Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire New Nascar points system

No more zoning out and relaxing for the first few hours of a race. Now you'll need a calculator, pen and paper to figure out what's going on.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




NASCAR is making sweeping changes to the formats of races in 2017 and adding more bonus points to the Chase (which is no longer called the Chase, but more on that later) for drivers who succeed in the regular season.

The changes are a bit complicated, so stick with us:

Every Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series race will consist of three segments called “stages.” The drivers who finish in the top 10 of each of the first two segments will receive points while the finishing order at the end of the third and final stage will be the race’s finishing order. The winner of the third segment is the race winner and will get 40 points.

Oh, the word “Chase” to describe the final 10 races of the Cup Series season is gone, too. We’ve got to learn to stop using it. In its place is simply “Playoffs,” a term that will also be used to describe the elimination-style Chase format in the Xfinity and Truck Series.

Each regular-season race win will be worth five bonus points to start the playoffs. In 2016, drivers got three points at the beginning of the Chase for each win in the regular season. A segment win will be worth one Playoff bonus point.

The first segment will be the first 25 percent of the race while the second segment will be the second 25 percent. Each segment will end with a caution flag. The cautions will give the races predetermined breaks in the action to help Fox and NBC air as many commercials as possible under yellow flag conditions.

Bonus points are also handed out for the drivers in the top 10 in the points standings at the end of the regular season. The driver who is leading the points standings at the end of the first 26 races in the Cup Series will receive 15 points while the other drivers in the top 10 will also receive bonus points for the Chase.

And, most importantly, those bonus points will carry over into the first three rounds of the playoffs. In the old format, the bonus points disappeared after the first round and the 12 drivers remaining in the second round all started with the same points total.

Yeah, this is pretty complicated. There’s definitely going to be a learning curve for hardcore and casual race fans as the new format is implemented throughout the season.

• The winner of a segment receives 10 points while the driver in 10th receives a point. The driver who wins a race receives 40 points, while second receives 35 points and third receives 34. The driver finishing 35th gets two points while those finishing 36th-40th each get a single point.

This means that if a driver wins both segments and the race, he receives 60 points. There are no longer bonus points for leading a lap and leading the most laps.

• While the driver who finishes at the top of the regular season standings gets 15 points, second gets 10 points, third gets eight, fourth gets seventh and so on through 10th place. If a driver, say, Jimmie Johnson, wins four races in the regular season (5 points each), wins 15 segments (1 point each) and finishes the regular season third in the points standings, he’ll start the Chase with 43 bonus points.

Those 43 points will be added to Johnson’s point total at the beginning of the second and third rounds if he advances. If he wins a race in the first round of the playoffs to guarantee his advancement into the second round, he’ll have another five points tacked on to his total. So he’d start the second round with 48 bonus points while a driver who might have finished the regular season outside the top 10 in points and didn’t win a race or a segment could start the second round with no bonus points.

• The format of the Chase – again, now known as the playoffs – is otherwise unchanged. Sixteen drivers will make the playoffs. All drivers with a win in the first 26 races will be included and the other spots will be filled by the drivers with the most points. Twelve drivers will advance to the second round of the Chase and eight will advance to the third round. Four drivers will move on from the third round of the Chase to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the highest finisher of the four wins the championship.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/n...-bonus-points-in-playoffs-234955970.html

NASCAR lost its way a long time ago, this won't help.

Juniors back.

I quit watching when he was out.

Me to.

since nascar was supposed to be the
common man's answer to formula one
type racing, and hasn't been for quite
some time, they should rescind all the
rules regarding cubic inch displacement,
tire width limit, natural aspiration,
etc. and let the cars run as much
horsepower as can be put on the ground.
multiple stage turbos, superchargers,
nitrous oxide, fuel injection, anything
goes, even multiple engines. since no
common man could afford to field a car
these days anyway, let the rich car owners
build whatever the can put on the track
with no limits on performance

Or they could just give 5 bonus points to whoever fights after a race. Add an extra 2 points if the pit crews get involved.

Golf excites me.

Well, there' always wrassling.

nascar only needs the cage matches to be wrasslin'

No reason to remember all that, it will change several times during the year.
Kid France will keep playing with the toys daddy left him until he breaks all of them.
This looks to be a good time to let NASCAR go.
I need to do more Sunday fishing anyway.

Agreed

Maybe when Trump is done in the Whitehouse he can take over Nascar and MNGA!

They want to be like the ball sports, and attract those who follow such. They will never get the bassetball people, and they have lost me.

Who cares?

NASCAR can't compete with the NFL. The chase was the little Brian's attempt to compete with football. If it was a true playoff the teams that didn't get in would be done for the year.

I grew up listening to it every Sunday when there were real drivers Petty, Pearson, Cale, Baker, Allison. It was a big to us when it started being shown on TV. Most of the drivers now are little sanitized corporate spokesmen, no real personalities you can ever see.

