2012 FIA Cup Series Championship

[slorydn1]

This is the thread where I will be keeping track of the Cup series FIA standings this year. I have revised my score sheets so that I can keep track of the real Bri-Bri standings and the old style Latford standings as well. I'm also adding a twist. I'm also going to keep track of the Bri-Bri standings through the whole season (no Chase) and the old Latford Chase (through 2010 rules). But the primary focus will be the FIA standings.

[slorydn1]

The FIA standings after Daytona:


01 M Kenseth..............025
02 D Earnhardt............018
03 G Biffle...............015
04 D Hamlin...............012
05 J Burton...............010
06 P Menard...............008
07 K Harvick..............006
08 C Edwards..............004
09 J Logano...............002
10 M Martin............,..001

In the old style Latford, its Kenseth over Earnhardt, Biffle and Hamlin 190-170
(note. Jr finished p2 didnt lead a lap, Biffle p3 and led laps, Hamlin p4 and led the most laps, hence the 3 way tie).

In Bri-Bri its Kenseth over its the same deal, Kenseth over Earnhardt, Biffle, and Hamlin 47-42.

The real standings can be found here:

http://www.racing-reference.info/raceyear/2012/W

[slorydn1]

001 D Hamlin...............037
002 G Biffle...............030
003 M Kenseth..............025
004 K Harvick..............024
005 D Earnhardt............018
006 J Johnson..............012
t07 J Burton...............010
t07 B Keselowski...........010
t09 P Menard...............008
t09 Ky Busch...............008
---------------------------------------
011 M Truex................006
t12 C Edwards..............004
t12 J Gordon...............004
t14 J Logano...............003
t14 M Martin...............003

Denny Hamlin assumes the points lead, now leading Greg Biffle by 7 points (Biffle having posted back to back 3rd place finishes, the only driver to podium in both races). You will note that I have Jimmie Johnson in p6 with 12 points. He didn't score at at Daytona in FIA and usually the FIA would have just excluded him from the race for failing tech (and hammered with a huge monetary fine). Since he didn't score at Daytona, there were no points to take. Unlike previous years, if NASCAR imposes a points penalty on a driver I will just exclude that driver from that race and take whatever points they scored in that race only (as well as move everyone who finished behind him/her up a spot if they scored and give them that finishing position's points). If they didn't score, then no points penalty will be issued here.

Old School Latford (remember the top 12 only locked in under old Chase contention scenario):


001 D Hamlin...............0360
002 G Biffle...............0335
003 K Harvick..............0326
004 M Kenseth..............0319
005 D Earnhardt............0291
006 M Truex................0283
007 M Martin...............0282
008 J Logano...............0277
009 Ky Busch...............0267
010 C Edwards..............0254
-----------------------------------------------
011 B Labonte..............0236
012 J Burton...............0229
013 B Keselowski...........0227
014 P Menard...............0225
015 T Stewart..............0222

In this scenario, Denny Hamlin also assumes the lead, by 25 points over Biffle, and 34 over Harvick.

NOTE: I applied the penalty NASCAR imposed to Jimmie Johnson. A 25 point penalty in the real life Bri-Bri standings is equal to a 101 point penalty (percentage wise) in the old style Latford points. I made it a round 100 points (NASCAR likes round numbers and I am 99% certain it would have been 100 points and not 101). SO therefore Jimmie Johnson is languishing back in p40 with 102 points at this time, which is 258 points behind leader Hamlin, but, more importantly with a chase style system he is 127 points behind p12 Jeff Burton (no winners wild card here) so he has a LOOONG road to hoe :eek:

If by some miracle the appeals commission overturns his penalty, then he will be at 202 points, which would slot him in at p18 at this juncture.

The real life Sprint Cup Bri-Bri standings can be found here:

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings for 2012 - Racing-Reference.info (http://www.racing-reference.info/yeardet/2012/W)

Since all the top scoring drivers are eligible for Cup points this year so far, there is no point for me to reproduce those standings here. I will say that Denny Hamlin has assumed the points lead here, too, by 6 over Biffle (89-83) and 8 over Harvick (81).
As of now all the way down to Jeff Burton (p12 with 52 points) are in chase contention, since the 2 race winners (Kenseth and Hamlin) are in the top 10 still, the wild cards are now held by the p11 and p12 drivers.

