THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608110234
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. LENGTH: 73 lines
For all the manipulating NASCAR does with the aerodynamics of the Fords, Chevys and Pontiacs to make them as equal as possible, you'd think it would welcome change as readily as a sunny day turns rainy in Upstate New York.
But when it comes to certain areas of the sport, such as the points system, NASCAR might as well have carved its rules in stone.
Many folks, including this reporter, have long thought that NASCAR should put a premium on winning races. There ought to be a greater reward for winning. And I think there should be a points reward for the major races as well.
But whether the points system ever changes - and it seems certain that won't happen any time soon - the method the sport uses to spotlight its major races is somewhat out of whack.
The Brickyard 400 has become NASCAR's second-biggest race, but it still isn't recognized in any formal way as a major event.
The sport's bonus for its major races is the Winston Million. Any driver who can win three out of four of the designated major races wins a $1 million bonus from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the series sponsor. Those races are the Daytona 500, the Winston Select 500 at Talladega, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the Southern 500 at Darlington.
The Brickyard 400 is not in this mix. Obviously, it should be. It pays more than any other NASCAR race. It is held at the most famous racetrack in the world. And drivers who win the Brickyard 400 become misty-eyed.
``The Winston Million program started in 1985, when the Brickyard 400 was just a gleam in Tony George's eyes,'' said R.J. Reynolds' Chris Powell. ``Now that the Brickyard 400 is an established race, I will say it's been discussed how to work that into the Winston Million.''
The problem is how.
If you add the Brickyard 400 to the mix and decide that a driver must win three of the five majors, it may become too easy to win. If you required victories in four of the five, it would seem too hard.
You could eliminate one existing race. The most logical selection would be the Southern 500. That's messing with NASCAR tradition and history. But the race has lost most of its 1950s luster.
The PGA Tour has done a good job of showcasing its majors, and it doesn't seem to have hurt the non-major tournaments. The bonus for winning a golf major - in addition to extra money - is a 10-year exemption to the other majors. That's a huge perk.
NASCAR could enhance its own majors with a bonus points program for the top-10 finishers.
Give the winner 25 extra points, and award 20 extra points for second, 15 for third and a descending number of points through 10th. That would be enough to enhance the big races, but not so much as to detract from the others.
Winston Cup fans appreciate their steady diet of weekly races. But in NASCAR, as in any sport, some events are bigger than others.
Yet this issue won't be showing up on NASCAR's agenda any time soon.
``We used to (put a premium on the bigger races) years ago when points were based on prize money,'' NASCAR president Bill France Jr. said Saturday. ``But the series really took off once the points system was created where all the events count the same.''
If premiums are placed on certain races, it might prompt drivers to cherry-pick the biggest events and skip some of the smaller ones, as Cale Yarborough did in the 1980s, France said.
``It's working good the way we do it now,'' he said. ``And I don't see how your proposal would add anything to it.''
``We're anxious to put the spotlight on the whole series,'' said Mike Helton, NASCAR's vice president of competition. ``Some guys can drive a road course better than the speedways. Some guys can run the superspeedways better than the road courses. That's why the driver who is the champion has to be able to perform consistently across the entire series.
Helton said the major races are already sufficiently spotlighted, citing the extra money and prestige that come with a major-race victory.
``They do that by themselves,'' he said, ``so we don't have to use the points to do that.'' by CNB