The Worlds first daily e-newspaper devoted to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series
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Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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The Worlds first daily e-newspaper devoted to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION |
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NASCAR to keep new points system for 2005 but change qualifying rules
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Quote Of The Day: "I want to hear from you stuff like 'Be careful, it's a 500-mile race' and 'Don't get too close to that wall.' It's OK to treat me like a rookie. I want to finish this thing." - Mark Martin, asking for extra guidance from spotter Eddie Pardue before Sunday's Southern 500 Happy Birthday: Terry Labonte 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Gaughan replacing Ward Burton, Kvapil replaces Gaughan Earnhardt Jr. still leads popular vote Chase comes down to wire Millions up for grabs in 'Young Guns' contest Edsel B. Ford II is racing fan "Family Feud", NASCAR version airs this week TV ratings are the best so far in the Chase NASCAR, Nextel announce record points payout Said signs 10-race Cup deal with MB2 for 2005 Trying to climb mountains of Jello No passing fantacy: Jeff Gordon takes his fantacy football league team seriously Cup Scene readers speak out
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November 16
After Jimmie Johnson won his fourth race in the last five events, France must be having the time of his life. That's because Johnson (-18), Jeff Gordon (-21), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-72) and Mark Martin (-82) are within striking distance of points leader Kurt Busch as NASCAR’s premier series heads this week to Homestead-Miami for the season finale.
“We’re real happy and think it’s something we can build on in the future,” France said of the playoff format that he introduced before the season. “It was the right thing to do, and it’s proven itself out.” “Whoever wins it ... everybody is seeing has got to earn it,” he said. “You’ve got four guys within 50. It’s unthinkable to have this amount of pressure out there." The system has had opponents since it was announced, and critics are still finding faults. The biggest complaint was the theory that one bad finish would ruin a driver's title hopes. France said Jimmie Johnson has proved that wrong. After dropping to ninth in the standings with six races left, Johnson has used four victories to pull into second place, 18 points behind leader Kurt Busch. "Everybody thought Jimmie Johnson was out, he had three bad races and everybody said you couldn't have one," France said. "Well, nobody thought about the way to climb back into races. That is to win. That is exactly what we wanted." So forget about a points system within a points system, which is what driver Jeremy Mayfield has lobbied for. His title hopes were crushed in the first playoff race when he was caught in an accident Robby Gordon intentionally caused. Because all 10 Chase drivers are scored on the same points system as everyone else, he got points for finishing 35th in that event. He argued he should have gotten points for finishing ninth out of the 10 Chase drivers. France listened to the idea, but said it isn't under consideration. "We're heading away from that - not that down the road it won't have more appeal, but right now, Jimmie is showing you can have a bad race," he said. "We like the fact that we have put an emphasis on coming back and making up ground ... we like the dynamics of that." He said he is also not going to award extra points to a race winner. Under the current scoring system: A win earns 180 points, a last-place finish gets 34 points. Five-point bonuses are given to any driver who leads a lap, and an additional five-point bonus is awarded for leading the most laps in a race. ” And all in all everything is going just as France envisioned. There is drama, something that seldom existed under the previous format this late in the season. Television ratings overall are up at a time when the sport typically loses viewers to professional and college football. France expects they will improve even more in future years, reminding NASCAR went head to head with the Olympics in addition to football at the start of the chase. NASCAR expects to improve on the 3.8 rating the sport drew at Homestead a year ago when Matt Kenseth already had the title clinched. And the ratings couldn't come at a better time for France, who is just starting to renegotiated NASCAR's television package. He said he was impressed with the $8 billion extension the NFL worked out last week with CBS and Fox. NASCAR has a $2.8 billion deal with NBC and Fox that they signed in 2001 and expires at the end of the 2006 season. “It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Sunday’s race will be anti-climatic,” said Mark Dyer, NASCAR’s vice president for licensing and consumer products. The 21 points separating Busch, Johnson and Gordon are the fewest between the top two or three contenders with one race remaining since NASCAR went to the current points system in 1975.
