The NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships!

If I’m correctly reading what the Indycar Series people are doing, they’re now going to award three championships per racing season based on the tracks they race on. There will be a road course champion, an oval track champion and (I’m speculating here, but it makes sense) there will be an overall champion.

Taking a page from the IZOD Indycar Series (stealing their idea!), I’ve cooked the books down to yield four different NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships. Here are the categories:

The Short Track Championship (tracks one mile or less in length)

The Road Course Championship (Infineon and Watkins Glen)

The Intermediate Track Championship (tracks between one and two miles in length)

And The Long Track Championship (tracks two miles in length or longer)

At this point in the season, with 22 races completed, we have just found our first champion of the season…

Our 2010 Road Course Champion is Juan Pablo Montoya driving the Earnhardt-Ganassi red number 42 Target Chevrolet!

Here are the top 20 Road Warriors of 2010:

---Road Course Championship Final Standings---

-------------------------Average-Total --Total

--Driver -----------------Finish -Points -Earnings
1 Juan Pablo Montoya -----5.50 --329 --$374,087
2 Marcos Ambrose --------4.50 --325 --$302,121
3 Kevin Harvick -----------7.00 --295 --$304,602
4 Jeff Gordon --------------7.50 --289 --$271,027
5 Tony Stewart ------------8.00 --289 --$246,371
6 A J Allmendinger --------8.50 ---284 -$268,852
7 Jimmie Johnson --------14.50 ---274 -$443,431
8 Jamie McMurray -------10.50 ---273 -$243,408
9 Kasey Kahne -----------10.50 ---272 -$284,805
10 Ryan Newman --------14.00 ---247 -$223,633
11 Greg Biffle ------------15.50 ---237 -$182,625
12 Kurt Busch -----------17.00 ---237 -$304,576
13 Mark Martin ---------16.50 ---232 -$185,475
14 Carl Edwards --------17.00 ---231 -$248,496
15 Robby Gordon -------19.00 ---225 -$291,646
16 Jeff Burton ----------18.00 ---220 -$226,055
17 Dale Earnhardt Jr. ---18.50 ---215 -$169,850
18 Paul Menard --------19.00 --212 -$164,900
19 Matt Kenseth -------21.50 --197 --$237,277
20 David Reutimann ---21.50 --197 --$209,637

Congratulations to Juan and Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing!

So how are the drivers doing with the other three championships?

With half (6) of the short track races in the books entering mid-August here are the top twenty:

--------Short Track Championship Standings--------
--------------------------Average -Total ---Total
--Driver ------------------Finish --Points --Earnings
1 Jimmie Johnson ----------6.67 ---952 --$1,057,758
2 Jeff Gordon --------------6.00 ---931 --$979,354
3 Kyle Busch ---------------8.67 ---907 --$1,116,909
4 Ryan Newman -----------8.00 ---891 --$865,922
5 Carl Edwards ------------9.83 ---828 --$775,211
6 Matt Kenseth ----------10.33 ----825 --$871,479
7 Jeff Burton -------------12.17 ----807 --$849,738
8 Kevin Harvick ----------12.33 ---788 --$823,579
9 Denny Hamlin ----------13.17 ---785 --$711,800
10 Joey Logano ----------12.33 ---778 --$766,263
11 Martin Truex Jr. ------12.50 ---774 --$523,825
12 Tony Stewart ---------14.17 ----771 --$834,636
13 Greg Biffle ------------13.33 ----758 --$589,050
14 Kurt Busch -----------16.83 ----722 --$818,411
15 Clint Bowyer ---------15.33 ----712 --$571,225
16 Brad Keselowski -----16.50 ----686 --$651,008
17 Dale Earnhardt Jr. ---17.33 ----673 --$537,400
18 A J Allmendinger ----18.50 ----651 --$715,354
19 Marcos Ambrose ----18.83 ----641 --$638,598
20 Mark Martin --------20.17 ----629 --$611,585

