NASCAR Playoff System Deserves Credit for Creating ‘Game 7 Moments’

According to some accounts, NASCAR has used 15 different point systems since 1949 to determine its Cup Series champion. Other research places that figure between 14 and 17, including some changes that were barely different from the ones before.

Whatever the number, there have been these extremes:

Richard Petty won one of his seven championships by 6,028 points (1967) and another by 5,032. Rex White (1960) and Ned Jarrett (1965) won their championships by more than 3,000 points. Both of Joe Weatherly’s titles (1962, 1963) came by more than 2,000 points.

On the other hand, Kurt Busch’s 2004 championship came by 8 points. Alan Kulwicki’s 1992 title came by 10, another of Petty’s came by 11, and Rusty Wallace’s 1989 championship margin was 12 points.

Richard Petty won the 1967 Cup Series championship by more than 6,000 points.

In the closest finish in NASCAR history, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards ended the 2011 season dead-even at 2,043 points. Stewart won the Cup based on his 5-1 “most victories” tiebreak with his fifth victory coming over second-finishing Edwards in the Homestead finale.

In some cases, Petty, White, Jarrett, and Weatherly clinched their championships with races in-hand. Petty, in fact, would still have been the 1964 and 1967 champion even if he’d skipped the last few races of those seasons. Contrast that to Stewart vs. Edwards, and to Kulwicki, who needed to lead one lap more than Bill Elliott to ensure the 1992 Cup in the Atlanta finale. (FYI: That was Petty’s last Cup start and Jeff Gordon’s first).

Granted, those 13-17 different systems have skewed the competitive image of NASCAR since points were once awarded in far greater numbers than today. In truth, it seems the sanctioning body changed its championship criteria almost yearly.

Consider:

There were times when finish-position points were paid according to race distances.

At other times, track lengths were factored in. Race purses were frequently part of the championship equations.

Lap-leader and victory bonus points were awarded some years and not others.

In some cases, only a portion of the grid earned points; those finishing poorly got nothing.

There were years when Daytona qualifying paid points and times when half-points were used.

No wonder fans couldn’t figure it out.

Bob Latford helped to create one of the many NASCAR Cup Series points systems used to crown a champion.

Latford and Co. Saves the Day

But in 1974 three NASCAR employees rode to the rescue—temporarily, at least. Joe Whitlock, Bob Latford, and Phil Holmer gathered at the Boot Hill Saloon in Daytona Beach after NASCAR president Bill France Jr. called for yet another system. He wanted something consistent and fair, something fans might understand. Using cocktail napkins, the men scratched out a system that awarded points in descending order throughout the entire field. To encourage hard racing, they offered…