Jimmie Johnson is in p38 with 18 points, 71 markers out of the lead, and 34 behind p12 (Burton). If he gets those 25 points back from the appeals commission then he will have 43 points, which would tie him with Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose for p20....

[slorydn1]

FIA Standings:

001 G Biffle...............045
002 D Hamlin...............037
003 J Johnson..............030
t04 M Kenseth..............025
t04 T Stewart..............025
006 K Harvick..............024
007 D Earnhardt............019
t08 P Menard...............014
t08 C Edwards..............014
010 R Newman...............012
---------------------------------------
t11 J Burton...............010
t11 B Keselowski...........010
t13 Ky Busch...............008
t13 C Bowyer...............008
015 M Truex................006


Old Latford Standings:


001 G Biffle...............0505
002 D Hamlin...............0463
003 K Harvick..............0461
004 D Earnhardt............0430
005 M Kenseth..............0421
006 T Stewart..............0417
007 C Edwards..............0409
008 M Truex................0395
009 J Logano...............0392
010 M Martin...............0391
-----------------------------------------------
011 P Menard...............0371
012 Ky Busch...............0361
013 R Newman...............0360
014 C Bowyer...............0358
015 J Burton...............0350


The real life Bri-Bri standings can be found here:
NASCAR Sprint Cup standings for 2012 - Racing-Reference.info (http://www.racing-reference.info/yeardet/2012/W)

Greg Biffle takes the lead in all 3 points scenarios. In Bri-Bri, Harv's p11 was just good enough to move him up to p2, 10 points behind Biffle. In FIA and Latford, Denny Hamlin retains p2, 8 and 42 points behind, respectively.

Jimmie Johnson, by virtue of his points penalty (-25 Bri/-100 Latford) is cooling his heels in p23, -228 back (Latford) and p23, -64 back (Bri-Bri).

[slorydn1]

FIA:

001 G Biffle...............045
002 M Kenseth..............043
003 D Hamlin...............037
004 B Keselowski...........035
005 J Johnson..............032
006 T Stewart..............025
007 K Harvick..............024
008 M Truex................021
009 C Bowyer...............020
010 D Earnhardt............019
--------------------------------------
011 J Burton...............018
012 P Menard...............015
013 C Edwards..............014
014 R Newman...............012
t15 J McMurray.............010
t15 B Vickers..............010


Old School Latford:


001 G Biffle...............0634
002 M Kenseth..............0596
003 K Harvick..............0591
004 D Hamlin...............0566
005 M Truex................0560
006 D Earnhardt............0553
007 T Stewart..............0538
008 C Bowyer...............0518
009 J Johnson..............0515
010 J Logano...............0507
011 P Menard...............0505
012 J Burton...............0500
-----------------------------------------------
013 B Keselowski...........0494
014 R Newman...............0487
015 C Edwards..............0455

I moved the dotted line below P12 because of the old school chase seedings the top 12 in points held the cards.

With today's reversal of Jimmie Johnson's points penalty I added 100 Latford points back into his total, so he now resides in P9.

The real life Bri-Bri standings can be found here:

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings for 2012 - Racing-Reference.info (http://www.racing-reference.info/yeardet/2012/W)

Jimmie Johnson gets his 25 points back, and is now p11 in points. He is now the 12th chase seed, Brad Keselowski, who is p14 in points is the 11 seed by virtue of his win at Bristol. (So much for the new system making things easier to understand, right?)

[slorydn1]

001 G Biffle...............053
002 T Stewart..............050
003 M Kenseth..............043
004 D Hamlin...............037
005 K Harvick..............036
006 B Keselowski...........035
007 D Earnhardt............034
008 J Johnson..............033
009 Ky Busch...............026
010 M Truex................025
--------------------------------------
011 C Edwards..............024
012 C Bowyer...............020
t13 R Newman...............018
013 J Burton...............018
015 P Menard...............015




T-Stew's win at Fontana slides him up into P2 in the standings, a scant 3 points behind Biffle.
Other Notes? Jeff Gordon (tied with JP Montoya in P18) has just 4 points. We are roughly 1/7th of the way through the season, so old 4-time is on pace to score a career low 28 FIA points for the season, his lowest total since his rookie year in 1993 (112). 23 drivers have scored FIA points so far this year.


