NASCAR POINTS SYSTEM LEAVES SPORTS BETTING FANS FLAT

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, which continues to thrive despite fierce competition from football, basketball and baseball, seems intent on alienating its fan base and, with it, sports betting fans who wager on the elite stock car circuit.

 

A while back we previewed the future book odds for the upcoming 2011 season, speculating on whether Jimmie Johnson was worth a short price to win his sixth consecutive championship or whether it might be wiser to invest on another driver at a heftier price. That analysis assumed that the inmates who now are running the NASCAR asylum would at least have the decency to turn off the lights when they left.

 

But, from the likes of a new point-scoring proposal, it looks as though that isn't the case and that it will be hard to blame NASCAR betting enthusiasts who don't want to risk their bankrolls on a system that is ridiculous to the point of absurdity.

 

In case you missed it, NASCAR wants to replace its current contrived point system, which no one understands anyway and, as legend has it, was written on a napkin in 1975, with one that—and this is the part that's hard to believe—is even worse. The new point system would give 43 points to the driver who finishes first in a race, 42 to the one that finishes second, 41 to the driver that comes in third, etc. Even the last place finisher would get one point, proving that Woody Allen was right when he said, "90 percent of life is just showing up."

 

The idea, at least according to the NASCAR brain trust (we're being generous) is to establish a system that is readily understandable to NASCAR fans. OK, so how many points does a driver get if he finishes 15th? How about 27th? Yeah, real easy.

 

How about this: Under this proposed system, a driver could win the first 35 races of the season, amassing 1,505 points (35 X 43 = 1,505), then finish 38th in the final race of the year, earning another six points, for a total of 1,511 points. Another driver could finish second in all 36 races and get 1,512 points (36 X 42 = 1,512), claiming the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship without winning a single race over a driver that won 35 races.

 

Of course this is an extreme example but in diminishing the value of winning and striving to keep as many drivers as possible in the game, an outcome such as this, though not as drastic, remains a possibility. NASCAR's problem is that while there are 43 drivers in each race, most of them have only a remote chance of turning wheelies at the event of an event. In fact, only 13 drivers won a race last year

 

And NASCAR expects sports betting fans to bet a future book into this system?

 

Interestingly, NASCAR is not the only racing entity that plans to tweak, or already has changed its point scoring system…usually for the worse. From 1991-2002, Formula One racing awarded 10 points for first, six for second, four for third, three for fourth, two for fifth and one for sixth. From 2002-09, the system added points for seventh and eighth place cars and narrowed the gap between the winner and runner-up to 10-8. The current system awards points to the top 10 cars with 25 for first, 18 for second, 15 for third, 12-10-8-6-4-2-1. At least the current system is somewhat of an improvement in that a driver with a win and a fourth would still have more points (37) than a driver who notched two seconds (36).

 

Sports, like gambling, should be about winning.

 

One sport that gets it right is horse racing. Most tracks give 60 percent of the purse to the winner, 20 percent to the runner-up, 11 percent for third, six percent for fourth and three percent for fifth. Like betting, winning is what counts.

 

OK, there aren't 43 horses in a race like there are cars in a NASCAR Sprint Cup event, so let's spread the points a bit deeper through the field. Give 50 points to the winner, 20 for second, 12 for third, eight for fourth, six for fifth and four for sixth. This puts an emphasis on winning, encouraging bold moves while adding a disincentive for drivers to just "hang around."

 

NASCAR, which gets its solid TV ratings, in part, from people who have a sports betting interest, like all forms of gambling, should reward winning.

 

 

This article was written by Luken Karel for http://www.thegreek.com. The Greek Sportsbook & Casino is host to one of the top online sportsbooks offering college football betting and sports betting on NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and all other major sports. The Greek is a must have sports betting and entertainment portal with one of the largest wagering menus available online. Article reproductions must include a link pointing to http://www.thegreek.com