Only two other times has somebody come from behind to win on the final race. In 1992 Dave Allison had a 30-point lead over Alan Kulwicki, followed by Bill Elliott (-40), Harry Gant (-97) and Kyle Petty (-98). Kulwicki and Elliott passed Allison, with Kulwicki winning the title by 10 points. The only other time a driver has come from behind to win the title in the final race was 1979, when Richard Petty overtook Darrell Waltrip. The room for error is so small that the difference between Gordon winning Sunday’s race and possibly being in the lead was a 17-second pit stop because an air hose was caught under the right rear tire while he was leading with 30 laps remaining. “Those kind of mistakes can cost you a championship,” said Gordon, a four-time champion and the only one of the contenders with a title. Johnson appeared out of the chase six weeks ago when he trailed Busch by 247 points. He has climbed back with four wins and a sixth-place finish. Busch has maintained the lead with eight top-10 finishes, more than any of his pursuers. Several times, such as Sunday when he was as far back as 27th early, he’s rallied from near disaster. “Right now, I told everybody that we expect to win and hope to win, but we’ve got to prepare to lose and how we’re gonna deal with the frustration of having it all go upside down after it’s been so good for so long,” said Jack Roush, who owns the Fords of Busch and Martin. “NASCAR is trying to create the excitement and the contention and the tension and all that anticipation to the very end, and it’s absolutely going to be a jump ball.” Busch is the only driver among the five contenders with a victory at Homestead, which has hosted only five Cup events. “It’s his to lose,” Roush said. “But (Johnson) has been super the last handful of races. We’ve got to step it up a little.” So the Chase for the Cup will return for 2005, but there will be no more "happy hour" practices next year. NASCAR will use a shortened weekend schedule for the Nextel Cup series at most of its events next season in an effort to save money for teams. The sanctioning organization said Monday it will hold a two-hour Cup practice Friday, moving qualifying to Saturday. The traditional Saturday practice will be eliminated and the qualified cars will be impounded by NASCAR until the start of the race. The teams will not be permitted to work on their cars after qualifying unless authorized by NASCAR in "special circumstances." But not every track has agreed, including Atlanta Motor Speedway, Texas, Charlotte and Talladega, because they draw sizable crowds for Friday qualifying. The two Cup races at AMS next season will qualify on Friday nights. "We've got contracts with sponsors for pole night," AMS president Ed Clark said. "Georgia Power is sponsoring pole night for the March race; Georgia-Pacific has pole night for the October race. A lot of tracks don't have sponsors for pole day. "I do think it's a good idea to qualify and impound the cars. It doesn't make sense for them to practice more for qualifying than they do for the race. And it's great that NASCAR is trying to save teams money." NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said the new procedure will not start until after the season-opening Daytona 500, which has a unique qualifying system that includes time trials and two 125-mile qualifying races. "We are still in the process of getting more tracks to commit to this procedure," said John Darby, the Nextel Cup director. "We appreciate the cooperation of our track operators to assist us in delivering cost-saving measures to the team owners." Darby said the new schedule will give crews some needed time off since the schedule will be shortened and they no longer will be allowed to work on cars between qualifying and the race. "Ultimately, all the teams will arrive at the track with a focus on one goal," Darby said. "That goal will be to have the best possible race set-up and, hopefully, that will enhance the overall competitive element throughout the field." Don Miller, co-owner of Penske Racing South with Roger Penske and Rusty Wallace, doesn't see how the new schedule will save much money. "You still have to bring your people in on Thursday so they can be at the track when the garage opens on Friday. The hotels are still going to have those three-day minimums and you still have people away from home for three or four days," Miller said. Miller is glad NASCAR is at least trying to shorten the schedules. "We have to try to make it better for our people," he said. "Look at the schedule we have now with 38 race weekends. It's brutal." Greg Zipadelli, who is Tony Stewart's crew chief, doesn't foresee a major change in weekend routines. "We'll have two practices Friday afternoon, and then change all your valve springs, so I figure you'll be in the garage till 5 or 6 p.m., just like you are now. And Saturdays - we're leaving the track at 3 p.m. right now; under the new rules, with qualifying at noon, if you're an early draw you can leave at 12:05, and if you're the last draw, 2 p.m. "So what have you gained? I don't know." NASCAR announced another measure aimed to contain costs - a combination preseason test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and California Speedway between Jan. 31 and Feb. 3. That will eliminate the costs of making two separate trips to the Western tracks. Hunter said NASCAR is also working on a plan to guarantee the top 35 cars in the points a spot in the race fields next year. Currently, the fastest 36 cars in qualifying make the lineup, along with seven provisional starters, based on team owner points. But each team has a limited number of provisionals and two Cup regulars, rookies Scott Wimmer and Scott Riggs, both failed to make the Atlanta lineup last month. Wimmer was 27th in the points and Riggs 29th. Owner-driver Kyle Petty said such a move would give sponsors peace of mind knowing their drivers would be in the lineup and that they can plan for corporate outings and appearances. |
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