We are halfway through NASCAR's "regular season," and Mike Helton and Company are probably hoping things change in the second half.
Back in January, NASCAR announced some rule changes, including changes to the way it selects drivers for its Chase for the Sprint Cup. Under the old system, the top 12 drivers in points after 26 races (in other words, after the fall race at Richmond International Raceway) were given spots in NASCAR's version of a playoff. It did not matter how many wins those drivers had -- or even if those drivers had won at all. Points were all that mattered. Now, NASCAR will give playoff spots to the top 10 drivers in points, and it will award two "wild card" spots. Those spots are for the drivers ranked 11th-20th in points who have the most wins in the first 26 races.
This "wild card" has gotten the nickname "the Jamie McMurray Rule," because McMurray won last year's Daytona 500 (along with the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway) but missed the Chase because he didn't have enough total points. That nickname is unfair to McMurray, since his Chase miss was hardly a fluke. In 2009, Matt Kenseth won the Daytona 500 (and the following week's race in Fontana) but missed the Chase and finished 14th in points. In 2008, Ryan Newman won the Daytona 500 but missed the Chase and finished 17th in points.
Clearly, something had to be done. After all, the Daytona 500 is allegedly the Super Bowl of NASCAR, but the winner of that race is 0-for-the-last-3 in Chase qualification.
Lots of people saw it as a good thing for the sport to put more emphasis on wins. In this post on fines, Jay Busbee of Yahoo Sports cites the changes as one of the ways "this sport has taken more steps to address fan concerns than any other." And Joe Menzer of NASCAR.com tells us the wild card rule is "having its intended impact" by stoking fan interest and making drivers think about winning.
But take a look at how things stand now.
Of the current top 10 drivers in points, five of them (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman) have no wins under their fan belts so far this season. And when you look at the next 10 drivers -- the ones eligible for a wild card -- only one driver has the requisite victory. That would be Jeff Gordon, who won the spring race in Phoenix. Yes, Brad Keselowski, our most recent winner, currently sits in 21st place, and it would not be shocking for him to be in the top 20 next week. But it also would not be shocking for the current top 10 drivers and Jeff Gordon to monopolize the rest of the wins this regular season. If that happens, and something unforeseen happens to take Keselowski out of the top 20, what happens to that last wild card?
Look further down the standings. Down in 29th place, you'll find Regan Smith, the proud owner of a victory at another iconic NASCAR track, Darlington Raceway. Unless he gets into the mother of all grooves, he's unlikely to make the top 20, and his win will go to waste, too.
Oh, and let's get back to the Daytona 500 for a moment. Do you remember who won that race this year? Trevor Bayne. And even if he didn't have his unfortunate illness this season, you wouldn't see him getting a wild card. That's the result of another rule change NASCAR made in January. It told drivers they could compete for only one series title. And Bayne now sits in 15th place -- in Nationwide points.
Make that 0-for-4.
Showing posts with label rules. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rules. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
What to Do When It Rains in Brazil
This certainly is not the most newsworthy item of the week, but it does provide NASCAR fans some food for thought. And you don't even have to break out the deep fryer.
The Izod IndyCar Series was planning to have its annual race in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday. One problem: As it does frequently in that part of the world, it rained. The IndyCar folks got 14 laps of their race completed before they postponed the rest of the race until Monday morning.
So far, so what? After all, NASCAR has run plenty of races a day later than they were scheduled. In fact, four races last season in the Sprint Cup Series were delayed by Mother Nature. All NASCAR does is tell everyone to come back the next day and pray their television partner doesn't get hit too hard in the ratings.
Here's where the IndyCar folks did something different.
To explain this, we'll turn to the Izod IndyCar Series rule book, specifically to Rule 7.2.A.2. "If INDYCAR determines that there are time limitations due to weather, curfew, or otherwise, INDYCAR may move the start time of a Race, shorten the distance of a Race, set a maximum time for a Race, or take such other actions as it deems appropriate in its discretion."
That's right; instead of telling its drivers to go a certain distance, IndyCar put two hours on the clock. When the two hours were up, the white flag came out. A race originally scheduled to go 75 laps was won by Will Power after 55 laps.
