NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France has said he plans to announce some changes to the Sprint Cup Series points system in mid-January, probably during NASCAR Preseason Thunder at Daytona, a month before the 500. It's been speculated the changes are intended to tighten up the Chase and ideally extend the battle for the championship all the way through the final race of each season. Other know-it-alls believe the tweaks will be toward expanding the number of drivers who make the chase or increasing the number of points for a race win; something, anything in an effort to add more excitement to NASCAR's 'playoff' season that has to compete directly with the NFL every fall. Can you imagine all the hours Mr. France, Mike Helton and the NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation staffs are burning, or have already burned to come up with a better points system? Can you conceive of all the models and spreadsheets and algorithms and possible numbers schemes the math whizs have suffered through so as not to disappoint their masters? If only someone had called... I could have saved them so much time and money. Much like Bob Latford, the late NASCAR historian who, while spending quality time at some Daytona Beach bar in 1974, came up with the then-new Winston Cup Series points schedule, yours truly conceived my company's original, Fantasy Motorsports Franchise League (FMFL) points scheme in 1988 at a Phoenix, AZ watering hole -- also on a cocktail napkin. Here's the basics.
Points are only awarded to drivers who finish in the top 16.
Bonus points are also available to reward qualifying performance, leading a lap or the most laps, and being the highest finisher per participating manufacturer ... as long as you finish in the top 16.
How has the system worked? Since 1989, the majority of the 'official' series champions have been FMFL champions, too. The first discrepancy was in 1994 when our system crowned Damon Hill as the F1 champion instead of Michael Schumacher, who crashed into Hill to clinch his first World Driving Championship the old fashioned way: by cheating. This year, Brad Keselowski (Nationwide Series), the No. 1 Patron Highcroft Acura LMP2 (ALMS), the No. 01 Ganassi BMW/Riley (Grand-Am Rolex), and Formula 1 (Sebastien Vettel) were both FMFL and official series champs. In Cup, where we don't have a Chase system, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin finished 1-2-3 in fantasy points instead of the official Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick order. Will Power swapped places with Dario for the FMFL IndyCar championship and Kle Busch beat Tody Bodine for the truck title. I know what you're thinking. How could Kyle Busch, who finished 14th in the official NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, beat Todd Bodine in the FMFL truck series standings? It's those qualifying, lap leader and manufacturer points. Kyle finished in the top 16 a total of 15 times in 2010; Todd finished in the points 22 times. But Kyle earned almost four times as many qualifying points than Bodine, more lap leader point and almost twice as many manufacturer points -- meaning Kyle earned points for being the highest-finished Toyota twice as often as the Onion. Details: Points are first awarded for finish position. First place receives 160 points, second place 150, third place 140, etc. If a car or driver finishes 17th or worse they get bupkis, as 16th place earns 10 points and the last opportunity to hang on to the bonus points. The top five qualifiers can received 55, 44, 33, 22 or 11 bonus points if they finish in the top 16. Any driver (or car) that leads a lap earns 22 bonus points. He or she who leads the most laps during a race earns 44 points -- as long as they finish in the top 16. And finally there are the manufacturer points. Every race winner is obviously driving the highest finishing example of that particular brand or race car to receive 55 bonus points. The highest placing driver of the next different type of car receives 44 mfr points, the highest placing driver of the third different type of car receives 33 mfr points, etc. For instance, here's the FMFL box score for the Labor Day weekend Cup race at Dover: Pos. Driver Car Finish Points Lap Pts Mfr Pts Qual. Pts Total Points 1 Jimmie Johnson Chevy 160 44 55 55 314 2 Jeff Burton Chevy 150 0 0 0 150 3 Joey Logano Toyota 140 22 44 0 206 4 Kurt Busch Dodge 130 22 33 0 185 5 Carl Edwards Ford 120 22 22 0 164 6 Kyle Busch Toyota 110 22 0 0 132 7 Paul Menard Ford 100 0 0 0 100 8 Ryan Newman Chevy 90 0 0 0 90 9 Denny Hamlin Toyota 80 0 0 22 102 10 A.J. Allmendinger Ford 70 22 0 44 136 11 Jeff Gordon Chevy 60 0 0 0 60 12 Mark Martin Chevy 50 0 0 0 50 13 Jamie McMurray Chevy 40 0 0 0 40 14 Juan Montoya Chevy 30 0 0 11 41 15 Kevin Harvick Chevy 20 0 0 0 20 16 Reed Sorenson Toyota 10 22 0 0 32 Jimmie Johnson ran the table, starting on pole and leading the most laps to earn the maximum 314 points, including the 55 markers for driving the highest placing car, in this case a Chevy. Second place Jeff Burton was also driving a Chevy so he didn't earn any manufacturer points; he didn't qualify in the top five or lead a lap so he only received 160 finish points. And here's the kicker. The next three drivers earned more points than Burton because of lap leader and manufacturer points. Logano led a lap and was driving the first Toyota, the second highest manufacturer, for an extra 66 points; Kurt Busch led a lap was driving the highest place next different car, a Dodge, for 22 + 33 bonus points. Then came Carl Edwards, also a lap leader, and the last of the drivers to earn manufacturer points; 22 for finishing as the first Ford, the fourth different type of race car. The FMFL scoring system means points per position are never the same from race to race. It was also designed to work for all series because the FMFL follows NASCAR, IndyCar, F1 and sports car series. With variable points per race, dependent upon a car (for sports car racing) or driver's overall weekend performance including qualifying in the top five, leading laps and being the first behind the wheel of his or her particular type of race car, the competition is always close and championships usually go down to the wire. That's the goal for our fantasy leagues and so far our scoring system has delivered without fail. I think it could do the same for NASCAR.
-Bill
Read more of Bill Tybur's thoughts on fantasy racing at FMFL
Photo Credit: Bill Tybur
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