LATFORD:


001 G Biffle...............0784
002 K Harvick..............0751
003 T Stewart..............0728
004 M Kenseth..............0720
005 D Earnhardt............0715
006 M Truex................0702
007 D Hamlin...............0701
008 J Johnson..............0654
009 C Bowyer...............0639
010 R Newman...............0633
011 P Menard...............0611
012 C Edwards..............0610
-----------------------------------------------
013 Ky Busch...............0608
014 B Keselowski...........0603
015 J Logano...............0598



In the old school Latford system, Biffle leads Harvick by 33 points, and Tony Stewart jumps up to P3, 56 points back.
Remember, in this deal, there are no wild cards, so the top 12 in points are in chase contention. Carl Edwards is holding on to the 12 seed by a very slim 2 points over Kyle Busch.
Other Notes: Hendrick drivers Jeff Gordon (P21, 480, -304) and Kasey Kahne (P28, 413, -371) are in serious jeopardy of not making the Chase, already. Jeffroleum is 130 points out of p12, and Kahne is 197 points out of p12. They had better step it up!
Kurt Busch, with 474 points, is 2 spots and 15 points ahead of the occupant of his old seat, AJ Wallmendinger (459).

Real Life Bri-Bri:


001 G Biffle...............0195
002 K Harvick..............0188
003 D Earnhardt............0178
004 T Stewart..............0177
005 M Truex................0175
006 M Kenseth..............0173
007 D Hamlin...............0171
008 C Bowyer...............0157
009 J Johnson..............0156
010 R Newman...............0155
-----------------------------------------------
011 P Menard...............0148
t12 C Edwards..............0146
t12 J Logano...............0146
014 Ky Busch...............0143
015 J Burton...............0142



In real life, Greg Biffle leads Kevin Harvick by 7 points. Dale Jr is P3, 17 points behind Biffle.

Keep in mind that in real life, the Top 10 are in Chase contention, with two wild cards. After Fontana Brad Keselowski, who is P16 in points (139, or 56 back) holds the 11 seed by virtue of his win at Bristol, and Paul Menard (P11) is the 12 seed.

Other Notes: Carl Edwards is on the outside looking in, but not by much, and a win would go a long way towards helping that out.

Jeff Gordon is p25 with just 104 points, 94 out of the lead, and 51 behind Ryan Newman who is in p10. Even a win doesn't get him out of the dog house just yet, as he is still 4 points out of the all important p20 (Bobby Labonte) where the wild card kicks in. Kasey Kahne is in p27 with only 87 points :eek: which has him 108 points out of the lead, 68 points out of p10, and 21 out of p20.

Kurt Busch (p24, 105) is 2 spots and 4 points ahead of Wallmendinger (101).

The rest of the Bri-Bri standings can be found here:

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings for 2012 - Racing-Reference.info (http://www.racing-reference.info/yeardet/2012/W)

[slorydn1]

FIA:


001 T Stewart..............056
002 M Kenseth..............055
003 G Biffle...............053
004 D Earnhardt............049
005 D Hamlin...............045
006 R Newman...............043
007 B Keselowski...........037
008 K Harvick..............036
009 M Truex................035
010 J Johnson..............033
--------------------------------------
011 Ky Busch...............026
012 C Edwards..............024
013 C Bowyer...............021
t14 J Burton...............018
t14 AJ Allmendinger........018

Going into the first off weekend of the season, Tony Stewart assumes the FIA points lead. He could be VERY dangerous this year as he usually does not run this strong, this early. Newman's win at the Paperclip slides him up into P6 in the standings.

Looking a like a pretty tight, competitive field after 6 races.



Latford:


001 G Biffle...............0908
002 D Earnhardt............0888
003 M Kenseth..............0885
004 T Stewart..............0874
005 K Harvick..............0862
006 M Truex................0857
007 D Hamlin...............0856
008 R Newman...............0823
009 J Johnson..............0786
010 C Bowyer...............0778
011 B Keselowski...........0746
012 C Edwards..............0740
-----------------------------------------------
013 P Menard...............0696
014 J Burton...............0694
015 J Logano...............0692


Biffle hangs on to P1, with Junebug sliding into P2, 20 points back.