And this was the second year in a row that a time limit was placed on the Sao Paulo race.
What do you think, NASCAR fans? Should your favorite auto racing league try something similar the next time they have trouble with precipitation? Drop a comment, and let us know what you think. In the meantime, remember to vote in the lineup polls. Even if the Darlington race is postponed, we won't get extra time to pick our drivers.
We'll be back.
The Izod IndyCar Series was planning to have its annual race in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday. One problem: As it does frequently in that part of the world, it rained. The IndyCar folks got 14 laps of their race completed before they postponed the rest of the race until Monday morning.
So far, so what? After all, NASCAR has run plenty of races a day later than they were scheduled. In fact, four races last season in the Sprint Cup Series were delayed by Mother Nature. All NASCAR does is tell everyone to come back the next day and pray their television partner doesn't get hit too hard in the ratings.
Here's where the IndyCar folks did something different.
To explain this, we'll turn to the Izod IndyCar Series rule book, specifically to Rule 7.2.A.2. "If INDYCAR determines that there are time limitations due to weather, curfew, or otherwise, INDYCAR may move the start time of a Race, shorten the distance of a Race, set a maximum time for a Race, or take such other actions as it deems appropriate in its discretion."
That's right; instead of telling its drivers to go a certain distance, IndyCar put two hours on the clock. When the two hours were up, the white flag came out. A race originally scheduled to go 75 laps was won by Will Power after 55 laps.
And this was the second year in a row that a time limit was placed on the Sao Paulo race.
What do you think, NASCAR fans? Should your favorite auto racing league try something similar the next time they have trouble with precipitation? Drop a comment, and let us know what you think. In the meantime, remember to vote in the lineup polls. Even if the Darlington race is postponed, we won't get extra time to pick our drivers.
We'll be back.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Damage Assessment, New Polls and Rule Change
First of all, a show of hands, please ... how many of you expected Ryan Newman to win Saturday night's race?
OK, now that we know who the liars are, let's discuss the People's Pitstop results. The Internet's favorite fantasy racing team scored only 214 points at this week's Sprint Cup race in Phoenix. The season total is 1,760, leaving us tied for 140,102nd overall and tied for 171st in the Fan of From the Marbles league.
Here are the detailed results.
Greg Biffle. Started 30th, finished 22nd, 48 fantasy points. I guess all we had to do to break Biffle's top-10-finish streak was to put him in the starting lineup.
Matt Kenseth. Started 27th, finished 6th, 90 fantasy points. That includes 10 points for leading a lap. Kenseth was the only People's Pitstop starter who found his way to the front of the pack at any point during Gnatfest 2010.
Jeff Burton. Started 15th, finished 25th, 42 fantasy points. At least Burton was able to wind up on the lead lap.
Paul Menard. Started 32nd, finished 29th (1 lap behind the leaders), 34 fantasy points. Ugh.
The polls are now up for the next Sprint Cup race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. As usual, the polls will stay up until Thursday night, so we can turn in a lineup in time for Friday's qualifying session.
Speaking of qualifying, it's time to announce a rule tweak for this fantasy NASCAR team. From now on, if a starter and a bench driver get the same number of votes, we will use the driver to qualifies better in the starting spot. We'll still use driver points to determine who does and doesn't make the lineup we turn in Thursday night, but from now on if, say, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson are tied in votes, and Johnson qualifies SEVEN WHOLE ROW in front of Biffle, Johnson will get the start, and Biffle will sit on the bench.
(OK, rant over.) Feel free to vote now. We'll be back with a look at some driver trends.
OK, now that we know who the liars are, let's discuss the People's Pitstop results. The Internet's favorite fantasy racing team scored only 214 points at this week's Sprint Cup race in Phoenix. The season total is 1,760, leaving us tied for 140,102nd overall and tied for 171st in the Fan of From the Marbles league.
Here are the detailed results.
Greg Biffle. Started 30th, finished 22nd, 48 fantasy points. I guess all we had to do to break Biffle's top-10-finish streak was to put him in the starting lineup.
