Carl Edwards delivered back-to-back wins for Roush Fenway Racing to end the 2010 season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

But the debate has continued about whether victories should be more heavily weighed. The late Charlotte Observer NASCAR beat writer David Poole for several years advocated that whenever a driver won his first race of the season, he would get a 500-point bonus.

That never happened, of course, but starting in 2007, NASCAR did overhaul the Chase points: After 26 races, each of the 12 Chase drivers would receive 5,000 points plus 10 bonus points for each race victory during NASCAR’s regular season.

This year, for example, Denny Hamlin began the Chase with 5,060 points because he won six races in NASCAR’s regular season, while Jimmie Johnson had 5,050 and Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch 5,030 each.

Still, some race-winning drivers get left out each year, while some winless drivers are rewarded. Jamie McMurrary won the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400, the two biggest NASCAR races of the year, as well as the fall Charlotte race, yet he failed to make the 2010 Chase. On the other hand, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards all went winless during NASCAR’s regular season, but made the Chase. And Bowyer and Edwards went on to win two races each in the Chase.

Since the Chase was adopted in 2004, a total of 11 drivers have posted double-digit race victory totals. And the ones who’ve won the most races are also the ones who’ve fared best in the Chase. Five-time defending Sprint Cup champ Johnson has won 47 races since 2004, more than double the total of his nearest rival, two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, who has won 22 races since 2004.

Behind Johnson and Stewart, the Chase-era victory totals line up as follows: Kyle Busch, 19; Gordon and Edwards, 18; Hamlin, 16; Greg Biffle, 15; Kurt Busch, 14; Kenseth and Kasey Kahne, 11; Harvick, 10.

Of the eight drivers who’ve won the most races in the Chase era, seven of them — everybody but Kyle Busch — have finished first or second in points during that period, suggesting race wins do indeed go a long way toward determining the championship.

NASCAR Chairman Brian France has sounded inclined to tweak the Chase format for 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)

With all that in mind, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France has said repeatedly that the sanctioning body likely will change its points structure again in 2011. Whether winning becomes more of a factor remains to be seen, but expect big changes next season.

France is expected to announce the new system Jan. 21, 2011, during winter testing at Daytona International Speedway.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.