Shorten the season and drop the chase. Reward winning with a big point differential from the rest of the field. Let the guys beat bang and fight when needed. Finally take off the damn restrictor plates! Ratings and attendance would come back.

I used to watch most races, and I couldn't watch, I'd keep up with it on the radio. But, two things happened....Bill Elliot, my favorite driver, retired and they started the stupid Chase thing. It's not the same, the drivers who made NASCAR what it is, are no longer racing, either having retired or passed away. There were once some great stories out there concerning the drivers and the way they made it to the big time. I started following Elliot because of how he started out as a small family operation, and drove Fords....back during a time period when a Ford car actually used a Ford engine, not like todays race cars are. I had a neighbor who drove to Dawsonville, Georgia, where the Elliot operation was, walked into their facility, and talked to them. You couldn't do that today. Anymore, I never watch a race, only read the results afterwards, and do not miss it one bit.

NASCAR lost me a long time ago. I really don't enjoy watching it anymore. Too long to sit in front of the TV and watch a bunch of whiners ride around under a caution flag for 2/3 of the so called race.

It would be great to give bonus points to any one who can stay out of the way of that dumb Biotch patrick whoever!! otherwise my give a $hit bucket is overfull!!!!!!!!!

More of those guys need to aspire to be like Smoke, Stenhouse, Kyle Larson etc. etc. Put em' in sprint cars and then find out who can REALLY drive.

Where Dale when you need him

This the perfect way to watch a Nascar race.

Watch the first 20 laps. Take a three hour nap. Watch the last 20 laps.

That's something I would actually watch.




Dave

The Chase, or Playoffs, Universal cars or whatever they call them (sure as hell can't call them stock cars anymore)? They have screwed with it to the point that I don't recognize it anymore or even care to watch. Used to be a big fan; not anymore.

They went for greener pastures and lost their base many years ago. never been the same.

NASCAR dropped off the minute innovation left the show. It used to be innovation of one manufacturer then another and so on. Ford was dominate in the late 80's early 90's with the new T-bird. Chevy responded with the Monte Carlo. And so on. It's to the point now, if I didn't know the number that goes with the driver, I wouldn't even know what manufacturer the car was. They all look the same.

France has killed the sport. Hell there are only a couple of races on national networks anymore. Most of the races are on obscure cable channels.

The way to bring NASCAR back, is to get back to the roots, of run what ya brung. Until they get back to that, NASCAR racing will continue to face away.


Clyde

The real truth of the matter was that NASCAR was always pretty much a Southern sport, and then they tried to take it nationally. It mainly appealed to those of us who could be referred to as rednecks, hillbillies, moonshiners, good ole country boys, and any other related moniker. Somewhere along the way, the powers-to-be decided that if a little was good, then a lot was better, and they expanded it to go after a nationwide audience. I think the national audience was somewhat limited, and the appeal just wasn't what they thought it would be, henceforth all the changes they've made. Obviously, things change, and car racing is one of those that do. Even without the points system, and the Chase, NASCAR was changing as technology took over, and the name of the game became about money. No longer could the small teams compete. The days of drivers like Dick Trickle or Dave Marcis, two who came to mind, drivers who rarely had rich sponsors or no sponsors, are long gone. That's what always made the sport exciting to me, seeing legitimate "little guys" out there rubbing fenders with the "big boys".

I agree 100% way too boring now. NASCAR's goal is to make all cars perform exactly alike. I don't watch any restrictor plate races for that reason. At the races they should have a series of short heat races that last about as long as the tires do and then everybody pit for new tires, fuel and adjustments. The top 10 or so racers from each heat then compete in a final race with the fastest cars starting in the back of the pack. That's how they used to do it in the local 1/4 mile asphalt track and it was very entertaining.

Lost interest in 2005....

If you want to watch real racing go to a dirt track and watch good ol' boys who build up their own beater cars in a local garage tear around the track and bang into each other. That's the roots of NASCAR and it's exciting racing.

Do they still do that anymore or has the EPA put that kind of thing out of business? Last time I went was a few decades ago but it beat the heck out of any race on TV.

They still run.

Now there's an important reason for changes.

NASCAR flat sucks. Always a caution flag at the end to let the favorites catch up and win on the restart. Not much excitement. All cars look the same. A lot of the fun was the Chevy vs Ford vs Dodge part now who knows. Some teams are obviously favored by the rules. Not much different than watching grass grow or paint dry.

NASCAR is great for a Sunday nap. Watch the start and a few laps, take a snooze, watch the last few laps. Much like golf.

Should rename it NAPCAR

This.

If there is a way to continue to fu^ck up a good thing, the France family & the idiots who work for them will surely find it..........the whole Chase format has been a disaster, & disincentive since day one.

