Points & Penalties

Something Carl Edwards said tonight got me thinking and then something Kyle Petty said tied into it. If a driver and team are penalized for a post race inspection violation, the fines will be just as hefty if not heftier than in past years. However, because of the way they have restructed the points I don't think you will see NASCAR penalize a team or owner 25 or 50 points or more for a violation. I think you are going to see something more along the lines of a 10 to 15 point penalty.

Lets take Carl Edwards, for example, if he was to receive a 15 point penalty for a post race inspection violation...it would knock him from 1st to 6th in points. That would be a huge hit at this point in the season with things being as close as they are, but it could be overcome. Whereas a 25 point hit would knock him down to 8th almost 9th.

Anybody else have a feeling on the subject besides the drivers and the talking heads as I am sure we will hear more as time goes on.

i never gave it any thought until i just read your post, i love the new point system and i think it would be great if they kept the old way of penalizing teams, it defiantly would make crew chiefs think twice about exploring "the grey area." maybe they wont throw around the 25 point penalty like candy, but in your example, 15 points would do so heavy damage.

Yea, especially where the most points you can get is 48 per race. That is 43 for coming in 1st, 1 point for leading a lap, 2 points for the most laps led in the race, and 2 points for winning the race.

You lose 15 points and that is a serious amount of hurt right there.

With the old system of more than 130 points to a race, 25 point penalties were chicken feed. They could easily be overcome.

Great point. I'm sure we will find out soon.

Interesting discussion. I'm sure at some point this season (sooner rather than later) some driver's "misfortune" will give us the answer.

Would certainly be nice to know whether the teams actually know the answer to this questions already ... I mean afterall, shouldn't they?

Good question. I don't know if NASCAR has (or had) a "published" list of infractions with their associated points (and/or money & suspension) penalties. More likely it's done on a case by case basis.

As long as it's not a SHR car we find out on, it should be interesting. A 50 point penalty was just over 25% of the maximum points possible for the race, so a 10-12 point penalty would be the equivalant.

What ever Nascar has or hasn't decided far as penalties and points and for what,it would be nice to know before it happens.Consistancy isn't one of Nascars strong points as we all know,my experiance in the Dirt Series was the same. Since it is impossable to cover all instances,a good basic understanding would at least be a start.

i actually wasted my time writing to certain websites to see if they had an answer, but never heard nothing back, 3 days ago

Nascar will break it down to a ratio. So if they would have delivered a 100 pt penalty in the old points system, they will break down the ratio to be equivalent in this points system.

It will be interesting to see what NASCAR does the first couple of times they hand out penalties.

Right now it won't be so bad but after the chase starts the drivers and crew should be real carefull. Clint knows how that works. Maybe Brian and his buddies can just double the fines and take points away from the owners.

Just thought I'd throw this in from Fontana

CUP: Crew Chief Penalized By NASCAR
Crew chief for the No. 78 Team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series penalized for rule violation at Auto Club Speedway...

Peter Rondeau, crew chief for the No. 78 team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, has been penalized for a rule violation committed last week at Auto Club Speedway.

Rondeau has been fined $25,000 for violating sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing) and 20-2.3A (improperly attached weight) of the 2011 NASCAR rule book.

Well, the fine seems to have stayed the same.