CUP: Winning Races Wins Championships

Sprint Cup

CUP: Winning Races Wins Championships

How do you win a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship? First, win races...

Tom Jensen | Posted December 26, 2009 Charlotte, NC

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Kyle Busch (Left) and Matt Kenseth (Right) both won races in 2009 but failed to make the Chase. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

One of the most fiercely debated topics in NASCAR year in and year out is, does the Sprint Cup points system reward winning enough, or does it encourage drivers to simply try to accumulate top-10 finishes and the points that go with it?

The debate grew even louder than normal in 2009, as four drivers — Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman — all qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup without winning a single race. At the same time, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth won six races between them, yet failed to make the Chase, along with fellow race winners David Reutimann and Joey Logano.

The current Sprint Cup points system pays 185 points to win a race, and 170 to finish second. Positions two through six are separated by five points each; positions seven through 11 are separated by four points each and the remaining spots back through 43rd place are separated by three points each.

That’s fueled criticism in some circles that a bad finish hurts a driver worse than a good one helps him, and there isn’t enough incentive to race at the limit to pick up a position or two late in a race.

Those criticisms were exacerbated during the 2009 Sprint Cup regular season, when Juan Pablo Montoya acknowledged that his team’s strategy was to drive conservatively to make the Chase and not take unnecessary chances to get up front.

“It isn’t about being conservative, it is about being smart,” Montoya said in early September. “Everything we have done this year, is making smart choices, when to race, when to get out of the gas, a lot of the give and take and it makes life a lot easier.”

That didn’t sit well with some fans, who believed drivers should be more aggressive.

And some of the drivers refuted Montoya’s philosophy as well.

“I think no matter where you’re at in the points, whether you’re in the Chase or out of the Chase or where we are, I think you always want to get your best effort and best finish every day,” said Kenseth, the 2003 champion. “My approach never changes, everybody asks me, but it really never changes. I don’t come to the race track and say, ‘Man, I don’t want to win today, I want to run fifth.’ So, we always go to win.”

And winning is more important than some may think.

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Tom Jensen

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