Other Notables:

Kyle Busch (P16, 663, -245, -70 behind P12)
Jeff Gordon (P21, 611 , -297, -129 behind P12)
Kasey Kahne (P31, 462, -446, -278 behind P12) :eek: How's THAT working out for ya, Mr Hendrick??????? Kasey is only 12 points ahead of the much maligned DAVID REUTIMANN!!!!!!

Bri-Bri:


001 G Biffle...............0226
002 D Earnhardt............0220
t03 T Stewart..............0214
t03 M Kenseth..............0214
t03 K Harvick..............0214
t03 M Truex................0214
007 D Hamlin...............0210
008 R Newman...............0202
009 C Bowyer...............0192
010 J Johnson..............0189
-----------------------------------------------
011 C Edwards..............0179
012 B Keselowski...........0175
013 J Logano...............0167
014 P Menard...............0166
015 J Burton...............0164


Biffle leads still, Dale Jr slides into P2 just 6 points back. Whats up with the mega tie for P3, Bri-Bri?

Chase seeds are the top 10, with Kes in the 11 seed (with 1 win) and Cuz P12 (P11 in points).


Jeff Gordon is p21, 91 points back
Kasey Kahne is p31, 123 points back, just 5 points ahead of Reutimann :eek:



The real life Bri-Bri standings can be found here:

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings for 2012 - Racing-Reference.info (http://www.racing-reference.info/yeardet/2012/W)

[slorydn1]

Man, the last several weeks have been really bad for me at work. I have one out on Maternity leave (WHY does it take 3 months after having a baby to come back to work?!?!?! My wife was back working in just under 4 weeks when she had Slo Jr back in the 1999. I'm going to have to figure out a way to get pregnant myself, lol). My boss, who helps me fill in for people who are out had a stroke the week before last, and will be out for several months, and another one is going out for surgery and will be down 6-8 weeks. AND, of course, this is vacation season, and the higher ups just refuse to tell anyone NO.

SO, needless to say, I have been working all kinds of wierd shifts, all of them 12 hours long, a mixture of nights and days. To cap it all off, this site is now one of the sites I am blocked from accessing at work with their computers, and our wireless internet only works when it feels like it, often keeping me from getting on here with my own lap top at work.

Ok enough of that..................

This past weekend's race was the 16th race of the season, and there are 10 races left until the Chase. So, as we start the "Race to the Chase" it is a perfect time to see where we are at in all 3 points systems:

FIA:


001 J Johnson..............156
t02 T Stewart..............137
t02 M Kenseth..............137
t04 D Hamlin...............128
t04 G Biffle...............128
006 D Earnhardt............125
007 Ky Busch...............097
008 C Bowyer...............084
009 M Truex................077
010 B Keselowski...........074
--------------------------------------
011 K Harvick..............069
012 K Kahne................063
013 R Newman...............043
014 M Martin...............044
015 C Edwards..............039


Obviously, in the FIA system, the Chase is a non factor. What I do find very interesting is that since bad finishes are tossed aside (a P11 finish is the same as a P43 finish), Jimmie Johnson, who is p4 in real life, has a 19 point lead over Kenseth and Tstew, which is almost a full race lead :eek:

Other notables not mentioned here: Jeff Gordon has worked his way up to p16, with just 38 points. He is still on pace to have his lowest FIA points total since his rookie year of 1993, where he scored 112 points (in a 30 race season) and was at 86 points after the 16 race mark. There is also Jeff Burton (P20 with 19 points), Kurt Busch (tied with Menard in p21 with 17 points) all perrenial front runners languishing with very poor performance this year. Kurt Busch's performance was probably expected due to his situation, but some of the others are truly a surprise,

Latford:


001 M Kenseth..............2405
002 G Biffle...............2361
003 D Earnhardt............2349
004 J Johnson..............2344
005 T Stewart..............2206
006 D Hamlin...............2175
007 K Harvick..............2156
008 C Bowyer...............2149
009 M Truex................2124
010 B Keselowski...........2034
011 C Edwards..............1968
012 Ky Busch...............1955
-----------------------------------------------
013 R Newman...............1886
014 J Logano...............1849
015 P Menard...............1847

In the old school Latford system, Kenseth is in the lead by 44 points over teammate Greg Biffle. I have the break point between p12 and p13 because, if you recall, by the old chase rules it was the top 12 in points, so Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch would be in the final two Chase slots coming out of Sears Point. Ryan Newman is on the outside looking in, 69 points behind Shrub.

Other notables: Kasey Kahne is now p16, 596 markers out of first, and 146 behind Shrub. Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon is now P18 with 1786 points, 619 points out of P1, and 169 points out of Chase contention. Can you say "Work TO DO"?

The real life standings can be found here:

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings for 2012 - Racing-Reference.info (http://www.racing-reference.info/yeardet/2012/W)

In real life, Kenseth is the leader with 596 points, with Biffle and June Bug P2 and P3, -11 and -14 back, respectively.

With minor differences from the Latford, the top 10 is pretty much the same in Bri-Bri points, actually the top 12. BUT because of the "Wild Card" provisions Carl Edwards in p11 is knocked out, with Shrub and Newman in, with 1 win apiece. Logano in p14, and Kahne in p16 have a win, but work to do to catch up. Jeff Gordon, with no wins, better get busy, as he is languishing in p18 with no wins, and is 76 points (almost 2 races) behind Kes for p10, and 39 points behind Newman (almost 1 race) who is the 12 seed. Looks like Jeffroleum is going to have to bust off 2 or even 3 wins in the next 10 to lock in to the Chase. Its not impossible, 9 of the 10 tracks coming up have been historicaly very good to Gordon, but if he keeps having bad luck its going to be a LOOOOONG summer.

Denny Hamlin represents the factors cause, now major Greg Biffle by 7 factors (Biffle having published returning to returning 3rd position completes, the only car owner to stage in both races). You will observe that I have Jimmie Jackson in p6 with 12 factors. He didn't ranking at at Daytona in FIA and usually the FIA would have just omitted him from the competition for unable technical (and killed with a large financial fine). Since he didn't ranking at Daytona, there were no factors to take. As opposed to past decades, if NASCAR enforces a factors charge on a car owner I will just leave out that car owner from that competition and take whatever factors they obtained in that competition only (as well as shift everyone who completed behind him/her up a identify if they obtained and provides them that completing position's points). If they didn't ranking, then no factors charge will be released here.


Boston Celtics Bedding (http://www.sportfanatic.net/Boston-Celtics-Bedding-443-101-tc.aspx)

[slorydn1]

As with the other two series, I felt it necessary to finish this. I never was able to do a 2010 or earlier style Chase, so that is out, but at least in the Cup series I did finish the Latford points as well. I felt it was absolutely necessary so that I could keep up with the 3 Championship standard that I did with the years 1975-2011. The real life Bri-Bri Sprint Cup Standings with the Chase was sufficient to keep that going, as I set that precedent in 2011 as the new Chase standard, as that is the reality that Brian France has us mired in now.

The real life standings, much discussed in other arenas, can be found here: NASCAR Sprint Cup standings for 2012 - Racing-Reference.info (http://www.racing-reference.info/yeardet/2012/W)Brad Keselowski won the 2012 Sprint Cup by 39 points over Clint Bowyer (2400-2361).

Here is the Top 15 in the FIA Cup Standings:


001 J Johnson....................343
002 B Keselowski.................286
003 D Hamlin.....................284
004 Ky Busch.....................241
t05 M Kenseth....................236
t05 C Bowyer.....................236
007 G Biffle.....................218
008 K Kahne......................215
009 J Gordon.....................212
010 T Stewart....................211
---------------------------------------------
011 D Earnhardt..................190
012 M Truex......................139
013 K Harvick....................115
014 R Newman.....................114
015 M Martin.....................080

Well, well, well, what do we have here? Tossing out the bad finishes, which is what the FIA system has a tendency to do, Jimmie Johnson wins the FIA Cup by 57 points over Kes. It would have been all over but the crying after race 34 at Texas as JJ won by more than 2 races worth of points. Kinda glad we aren't using this system this year, LOL :p :

Other notes: Kyle Busch, who didn't even make the chase, would have been chilling with the guys at the banquet in Las Vegas, where as my guy Harv, would not have been, and by a wide margin.

