October-31-09

Denny Hamlin: “You’ve Got To Put Us On Our Own Points System.”

PB under Spotter Chatter

When asked about the current Chase to the Sprint Cup point’s system, Denny Hamlin didn’t beat around the bush. ” You’ve got to put us on our own points system,” Hamlin said Friday afternoon at the Ken Patterson Media Center in Talladega, Alabama. “Whether it be a 1-12 point system, do it to where if you get a win maybe you get 15 points and if you are, say, the last Chase finisher you get 1 point,”  Hamlin went on to say. ” Make it to where we don’t get killed when guys finish between us that don’t even matter at this point in the season.”

Denny Hamlin may be on to something here. It isn’t rocket science. It’s actually quite brilliant when you think about it. But then again this isn’t the first time someone has come out and said, “hey! what if we gave the Chase drivers their own point system.”  Year after year fans and media alike always seem to find fault with the format. And from a driver’s standpoint it seems that unless your running up front and unless your the guy leading the Chase, most likely you’re not going to be a big fan of the current format. It is what it is.

But for the sake of argument let’s take a look.

 In the point system Denny Hamlin mentioned the Top 12 drivers in the Chase would have their own point system at their disposal to determine a champion rather than sharing points with drivers who, in his words, ” don’t even matter at this point in the season.” The highest finishing Chase driver would receive 12 points, second highest would receive 11 and on down to 1 point for the last Chase driver. If a Chase driver wins the race he would then receive a 15 point bonus on top of the 12 points he earned by being the highest Chase driver at the end of the day.

So, how do the two compare?

The points according to the current point system:

  1. Jimmie Johnson–6098, point leader
  2. Mark Martin–5980, -118 pts
  3. Jeff Gordon–5948, -150 pts
  4. Tony Stewart–5906, -192 pts
  5. Juan Pablo Montoya–5898, -200 pts
  6. Kurt Busch–5858, -240 pts
  7. Ryan Newman–5786, -312 pts
  8. Greg Biffle–5748, -350 pts
  9. Denny Hamlin–5746, 352 pts
  10. Carl Edwards–5685, -413 pts
  11. Kasey Kahne–5659, -439 pts
  12. Brian Vickers–5568, -530 pts

Now, let’s take a look at the points using Denny Hamlin’s formula:

  1. Jimmie Johnson–106, point leader (Includes 45 pt bonus: 3 wins )
  2. Mark Martin–65, -41 pts (Includes 15 pt bonus: 1 win)
  3. Tony Stewart–58, -48 pts (Includes 15 pt bonus: 1 win)
  4. Juan Pablo Montoya–52, -54 pts
  5. Jeff Gordon–52, -54 pts
  6. Denny Hamlin–49, -57 pts (Includes 15 pt bonus: 1 win)
  7. Kurt Busch–39, -67 pts
  8. Ryan Newman–35, -71 pts
  9. Greg Biffle–31, -75 pts
  10. Kasey Kahne–29, -77 pts
  11. Carl Edwards–22, -84 pts
  12. Brian Vickers–20, -86 pts

 

Well, what do you think?? Could a IndyCar/F-1 style point system designed specifically for the Chase drivers work to determine a champion year in and year out? Or is this just another gimmick that will never see the light of day?

 

 

 

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  1. J.J. Said,

    Having written about this idea (along with a gazillion other people), I’d re-vamp the entire points system period–but that’s for another day.

    I’ll stick with the Chase for now. Here’s what I’d do…

    1. Chase points would be distributed thusly:

    1 = 20
    2 = 15
    3 = 12
    4 = 10
    5 = 8
    6 = 6
    7 = 4
    8 = 3
    9 = 2
    10 = 1

    Then 5 bonus points for a win.

    Then 5 bonus points for leading the most race laps.

    Pretty straightforward, right?

    Here’s the twist:

    But the points only go in the order listed. In other words, if a Chaser wins he would get the win points plus bonus points if applicable.

    But if the next Chaser only finishes fourth, then he gets those points and if the next Chaser finishes 15th then he would get no points.

    So conceivably in any one race you could have only one Chaser scoring points.

    The other thing I’d do, once the Chase starts ALL the Chasers would start at the back of the field in reverse order. That is if you’re leading the Chase you start dead last, second Chaser would start in 42nd place, and so on and so fourth.

    It might make the racing truly interesting and allow the rest of the field a mention on TV once in a while.

  2. Ginger Said,

    It depends on the definition of ” guys finish between us that don’t even matter at this point in the season.” As far as I’m concerned, Hamlin doesn’t matter. This guys ego grows with each passing day.

  3. LB Said,

    Well, fits perfect fo him. Hamlin seems to have his own ego system. When he wins then he is great and should get all points but when he does not then someone else screwed him. Heck, given his brillance and articulation he should be given 10 points at the beginning of the “Spring Cup Kill” (my name for the Knaus/Johnson Championship Series) for his ideas. All drivers matter so stop complaining about the fact that they finish higher than you in the race. With all that money he should be able to finish ahead of the back markers every race. They all need to get over themselves and start racing to WIN. LB from the Gulf.

  4. LB Said,

    Ginger, you are correct. His ego is in the stars. I just posted soemthing similar.

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