Jimmie Johnson

Looks like the usual suspects on this list. Four of the six remaining short track races are Chase races…

There have been 6 intermediate track races (out of 11) so far this year. Here’s how the leaderboard stands at this time:

-----Intermediate Track Championship Standing-----
--------------------------Average -Total -----Total
--Driver ------------------Finish --Points ---Earnings
1 Jeff Gordon --------------10.83 ---859 --$1,076,931
2 Kurt Busch --------------11.67 ----858 --$1,265,588
3 Denny Hamlin -----------11.33 ----847 --$1,229,475
4 Kasey Kahne -------------9.33 ----843 ---$919,615
5 Matt Kenseth -----------10.50 ----820 ---$937,381
6 Kyle Busch --------------11.67 ----814 --$1,071,986
7 Kevin Harvick -----------11.50 ---805 --$1,010,261
8 Mark Martin ------------13.00 ---767 ---$807,600
9 Jeff Burton --------------13.83 ---751 ---$812,390
10 Ryan Newman ---------14.33 ---729 ---$828,849
11 Jamie McMurray -------17.00 --725 --$1,081,599
12 Tony Stewart ----------16.50 ---707 ---$818,788
13 David Reutimann ------17.83 ---704 ---$968,721
14 Jimmie Johnson -------18.83 ---702 --$1,298,543
15 Dale Earnhardt Jr. ----17.00 ---685 ---$632,625
16 Clint Bowyer ----------18.33 ---684 --$660,025
17 Paul Menard ----------17.50 ---679 ---$614,225
18 Martin Truex Jr. ------18.17 ---658 ---$589,750
19 A J Allmendinger ------18.17 ---656 ---$784,681
20 Carl Edwards ---------19.50 ---645 ---$868,788

Jeff Gordon

Here again, four of the remaining five intermediate track races are part of the Chase. Notice the same names at the top of these standings…

Finally, here are the long track standings with 8 races in the books and 3 remaining (2 of which will be included in the Chase):

---------Long Track Championship Standings-----------
---------------------------Average --Total ----Total
--Driver -------------------Finish ---Points ---Earnings
1 Kevin Harvick -------------5.00 ---1,322 --$2,132,649
2 Denny Hamlin ------------12.00 ---1,127 --$1,355,820
3 Carl Edwards --------------9.13 ---1,117 --$1,401,325
4 Jeff Burton ---------------10.00 ---1,117 --$1,428,236
5 Greg Biffle ----------------11.38 ---1,106 --$1,787,545
6 Tony Stewart ------------10.88 ---1,098 --$1,498,525
7 Clint Bowyer -------------10.75 ---1,093 --$1,500,695
8 Kurt Busch --------------12.00 ---1,075 --$1,431,575
9 Mark Martin ------------14.00 ---1,013 --$1,182,770
10 Matt Kenseth ----------14.88 -----964 --$1,367,424
11 Jamie McMurray ------17.75 ------961 --$2,773,823
12 Kyle Busch ------------16.25 ------957 --$1,445,264
13 Jimmie Johnson -------17.63 ------954 --$1,581,934
14 Dale Earnhardt Jr. ----16.38 ------947 --$1,836,245
15 David Reutimann -----15.38 ------947 --$1,408,889
16 Jeff Gordon -----------17.00 -----946 --$1,390,824
17 Juan Pablo Montoya --18.25 ------916 --$1,342,739
18 Kasey Kahne ---------18.50 ------901 --$1,417,446
19 Joey Logano ----------18.38 ------883 --$1,273,297
20 Paul Menard ----------17.75 ------883 --$1,004,920

All Right! Kevin Harvick!

Based on these results, I really have to wonder what Jeff Gordon’s honest feelings are concerning NASCAR’s Chase format.

Jeff Gordon will make the Chase again this season and with 8 of the 10 Chase races on short and intermediate length tracks, Gordon might not be a bad bet to win it all, but will he in his last season being known as the Rainbow Warrior?