What are NASCAR points for?

Answer 1

In 2011 NASCAR developed a New Points System: Every Position a Driver Picks up on the Track is one point. Any driver that leads one lap gets another Point (Known as A bonus point). If a driver leads the most laps, he again gets a Bonus Point. If a driver wins the Race, he automatically gets 3 Bonus Points.

NASCAR changed The Chase format once again in 2011. Points are tallied after 26 races and the top ten in points are locked into the final ten race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Those ten drivers will then be manually seeded with three bonus points for every race that they won during the first 26 races of the season.

In addition to the top ten the two drivers with the most wins who were not in the top ten, but are in the top twenty in points will make the Chase and will be seeded 11th and 12th. They will not get the bonus points for wins going into the Chase.

For the last ten races, NASCAR points are still assigned the same way as the rest of the season to determine the champion.

The Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series do not use The Chase format. They simply race every race, total up the points at the end and award the Championship to the driver that has the most points.

Example #1

The most points a driver can earn in a single race is 48. If you win the race (43 points) and lead the most laps you would receive 3 bonus points for winning, one bonus point for leading a lap and one more bonus point for leading the most laps.

Example #2

If you win the race but do not lead the most laps you would receive 47 points, 43 + 3 for winning and 1 bonus point for leading a lap (since you must have lead at least the last lap). While the most the second place driver could earn is 44 points. 42 for second, 1 bonus point for leading and 1 additional bonus point for leading the most laps.

It used to be possible for the first and second place finishers to earn the same number of points. NASCAR fixed that in 2004 by giving the race winners extra bonus points. In 2007 NASCAR added even more points to the winner's total. In 2011 NASCAR overhauled the point system but maintained the race winners bonus as it is today.

NASCAR Points AwardedFinish Points 1st 43 2nd 42 3rd 41 4th 40 5th 39 6th 38 7th 37 8th 36 9th 35 10th 34 11th 33 12th 32 13th 31 14th 30 15th 29 16th 28 17th 27 18th 26 19th 25 20th 24 21st 23 22nd 22 23rd 21 24th 20 25th 19 26th 18 27th 17 28th 16 29th 15 30th 14 31st 13 32nd 12 33rd 11 34th 10 35th 9 36th 8 37th 7 38th 6 39th 5 40th 4 41st 3 42nd 2 43rd 1