MM

Stopped watching after Davey died. They keep finding ways to insure I don't tune in again.

Pretty much the same here[except it was after Dale died].

When they left North Wilkesboro[attended the last race there] and Rockingham and threatened pulling one from Martinsville it was clear that what and who got them where they were was no longer important to them.

I went to Wilkesboro every year, it was a helluva track. I go by it about once a year and it sucks seeing it just setting there.

Had a small local track feel to it. Like a fairgrounds. Bumped in to BP and Ned one time in the concessions as they were heading from trackside prerace to the booth. No elevators or hidden stairs for them to use.
DE was working on a super late model and truck race week there if I remember correctly.

NASCAR became a business and lost its roots with the expansion West for money. Seems it all started when Winston dropped out

Today I don't really keep up with it any longer but I will watch some races to include Bristol, Richmond, Martinsville, Charlotte, Daytona, Talladega and Darlington.

Down this way there is a 1/4 to 1/2 mile track about every 30 miles across most all small southern towns. Greenville Pickens and Myrtle Beach are fun tracks.

I like road courses even more. Summit Point, VIR, Road Atlanta, Mid-Ohio, Daytona. SCCA rocks!!

And yes it's a shame to see what they let Rockingham become. Below!

Glad to see JR back!!

The Rock!

The Rock was bought a couple of years ago and they had a truck race in the last year or so.

I parked beside of Leonard Wood at North Wilkesboro one time and talked to him for 30 minutes, he's a true southern gentleman.

very cool. Did not know that!! Thanks!

NASCAR pretty much died when Earnhardt was killed.

Now it's just schitty racing, schitty rules & waaaay too many schitty drivers. Might as well turn every race into an IROC event.........let the drivers draw straws for which car they drive today & have NASCAR supply all the rides.

MM

BYC I hate to see it but you're right. I just looked it up and the last race was 2013 and it's back up for sale. That was a fun place the week after the Daytona 500.

That would at least be interesting and JJ wouldn't win everything

if they want something exciting to watch,
someone should re-introduce the original style
can-am racing. no c.i.d. limit, no restriction
on aerodynamics, as long as the wheels didn't
hang out and could pass safety you could put
a real driver with talent in it and run full
out b.t.t.w. as long as it would hang together.

Had an annual garage pass for a good number of years; today I wouldn't go to a race if I got paid to do it.

Johnson is a decent driver that never hurts himself & has as good equipment as is possible to have.

Would have liked to see him compete against the greats a few years ago though.

MM

I'm down to the Friday night race at Bristol now. I used to go to a lot of races but just don't care enough to go anymore.

I'd love to see this generation race against the greats from years ago. I'd also like to see Harvick try to drag Cale out of a car, I'd bet it would only happen once

Stop all the stupid rules and parity crap-- let 'em race
The creme rise to the top!

Stop all the stupid rules and parity crap-- let 'em race
The creme rise to the top!

Too much like the NFL.

Well, I'm looking forward to the Daytona 500.

saw on another news feed biotch crash patrick maybe having sponsor shortfalls Damn what a shame if she didn't make i t perhaps everyone would be a lot safer!!!!!!!!

Have been interested in racing most of my life. I'm 50 and went to my first race when I was 4 or 5 at the local dirt track. Have kept up with NASCAR fairly well for the last 10+ years and modestly for a decade or two before that.

Racing or an NFL game is pretty much the only thing I watch on tv, which is once a week, tops. And with the whole NFL protest thing going on, I've watched VERY little NFL this year. With the musical network thing going on in NASCAR, you know... FS1 for the next 3 races, except when it switches to NBCSN , except when it runs on Saturday night and switches to regular NBC, or was that ESPN?? Anyway, it really pisses me off trying to watch a whole season of NASCAR. I decided several years ago that it's just not in my budget to pay for a much bigger (more expensive) tv package just to get to watch a few more races.

I work 55-ish hours Monday to Friday, so on my weekend: between 1.) the amount of time it takes to spend every Saturday night or Sunday afternoon for something like 85% of the year watching 4 hours of racing, and getting tired of playing musical networks these last few years, (one race last year switched between 3 networks over 2 days due to a rain delay, and finally finished on a network I couldn't get) and 2.) this past year having had some urgent issues to take care of: mom had open-heart surgery and spent a month in the hospital and several big home renovation projects like digging up my back yard sewer line by hand and replacing it, etc... I missed a lot of the season!

Long story short, when I finally had a chance to catch a few races at the end of the "Chase", I realized I'd lost most of my desire to hunt the race down and kill it. Now, between yet another new format, and Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards retiring, I'm not sure how much or how often I'll even bother this year. I guess I'll just tune in on the weekends when it's convenient for me, unless it's at one of my favorite tracks.. and isn't under rain delay.

You and me both!!!