1996 FIA Cup Championship

[slorydn1]

Ahhh, 1996. The season that damg75, Alexamateo, myself and others use as their "analog season" when we discuss what was wrong with the 1975-2003 version of the Latford points system. To recap: Terry Labonte wins his 2nd Winston Cup by 37 over Jeff Gordon, despite Jeff winning 10 races to TLab winning only 2. See, back in 1996, the baseline winners points was 175, and p2 was 170. When laps led bonuses were added in the possible combos were 185-170, 185-175, 180-175, 180-180. As you can see it was possible for p1 and p2 to score the same points if p2 lead the most laps. In the late 2000's Nascar increased the winners baseline to 185 points, so the combos became 195-170, 195-175, 190-175, 190-180, so the problem had been allieviated. Had the 2010 points system been used (not counting the extra 10 points for chase seeding purposes as there was no chase to seed for) then Jeffro would have won by 43 points.

The real standings can be found here:

http://www.racing-reference.info/yeardet/1996/W

Now for the FIA Cup:



001 Jeff Gordon...............430
002 Terry Labonte.............344
003 Dale Jarrett..............331
004 Mark Martin...............240
005 Dale Earnhardt............227
006 Rusty Wallace.............208
007 Ernie Irvan...............200
008 Ricky Rudd................132
009 Bobby Labonte.............118
010 Sterling Marlin...........106
---------------------------------
011 Bobby Hamilton............090
012 Jeff Burton...............086
013 Ken Schrader..............066
014 Geoff Bodine..............063
015 Jimmy Spencer.............049


For just the 7th time in the first 22 seasons of this deal, we have a split championship. Jeff Gordon clinches his 2nd FIA Cup, destoying TLAB by 86 points (more than 3 races).

The 1996 Bud Pole Award winner is Jeff Gordon with 6.

Congrats to Terry Labonte, the 1996 Winston Cup Champion :beer:
Congrats to Jeff Gordon, the 1996 FIA Cup Champion :beer: