Possible 5th for JJ tops 2010 talk

With now several months to digest the enormity of Jimmie Johnson’s fourth straight Cup championship, an achievement of growing magnitude that threatens to enlarge, NASCAR and its Sprint Cup competition head toward The Great American Race this Sunday, a.k.a. the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl. Ironically, the 2010 season opener falls one week following the true Super Bowl, which played out in another little coastal Florida hamlet not far south from the racing capital.

Over the off-season, little earth-shattering news occurred relative to changes in the sport, though an announcement was made to jettison the current rear wing assembly for a slightly less offensive spoiler on the back. With a test session scheduled for late March, the switch will come sometime during the regular season. Officials negatively cited the cosmetic look of the wing, an original component of the CoT, which seems odd since the wing actually made the stocks looks racier. Secondarily, NASCAR then cited a legitimately beneficial reason for making the change: to eliminate visual problems for drivers.

The best off-season deregulation by NASCAR is the elimination of bump-drafting restrictions at the two big tracks Daytona and Talladega, which hopefully will make two exciting races even better.

ROADSIDE RANTS AND RAVES: Some reader feedback over the winter indicates many of you are unhappy with the points system. NASCAR conducts its scoring like it is courting a nation of astrophysicists. Whoever heard of awarding something as fractional as 185 points to the winner, then divvying up the remainder in tiny downward increments so that the last-place finisher winds up earning 34 points! Only a fringe kindergarten dropout could devise such a system. And why would you award any points to a last-place finisher anyway! For a sane solution, NASCAR need look no further than to F1. Though they’re adjusting their point system for 2010, the previous F1 scoring system was the model of simplicity: 10 points to the winner, 8 points for the runner-up, 6 points for third place, followed by 5-4-3-2-1 for fourth through eighth place. No points for anyone finishing ninth or lower. Since NASCAR sets out more than twice the normal F1 field, with 43 cars challenging weekly, let the top 16 cars earn points via the same formula, starting with 25 points for the winner, 20 points for second, 15 for third, 13 for fourth place, then 12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for fifth place through 16th. And with its Chase format, NASCAR really gets creative, starting off everyone in the 12-man field with 5,000 points. Five-thousand points! What in the heck does that mean? Why not go completely over the top and say everyone in the Chase field starts with a million points each. Oooh, that ought to impress everybody. NASCAR, start with simple math. Scoring shouldn’t require the use of a calculator…Saturday night’s Bud Shootout was fun to watch. As previously mentioned here, the sprints—with smaller fields—are action-packed from start to finish. NASCAR would do well to consider scheduling one or two sprints as points races to balance the endless string of 400- and 500-milers…Though tentative when drafting, Danica Patrick looked strong and sharp in her ARCA debut at Daytona, finishing sixth.

Alan Ross is the author of 32 books and a regular contributor to American Profile. E-mail: alanross_sports@yahoo.com
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