher earning one.
If that qualifies as manufactured motivation, drivers aren’t necessarily complaining.
“From our standpoint, you always felt a little bit relaxed once you had a race win,” Hamlin said. “You would sometimes go into test mode.”
In the new format, points will accumulate through the first 26 races and carry over for the top 16 drivers, who qualify for a final 10-race playoff. The series will culminate in a winner-take-all format at November’s race in Homestead, Fla.
“Now with each accomplishment that you have during each given race, whether you’re collecting points for the overall regular season or you’re trying to collect points though a stage win or a race win, each accomplishment makes your road to Homestead a little bit easier,” Hamlin said. “It’s all about us making it to Homestead and trying to race for a championship, and I think this format does that.”
This was not an autocratic decision. A special committee of former drivers like Jeff Gordon and current drivers like Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr., along with NASCAR officials, teams, sponsors and manufacturers, convened in the offseason in an attempt to re-energize a sport for which viewership has declined, both at racetracks and on television.
“The stages are going to bring a lot of excitement for the drivers and the fans,” Earnhardt said. “I think this creates a lot of interest in a part of the event, in every event, every single week.”
There are ancillary benefits to NASCAR, too — like clearly defined commercial breaks in each race.