The President finds some time during an off week to look at the removal of the superstar option and how it has afffected the league up to this point.
One of the highly debated issues last year was the bonus superstar driver. For the new teams this year or those members who have a short memory, the superstar was a driver that you could designate for bonus points. You would receive double points for that driver, however the trick was that you could only designate a driver as a superstar once during the year.
It was finally decided that the superstar took the focus away from trying to get drivers who finished in the top 5 or 10. A team could get lucky with his superstar winning the race and the rest of his drivers doing poorly. He would still get a top 5 or possibly even a win that week. Some teams benefited from the superstar during the season while others were burned by it on a weekly basis.
The council decided to vote on the removal of the superstar and decided to give the top 10 drivers more points. During the offseason, people wondered how the change would affect the league. After seven races into the season, we can see some changes already.
I decided to take a look at some of the teams who benefited greatly by the superstar, and are struggling this year, and those teams who are doing just the opposite.
The team that had the most superstar points last year was High Octane. High Octane won a record five races during the year, including the first two races. Dan scored 830 superstar points during the year. Six times he picked a driver who scored 60 or more points in a race. After Texas last year, he was 5th place in points and had scored two wins and a top 3. He struggled for a few weeks at a time during the season but eventually climbed back up to finish the season in 2nd place. During the closing weeks, he chose the superstar as the winner of the race, scoring 90 points each time.
Where is he now? Definitely not having the start to the season that he had last year. High Octane is currently down in 22nd place after Texas. He scored one top 5 but has had 5 finishes below 23rd place.
CrazyAboutRusty2 was third in the standings after Texas and stayed in the top 10 nearly all year long. Brian was the fifth highest team in terms of Superstar points. He scored 682 superstar points during the year including 5 times of scoring 70 or more points during a race. This year he is off to a poor start, probably the most shocking of all the teams. Right now he is in 38th place, not having finished above 22nd place in all seven starts so far. If there’s any team that the superstar has affected, its mostly like him…. Or maybe it’s just because Rusty Wallace retired.
Pappy’s Drivers was the third highest team to score the most superstar points. In the first seven races of the season, he scored 90 points back to back in race 5 and 6. Then at Phoenix he scored 100 points. Pappy’s Drivers was flying high with his superstar points and he nearly could have won the championship. Larry did take rookie of the year honors from the amount of top 5’s and top 10’s that he had. This year he looked to be starting strong again after winning the Daytona 500, however he quickly spiraled down after that. Currently he is in 24th place and has not finished above 21st place since Daytona. Think he would like some extra points?
Another team who is in the cellar right now is Top Dawgs. Top Dawgs was in the top 10 teams who scored the most superstar points. After Texas last year Ryan was 14th, but didn’t start picking it up until midway through the year. He could still do that again this year, but is stuck down in 33rd place now. He did manage one top 10 this year but has also had three finishes 39th and below.
Now on the flip side, there are a number of teams who didn’t do well with superstar points, or just didn’t choose to use them that much.
Our most improved teams this year is NASCAR Fan Racing, Inc. who was dead last in the league with superstar points, along with some other stat categories as well. Kim didn’t do that bad picking superstar drivers, she just chose not to pick them much during the season. Out of the 36 races, she only picked a superstar for 11 races. Out of the teams that ran all the races last year, she finished last. Now that she is constantly being outscored by all the teams with the extra points, she finds herself in 8th place. She even led the league for one week. Many people weren’t in the league in 2004 when she was doing quite well for herself after joining late. If there is any team that could be considered a dark horse to win the championship, it’s Kim.
Big Country Motorsports did not have much luck with superstar points. He was the 34th team to score the most points. He did finish a somewhat respectable 16th place. After Texas he was 22nd last year. This year Kendall is off to a much better start in 10th place.
Now, not all teams were that much affected by the removal of the superstar option. Some teams like Miller Motorsports, Bump And Go Racing and Intimidator Racing did well using the superstar option, were in the top 10 teams who scored the most superstar points and are still in the top 10 this year without using them.
Some teams stunk last year and are still stinking this year, so it doesn’t matter how many bonus points they were or weren’t able to get. You know who you are! However, those teams that are struggling can easily turn it around since it’s still early in the season. On the flip side, some of those teams that are doing well now, might begin to slip down the standings as well.
It’s just an interesting look at how a new year and new rules can affect some teams so drastically.
