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| NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano holding the Championship Trophy in 2024 after prevailing in the Playoff Finale at Phoenix Raceway. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR) |
Every year since its 1948, NASCAR’s top division has crowned a champion at the end of a season of racing. In the 77 years, there have been various points-paying formats for the title but none has been so polarizing as the current NASCAR Playoffs for the Cup Series. Ever since its inception, the championship-deciding 10-race format attracts strongly polarizing views of the sport’s fans and observers. Supporters of the current Playoff format promote the diverse group of contenders late in a season, how it directly rewards winning races and there is a certain crowning of a champion at the final race. Detractors of the NASCAR Playoffs have been vocal since its initial incarnation in 2004 (called the Chase for the Cup) criticizing it as manufactured title hunt which, in honesty, it is. One major argument is isolating the battle for the Cup in the final 10 races is unfair to drivers who had performed well in earlier 26 races. This year, Shane Van Gisbergen’s road course victories have resulted in sharper debates for whether one or two race wins should justify being a championship contender among even the 16 drivers. The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs have generated a great deal of dislike but it may not be the worst championship format ever used.
For the 1974 NASCAR Cup Series season, the sport operated under a championship point format that proved so flawed and divisive it was abandoned after just one season. In a year that would involve a shortened Daytona 500 due to an oil crisis and mass sabotage at an event at Talladega, a wacky points system was icing on the poorly-cooked cake.
A simple scheme in tabulation, drivers would be awarded points based on their race prize money (not including other contingency bonuses). The point amount was determined for a driver by multiplying the season’s prize money by the races they competed in and dividing that amount by 1,000 to arrive at the total. This NASCAR Cup Series points structure for 1974 replaced a disliked system used for two years prior where a driver received points for a finishing position in addition to extra points tallied per lap based on the track length.
The 1974 points system wasn’t NASCAR’s first to involve a championship leveraged on prize money. From 1952 to 1967, the Cup Series (known as the Grand National Series at that time) set the points payouts based on the race purse. Races with high purses would offer greater points for the top 25 finishers. In 1953, a winner for an event with a full prize purse near $2,000 would receive 100 points but could receive 1,250 points if an event purse is $25,000. This sizable difference among races meant competitors finishing well in high paying events would gain a measurably large advantage in the season’s points championship. With the 1974 NASCAR Cup Series championship, this scenario would repeat in an extreme way.
Because of this method of calculation, 1974 NASCAR championship point totals would contain decimals. As every race paid differently, this system created a confusing mess for anyone tracking it through the season. There were also complications for fans of the series knowing exactly how many points would be available heading into future races. Even if the race payouts were publicized, this information would not be as freely available roughly two decades before the popularization of the Internet. A fan would also have to keep track if their favourite driver would be running all the races for the season. Up to this point in the NASCAR Cup Series, it was still common for some major names behind the wheel to not compete in every race on the calendar. For l974, just six drivers ran all 30 races in NASCAR’s top tour.
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| At the 1974 season-ending banquet, Richard Petty accepts his fifth NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy. He would be the only driver to claim the title under that season's confusing points system. (Photo Credit: ISC Archives via Getty Images/NASCAR) |
Richard Petty won the 1974 NASCAR Cup Series championship by a wide margin over runner-up Cale Yarborough earning 5,037.75 points compared to 4,470.30 points. This 567.45-point gap came after the 30-race season even as Petty and Yarborough both scored 10 victories and was separated by one top-five finish. What helped the driver of the #43 Dodge Charger pull forward were victories Daytona 500, the Dixie 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Talladega 500 at Talladega Superspeedway that were among some of the higher paying races on the 1974 NASCAR Cup Series calendar. Yarborough’s victory the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway as well as a second place at the Daytona 500 cemented his runner-up spot in the standings placing an astonishing 2,181.05 points ahead of third. While the hated 1972 and 1973 point system had its own complexity, it still created the reasonable possibility of a battle in the championship standings. The 1974 NASCAR Cup Series points almost completely removed any meaningful narrative of a championship battle with the conclusion of the Daytona 500.
The inequity of the 1974 points system was also revealed deeper in the standings. David Pearson only ran 19 of the 30 races of the 1974 Cup Series season but still managed to finish third place in the overall standings by virtue of winning seven races including the lucrative World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Missing three races but winning twice, Bobby Allison managed to take the fourth highest spot on the season-ending chart placing ahead of Benny Parson and Dave Marcis who both competed in every race for 1974 without scoring a race win. The lowest-finishing race-winning driver in the 1974 NASCAR Cup Series points was Earl Ross in eighth place even as he competed in just 21 races.
It was clear from observing the 1974 NASCAR Cup Series standings at the end of the season winners prospered greatly specifically in races with richer purses. The differential of prize money between first and second place was substantial. For example, Richard Petty winning share of the Daytona 500 $252,440 purse for 1974 was $34,100 while second place Cale Yarborough grabbed $17,200. Another sizable gap in prize money was for the Southern 500 where Yarborough took $28,000 for victory while runner-up Darrell Waltrip received just $11,000. While Petty won the race with the largest payout, he also won the Music City USA 420 with the lowest purse fund ($38,565) awarding a more modest $7,900 for his efforts. Finishing second place in that Nashville Fairgrounds race, Donnie Allison was paid $3,850.
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| Equaling Richard Petty with 10 wins during the 1974 NASCAR Cup Series season, Cale Yarborough settled for a distant second place in the standings. Yarborough pictured above after victory at Darlington Raceway. (Photo Credit: NASCAR/ISC Archives) |
For 1975, an all-new points system debuted in the NASCAR Cup Series that remained largely unchanged for decades. Regardless of length or prize money, every race would offer a standard amount of points for finishes. Credited to NASCAR statistician Bob Latford, this simple championship structure proved popular encouraging consistency on track but also added an incentive for running all the races for a top spot in the standings. Drivers and teams engaged in a full-time campaign steadily rose to 23 names in 1985.
For those petitioning for a return to the pre-2004 season-long championship standing format, its worth recalling some of its flaws. One argument regarding the season-long championship format is that it rewards consistency more than promoting race victories. Two entices illustrating this point was Rusty Wallace in 1993 and 1994. Wallace won 10 races in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series to finish runner-up in the points and would lead the tour again in 1994 with 8 event wins but settled for third place that year. Dale Earnhardt’s sixth and seventh championships were claimed by posting better average finishes despite fewer races than Wallace (6 in 1993 and 4 in 1994). Most crucially, the title fight from the late-1970s to 2004 had been settled on multiple times several races before the season finale removing suspense and stakes for the last race.
Richard Petty would be the only seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion to claim the title in five different point formats. Dale Earnhardt’s seven champions were won under the standardized, full-season points system and Jimmie Johnson won every title under the Chase/Playoff structure (his final coming in a championship four at the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway).
Despite the attitudes towards the various point systems used to determine the NASCAR Cup Series ranging from confusing point calculations or a flawed Playoff, every scheme has operated on the premise of showcasing the best performance for a season. Every season of the NASCAR Cup Series has been won by a driver worthy of being called a champion.
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