Other FIA related statistics:Only 33 drivers scored at least 1 FIA point, which is rather a low number these days. That said, the top 15 scored a record combined 3120 points, shattering the previous record set in 2006 of 3049 points. That comes out to an average of 208.0 points per driver, versus 203.3 in 2006.

The Champions points of 343 was better than last years 319, but was well below the record of 530 set by Jeff Gordon in 1998 (in only 33 races to boot).

The margin of victory of 57 points for Johnson was impressive, but still well below the record of 235 points set by Richard Petty in 1975.

14 drivers had 100 points or more, which is 1 more than 2011, but below the record of 18 set in 2010.

The average real life points position of the top 15 FIA drivers was 8.9, down from the 8.3 of the last few years (8.0 is the record, set in 1986, and repeated in 1989, 1991, and 2004).

JJ's avg FIA points per race was 9.4, which was up from Carl Edwards avg of 8.9 in 2011 and way below Jeff Gordon's record setting 1998 campaign of 16.1.

The group's avg PPR was 5.9, which was the highest since the 1998 year which was also 5.9. The record of 7.1 was set in 1977, and duplicated in 1980.

With part-timer Mark Martin cracking the top 15, and the fact that Dale Jr sat out those late season races with the concussion, the avg number of starts of the top 15 was 35.1, which is the lowest it has been since 2001 which was also 35.1.

The top 15 stepped up their qualifying game in 2012, where the groups avg start was 12.5, after having been 14.9 the last 2 years. The record is still 8.7, set in 1980, and the worst year was 1997, where the avg start was 17.2.

The groups avg finish was the second best of all time at 12.4 (the record being 12.2 set in 1984).

The group completed a total of 148,197 laps (9879.8 per driver) which is significantly lower than 2011.

The group led 9283 laps which is just 10 laps less than 2011, and the record of 10287 laps led set in 1975 is safe.

The what I find wierd is that even with drivers taking care of each other as they did for most of last year (compared to previous years and the Phoenix blow up notwithstanding) the top 15's running at the finish average dropped to 32.1, down the 33 race range of the last several years. The average DNF's of the group was 3.0 races, which is more than the record 2.1 set in 2009. Still, it is way better than the 10.3 DNF's per driver set in 1982!

The group's average win%, T5% and T10% of 6.46, 30.42, 50.76, respectively were all improvements over 2011.


Now for the final 2012 Winston Cup Standings:


001 B Keselowski..............5134
002 J Johnson.................5115
003 G Biffle..................5023
004 M Kenseth.................4992
005 C Bowyer..................4944
006 D Hamlin..................4869
007 Ky Busch..................4734
008 K Harvick.................4704
009 K Kahne...................4680
010 D Earnhardt...............4651
------------------------------------
011 T Stewart.................4626
012 M Truex...................4594
013 J Gordon..................4533
014 R Newman..................4359
015 C Edwards.................4272

Kes wins the Winston Cup by 19 points over JJ. This was a tight battle right down to the wire by full season standards, one of the tightest in Winston Cup history. Its sad we were robbed of a naturally thrilling season by a contrived one, but such is life in the world of NASCAR these days.

So we end up with another split decision, but one of the rarest types. 2012 is only the 3rd time since 1975 Winston Cup and Sprint Cup agree, but the FIA Cup is different. The other 2 years were 1985 (DW won the Winston and Sprint Cups, Bill Elliott won the FIA Cup) and 1988 (Bill Elliott won the WC and SC, Rusty Wallace won the FC). The season type breakdown can be found here: http://www.motorsportforums.com/history/139776-latford-points-era-1975-2010-rescored-using-f1-points.html#post1100553

What does it all mean? Nothing, nothing at all. I just keep up with it for my amusement and want to share the results with everyone else.I will try to do better about keeping up with things in 2013. :D

[C3PO]

Winston Cup? :D