NASCAR 2008 Rankings

Now it's time for the release of the 2008 NASCAR Driver Rankings. I broke this away from IndyCar & F1 not because the other two are open-wheel, but because I have multiple charts for NASCAR.

One unique feature of NASCAR is that its drivers often run in multiple series. Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, and David Ragan to name a few ran full or almost full Nationwide Series, and Shrub also did a lot of Truck racing as well. As a result, I felt the need to have more than one chart was necessary. There are in fact three charts: a Sprint Cup only chart, a single-series season chart, and a chart combining a driver's performances between all three national NASCAR series.

Sprint Cup Rankings




Unlike the previously released Overall chart, this one extends to the top 50 point earners in the Sprint Cup series for 2008. Unsurprisingly Jimmie Johnson occupies the #1 spot, with Carl Edwards #2. Kyle Busch is #3, although when I began charting he was in the #1 spot for NASCAR drivers and fell coinciding with his poor Chase performance. Mark Martin is fifth despite his part-time schedule, which may mean good things for his full-time ride with Hendrick next year. Not bad for a guy who could have gone to high school with my dad (that is, if he lived in New Jersey or my dad lived in Arkansas).

Single Season Rankings


Kyle Busch occupies both the top two spots on this chart, with his performance in the Trucks at #1 and his Nationwide season with a record-tying win tally at #2. In the trucks, strangely enough Ron Hornaday bested Johnny Benson in the rankings although Benson was #1 in the points that actually counted.

The best total overall though is not listed here. Tony Stewart had the best season in the Nationwide Series, with an ranking average of 29.460. He did not make the cutoff though, as he ran 9 races in the season. In those nine appearances though he had five wins, finished in the top 10 all but once, and had 2 poles and a front row appearance. Ryan Newman's sole Truck appearance also bested Kyle Busch's best marks, as he won the race to pick up 26 points.

The Combined Rankings


Running just the Craftsman Truck season, Ron Hornaday tops Kyle Busch for the #1 spot. Still, Shrub's work is an impressive feat considering that he had 86 races in major NASCAR competition this season, and he won 21 times. Also breaking double digits is Carl Edwards, who had 16 wins in 2008.

The hyped "Next big driver" in NASCAR, Joey Logano, finished in the top 10. Note above in the Sprint Cup chart he's dead last, so his Nationwide work went a long way towards securing the top 10. I don't think he'll be there next year, although if he does we won't hear the end of it.

So what can be done to save racing as we know it?

The recent announcement by Honda that it is pulling out of F1 came as a shock to probably every racing fan, myself included. Furthermore, Audi, the defending champs of both the Le Mans Series and ALMS, is downsizing its program to focus on Sebring and Le Mans. To see major factory teams cutting their losses is pretty big. While much of the press about the auto slump at least here in the good old U.S. of A the extremely precarious positions of GM, Ford, and Chrysler, it is also affecting foreign makes too.

It makes me concern about the position of motorsports and if it can survive and still retain what makes it so great. The talk of the much-ballyhooed standard Formula One engine has returned, and people seem more willing to listen a few weeks later.

NASCAR faces a similar problem with the fact 3/4 of its automakers are dying without government assistance, with the ultimate possibility of having one or more makes gone by the green flag at Daytona. Several teams have merged (DEI-Ganassi) or closing up shop to make matters worse. For the first time in NASCAR history, a car owned by a Petty won't be in the field, since Petty Enterprises, the last original team, is basically done.

What can be done to save racing as we know it? I want to look at some ways the major racing series can significantly cut costs while retaining their identities. For example, I won't talk about a standard F1 engine, since it would radicially alter F1's identity. What can we do to prevent that from happening, while achieving the same effect? Likewise, how to save NASCAR from the slump as well?

The best thing NASCAR can do to save itself it to shorten itself, both in schedule length and race length.

It is a very easy way to reduce costs by simply running less events. Less weeks racing means less money is needed to run the team, thus a lesser burden on big sponsor dollars. Even if you don't extend the winter break and just take more break weeks in the season, that would have the added effect of more sponsor appearances opportunities for drivers, which could keep sponsors from fleeing the sport.

So what gets the ax? I would cut one of the Pocono races, as well as some of the weaker attended 2 race tracks, Fontana topping my list. Promoters will probably see attendance go up, since fans who previous attending the second race only will buy tickets to the single event instead. One well attended event has the added advantage of looking better on TV.

Shortening the races can also help save a bit of green for NASCAR teams. Less laps = less opportunities to wreck and spend costly dollars and man hours fixing the cars. Cuts tire costs, since there are less pit stops. I'm not too knowledgeable about the tech aspects of NASCAR engines, but something tells me a shorter race could stretch an engine's lifespan just a tad bit longer.

I am not advocating making it the Daytona 300 though. I'm talking about the 500 milers at tracks like Texas. All races would be limited to 300 miles, except for the ones the superspeedways (Daytona, Talladega), the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500.

As for Formula One, there are many avenues to cut costs other than standardization. I've just read a story by Martin Brundle detailing how to cut costs. That article has a lot of solid solutions and is worth the read. I won't repeat any of his ideas, but I have one of my own.

Brundle's article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article5298985.ece

The schedule, for instance, poses a problem. The focus on expanding the season towards Asia with high fees has hurt the sport in retaining traditional venues like France and Canada, and perhaps even Germany in the near future. Most if not all that money is going into Bernie Ecclestone's pockets, and not into any assistance for teams. European GPs are certainly less expensive on the teams in transportation costs, since cars can be trucked to Hungary but have to be flown to Malaysia.

I understand the desire for Asian GPs, but the scheduling that exists is a hinderance to F1. In 2009, three separate trips must be made to the Asian continent: the post-Australia trip of Malaysia, China, and Bahrain, the late season trip to Singapore and Japan, and a one-off trip after Brazil to Abu Dhabi. This is a ridiculous idea. Attempt two trips instead, with an emphasis on putting nearby GPs together better.

For example, why are Malaysia and Singapore, with tracks separated by 210 miles, not together on the schedule when that could save the teams on transportation? Teams could fly into one country, run the grand prix, then take everything by truck to the other site, before driving it back after the race and flying back to Europe or onto a different Asian site. They did not run the US and Canadian races apart most of the time, so why do the same with these two races?

Series Rankings: 2008 in Open Wheel

It's a delay in getting these out, but here is a look at the complete ratings in major open wheel. These lists will include anyone with 2+ starts. In F1, that means I've include the Super Aguri guys and for IndyCar it's everyone but the one-offers at Indy & Long Beach. There are few surprises on these lists - the only one that may register is Paul Tracy joining the IndyCar top 10.

F1


IndyCar

Rankings by Category

As promised, albeit a day late, here is a category by category look at the tops in each of the three major categories of the rankings: Race finishes, Qualifying, and Bonus Statistics. I've included the driver's overall rank as well, just for your information.

Race Finishes


Considering he's the #1 overall driver, it should not come as a shock that Scott Dixon is #1 on this list. Jumping up quite nicely in this ranking is Carl Edwards, #7 overall but tied for third with Lewis Hamilton based on race results.

All ties noted are truly mathematical ties. It's actually pretty easy, since F1 and IndyCar ran 18 races while NASCAR Sprint Cup ran 36. Ergo, Carl earned twice as many race points as Lewis, but are tied when averaged.

Two other gents who moved up quite nicely are #9 Dan Wheldon (13th overall) and #12 Jeff Burton (23rd overall). Neither is an impressive qualifier, but move forward as the race progresses.

Which drivers are being propped up by the other categories? Ryan Briscoe is the only top 10 overall driver not in the top 10 of race results - credit a poor showing in the early part of the '08 season when he was 19th in points leaving Indy prior to his breakthrough win at Milwaukee. Ditto Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Heikki Kovalainen, each 8 spots lower than their overall ranks, and the inconsistent Marco Andretti, 7 spots lower.

Qualifying




Dixon is #1 again in qualifying, but with 6 poles and qualifying in the top 25% in all but one possible qualifying session it's no surprise. Felipe Massa was extremely close - one position higher in Canada or Italy would have made him the top qualifier of 2008.

A few of the big NASCAR names, namely Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are much lower than than their overall positions would expect. The nature of NASCAR though can be a key reason. As the only series that features DNQs on a regular basis, there's often guys who will qualify better in a single session in order to make the show. Not to mention the length of a NASCAR race and the (relative) ease of passing compared to, say, Formula One that positions can be made up easily through time and only taking two tires on some pit stops. It's less necessary to qualify well, so the results show that.

Bonus Points

Bonus points consist of leading laps, leading the most laps, running the fastest lap, and improving the most positions in the race.


The Iceman Kimi Raikkonen leads racers in the bonus points category by a pretty fair margin. Kimi had 9 fastest laps that were key to his #1 placement. Scott Dixon is a lot further down in this category than most.



Towards the bottom of this list are two drivers you wouldn't expect in a positive top 30 list: Michael Waltrip and Giancarlo Fisichella. Waltrip was the best improver twice and regularly led a lap (in order to gain bonus points in NASCAR races). Fisi also improved the best twice, which considering Force India's poor qualifying abilities (he earned 0 points in that category), there was nowhere to go but up in classification.