Who will be the 2015 Cup Championship Winner?

[dave41]

selfie

10 years from now, you will look back at that photo and think "Man, I look good compared to that other guy!"

Is it just me, or is the "Kyle Busch" category in the poll continuing to grow after Sunday?

Phil Jacques, no doubt...

my name is Dave O'Steen I have a Kyle Busch decal on my back glass , have ,jacket, hat ,shirt, bottle holder and proud of his biggest ever win. 10 years I will be 84 years . I always went to win. when car left pit it belonged to driver. if he owed anyone so be it, I would support him . just like Kyle . A$$ another good day. Dave41

[Lurkin]

I'm going to get out in front of this and go ahead and say I think Kyle Bush

[Frasson118]

Here's a point I'd seen somewhere else, but I thought it's something worth considering.....

The M&M's TEAM ran all 36 races.... they accomplished the goal of keeping the team in contention, despite the bunches of hurdles they had to clear.

No, Kyle WASN'T there for every race, but every single team member was.

If Brett Favre or Joe Montana was sidelined near the beginning, but rebounded to become Super Bowl Champions, they'd be revered as an historic accomplishment.

If the rest of the team dug a hole so deep that Kyle couldn't come back......?

That didn't happen. The team stepped up, the driver did when he became healthy, what's not to like about an "against against all odds" story....

[sbracer58]

Using a football analogy (another team sport) the only undefeated team in the leagues history was the '72 Miami Dolphins; quarterbacked by hall of famer Bob Griese. What many people forget is that he was injured towards the end of the regular season and the back up (Earl Morrall) stepped in and played up the last couple regular season games as well as the 2 playoff games. Griese was healthy enough to start in the Super Bowl and the TEAM was 16-0.

Same deal with the 18 bunch, their QB was out and the backup(s) played well enough to keep the team in contention. And the rest as they say is history.

[Lurkin]

It's just like when Derrick was injured last year on Dancing With The Stars, did they let him go for the Mirror Ball? Of course they did.

[ancrdave]

I think the Chase deal really did play out this year the way it should as the "best man standing" took home the title... In other sports nearly every team has a chance to win, especially if they get "hot" toward the end of the season, just like Kyle Busch did...
Let's use the NBA as an example... The Golden State Warriors (now 16-0) run the table and go unbeaten the entire season (unlikely but crazier things have happened) then represent the Western Conference in the finals... In the East, the Orlando Magic get "hot" at the end of the year, finish with a .500 record but make the playoffs as an eight seed... They continue their hot streak and win the Eastern Conference title, then beat the Warriors in seven games to take the NBA title... The Warriors may have the better team but the Magic had the "hotter" team when it all counted...

NASCAR has had all kinds of point systems over the years, some that were just plain ridiculous and hard to figure out, but mostly in the 50's and 60's the champion was usually the guy who ran all the races and did better than the 2-3 other drivers who ran all (or most of) the races...

Take Ned Jarrett for example and try to figure this one out... Jarrett won his first GN title in 1961 but won only one race! He ran 46 of the 52 races and had 34 top-ten finishes... Rex White ran one more race (47), won 7 times and had 38 top-tens but Jarrett beat him in the standings by 830 points!!
Jarrett's championship in 1965 was a bit tainted because Chrysler Corp. boycotted much of the season so there was no Richard Petty or David Pearson in the field most of the year but Jarrett clearly outclassed the rest of the factory Ford bunch running 54 of the 55 events with 13 wins and 45 top-tens... He beat Dick Hutcherson by a whopping 3,034 points...

The 1962-63 seasons were pretty interesting too as Joe Weatherly won back-to-back titles using two different strategies... In '62 Joe was in a factory-backed Pontiac owned by Bud Moore... They ran 52 of the 53 races and won 9 times and had a remarkable 45 top-ten finishes... Richard Petty also ran 52 races but had just 39 top-tens and Weatherly won going away by 2,396 points... In 1963, Weatherly and Moore planned to run for the title again but, a few races into the season, GM pulled out of NASCAR and Moore said he could not afford to run all the races on his own... So what did Weatherly do? He begged, borrowed or bought any ride he could at the races Moore did not want to run... Along with Moore, Lil' Joe drove cars for Pete Stewart, Cliff Stewart, Major Melton, Worth McMillion, Floyd Powell, Possum Jones, Wade Younts and even a race for Petty Enterprises. In the end, Joe ran 53 of the 55 races, won just 3 but still had 35 top-tens... Petty, at first glance, had a better year running one more race than Joe (54), taking 14 wins and 39 top-tens but finished second again, this time by 2,228 points... Those were crazy, but fun years in NASCAR...

James Hylton is an interesting case too... As a mechanic, he was part of Rex White's championship team in 1960 then was working for Bondy Long when Jarrett won his second title in '65... Hylton decided to become a driver and ended up second in points in both 1966 and 1967 without winning one race!

Could a "Chase" scenario work on the local level to make things more interesting? I think it would... Let's take the Pro Late Model class at New Smyrna Speedway as an example... The class ran 15 races in 2015 and Brad May won 8 of those yet finished fourth in points because he missed several races... Zach Jarrell won the championship, Blaise Hetznecker was second and Noah Cornman third in points yet none of that trio won a race! However, they did start all 15 events and that gave them an advantage over May and Rich Clouser (3 wins) who did not run all the races... But how about this... Say after 10 races, the points are reset for a "chase" for the final five nights the class runs... The top five in points (Jarrell, Hetznecker, Cornman, May & Clouser) all qualify for the "chase" along with the other drivers who won at least once in the first ten events (Michael Lira, Ray Black, Jr. & Daniel Keene, Jr.)... Those eight then fight it out over the final five events... Makes the whole deal a bit more interesting although the "race within a race" the final few weeks with Jarrell, Hetznecker and Cornman was very interesting... I don't want to get Zach mad at me because the young man is a quality person and his team is highly supportive of racing both on and off the track in the New Smyrna area so he is a very deserving champion... Hetznecker did great for his first full year in a PLM on asphalt with a really low-buck team and Corman, at just 15, is an up-and-coming kid who will be around for awhile...

Sort of a long post but I love statistics and the "what ifs" of racing...

[OldSchool+]

AncrDave,

Am sincerely glad we have you and your love of stats. I work out of the other side of my brain, assuming the brain is involved at all...

Re: Chase at the local level. Or even "eliminate 'x' number of events. It looks good on paper, but...

The issue is that it may very well be that a team will lose money every time they tow to the track, and another team getting a "break" even though they are not there may be counter-motivational to the team, or teams, that have been running every week.

If that is the case, the every-week team may not come every week, and we know that there is no surplus car count to spare...

Nope, would suggest that it be race weighted just as NASCAR's used to be, and for the same reason--car count.

Ya think...?

[jacko241]

Here's a point I'd seen somewhere else, but I thought it's something worth considering.....

The M&M's TEAM ran all 36 races.... they accomplished the goal of keeping the team in contention, despite the bunches of hurdles they had to clear.

No, Kyle WASN'T there for every race, but every single team member was.

If Brett Favre or Joe Montana was sidelined near the beginning, but rebounded to become Super Bowl Champions, they'd be revered as an historic accomplishment.

If the rest of the team dug a hole so deep that Kyle couldn't come back......?

That didn't happen. The team stepped up, the driver did when he became healthy, what's not to like about an "against against all odds" story....

First, let me say that I think Kyle deserves the championship under the current format, but.....Remember, this is the DRIVER'S championship, not the team championship or the owner's championship.