Matt Kenseth. Started 27th, finished 6th, 90 fantasy points. That includes 10 points for leading a lap. Kenseth was the only People's Pitstop starter who found his way to the front of the pack at any point during Gnatfest 2010.
Jeff Burton. Started 15th, finished 25th, 42 fantasy points. At least Burton was able to wind up on the lead lap.
Paul Menard. Started 32nd, finished 29th (1 lap behind the leaders), 34 fantasy points. Ugh.
The polls are now up for the next Sprint Cup race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. As usual, the polls will stay up until Thursday night, so we can turn in a lineup in time for Friday's qualifying session.
Speaking of qualifying, it's time to announce a rule tweak for this fantasy NASCAR team. From now on, if a starter and a bench driver get the same number of votes, we will use the driver to qualifies better in the starting spot. We'll still use driver points to determine who does and doesn't make the lineup we turn in Thursday night, but from now on if, say, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson are tied in votes, and Johnson qualifies SEVEN WHOLE ROW in front of Biffle, Johnson will get the start, and Biffle will sit on the bench.
(OK, rant over.) Feel free to vote now. We'll be back with a look at some driver trends.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Some Light Weekend Reading
As you get ready for Sunday's Auto Club 500, here are some links for you to peruse.
Spoiler alert: Imagine what would happen in fantasy football if the NFL announced that this fall wide receivers would be allowed to wear a certain type of glove in the early part of the season, but sometime in mid-October they would have to switch to another type of glove.
That's what happening in NASCAR. The same league that adopted a new green-white-checkered rule days before the Daytona 500 is "transitioning" the Sprint Cup cars from a rear fin to a rear spoiler. What do the drivers think? Here's Jeff Burton's take: "I’m in the minority in this, but I believe that when the spoiler comes, it’s going to be a new ballgame. I just think that’s a major change and a major difference and some people are going to adapt to that quicker than others."
It's official...you can have fantasy anything. There are those who think fantasy auto racing is a bit--how to put this--out there. And if you've read this far in this blog, you probably already know about fantasy football, fantasy baseball, fantasy basketball, fantasy hockey and fantasy soccer.
Now, can we interest you in fantasy fishing?
The weekly reminder that we cover fantasy football, too. Last week we told you about the Sporting News releasing its lists of top NFL players by position for next year. But why limit your offseason thoughts to players already collecting a National Football League salary? Our friends at Bleacher Report offer us the results of "our last mock draft until after the combine." That's a major commitment on their part: The NFL Scouting Combine will begin Wednesday.
We'll be back with results from the Auto Club 500. Until then, enjoy the race, and remember to root for the members of the People's Pitstop.
Spoiler alert: Imagine what would happen in fantasy football if the NFL announced that this fall wide receivers would be allowed to wear a certain type of glove in the early part of the season, but sometime in mid-October they would have to switch to another type of glove.
That's what happening in NASCAR. The same league that adopted a new green-white-checkered rule days before the Daytona 500 is "transitioning" the Sprint Cup cars from a rear fin to a rear spoiler. What do the drivers think? Here's Jeff Burton's take: "I’m in the minority in this, but I believe that when the spoiler comes, it’s going to be a new ballgame. I just think that’s a major change and a major difference and some people are going to adapt to that quicker than others."
It's official...you can have fantasy anything. There are those who think fantasy auto racing is a bit--how to put this--out there. And if you've read this far in this blog, you probably already know about fantasy football, fantasy baseball, fantasy basketball, fantasy hockey and fantasy soccer.
Now, can we interest you in fantasy fishing?
The weekly reminder that we cover fantasy football, too. Last week we told you about the Sporting News releasing its lists of top NFL players by position for next year. But why limit your offseason thoughts to players already collecting a National Football League salary? Our friends at Bleacher Report offer us the results of "our last mock draft until after the combine." That's a major commitment on their part: The NFL Scouting Combine will begin Wednesday.
We'll be back with results from the Auto Club 500. Until then, enjoy the race, and remember to root for the members of the People's Pitstop.
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