But I just got my new MacBook Pro. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOO~!

One of my main beefs with the NASCAR points system is that I believe it unfairly punishes guys for a bad finish compared to how much it rewards them for a good one. This conclusion is easy to reach when a guy can win five races and have nine top-5s and be behind guys with zero wins and four top-5s in the standings, which is actually the case today, as the guy with five wins (Kasey Kahne) is currently three points behind the guy with zero wins (Jeff Burton) by three points. (You might say, well, it's JUST three measly points, but if the 20 had finished 11th instead of 18th at Richmond, they'd be the three points that kept Kasey out of the Chase.) (Also, Jeff Burton didn't just make up ground to the points leaders by making the Chase, he also gained separation from the guys behind him. Jeff Gordon was two point behind Burton and he's now five, and Kahne was only three points behind Burton and he's now ten. I wonder if they'll do something about that.) The three point-margin is easy to see by taking both guys three worst finishes. Kahne's are 35th, 36th, and 39th, good for 159 points, and Burton's are 33rd, 34th, and 42nd, good for 162 points. I think most people would agree that a guy with five wins and 13 top-8 finishes (that's half the races) has had a better season than a guy with zero wins and nine top-8 finishes, although Burton does have an astounding twelve finishes between 9th and 17th while Kasey finished between 21st and 31st six times. Kasey's fifteen best finishes are 182 points better than Burton's, so essentially Burton has a lead on Kasey in points because his eleven worst finishes are "better" than Kasey's eleven worst. That doesn't seem right to me, but it got me to thinking, what about head-to-head finishes? It might seem like there is a real injustice if a guy beat another guy 18 out of 26 times on the track but was behind him in points because of the other eight finishes. To that end, I compared the three guys in NASCAR's top-10 but not in mine to the guys who are in mine but not in NASCAR's, and their results from race-to-race, against each other head-to-head. TONY STEWART - (JJD rank: 4, NASCAR rank: 11) CARL EDWARDS - (JJD rank: 9, NASCAR rank: 13) GREG BIFFLE - (JJD rank: 10, NASCAR rank: 12) DENNY HAMLIN - (JJD rank: 11, NASCAR rank: 5) JEFF BURTON - (JJD rank: 12, NASCAR rank: 8) MARK MARTIN - (JJD rank: 13, NASCAR rank: 7) I didn't come up with a grand conclusion, but I thought the results were interesting and since I went through the trouble of figuring it out, here you go. Hamlin beat Stewart 15-11 Martin tied Stewart 13-13 Stewart BEAT Burton 15-11 Honestly, I was thinking here I was about to prove Burton really didn't belong in the Chase. Or something. Hamlin beat Edwards 14-12 Edwards BEAT Burton 14-12 Martin beat Edwards 14-12 Here, too. In any stick-and-ball sport, let's say two teams meet 26 times. If team A beats team B fourteen times in extremely tight games, and team B wins twelve games by blowouts, team A is still ahead in the standings. If the NASCAR suits are trying to create "playoff" excitement based on emulating the stick-and-ball sports, that might be something they want to take into account. Biffle BEAT Hamlin 14-12 Burton beat Biffle 14-12 Martin beat Biffle 16-10 Hmm. Biffle beating Hamlin but losing to Burton wasn't something I was expecting. I guess all that proves is that MARK MARTIN RULES.

I love F1. I was just up at 4:30 on Sunday to watch the Italian Grand Prix, as a matter of fact. Is it just me or have the last few races been suddenly awesome? Anyway, one thing F1 has that NASCAR doesn't is a team championship. I know there's a manufacturer's championship or something like that because Chevy has won 23 out of 35 or whatever they tout in their ads, but F1 is broken down by teams that happen to all have different manufacturers. Thinking about that, I decided to put my points system into a team-format, and here's what I came up with. I am using the same 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring from 1st through 12th, but only awarding points to the highest finisher on a team to try and even out from the smaller teams to the larger teams. There is an advantage built-in for the larger teams, because let's say Roush sweeps the top five spots, even though Roush only gets the 20 points for winning the next highest point available is the eight points for sixth, but shouldn't there be a reward for getting multiple cars in the top 12? I say yes. One point for the pole, one point if a team car leads a lap, and two point for the team whose single car leads the most laps. I did it that way because it seemed more fair that if, say Robby Gordon leads 99 laps and the four Hendrick guys combine to lead the other 101, Gordon ought to get the points, I think, and it helps the single-car team over the super-team. Here are my standings after Richmond. It's important to note that NASCAR's official owner list shows James Rocco, NOT Ray Evernham as the owner of the 10 car, so none of Scoot Riggs results go toward Evernham Motorsports. The 10 car owner is officially Valvoline Evernham Racing, per NASCAR.com. Hendrick Motorsports 398 Roush Racing 375 Richard Childress Racing 281 Joe Gibbs Racing 278 Evernham Motorsports 200 Dale Earnhardt Inc. 162 Penske Racing South 161 Chip Ganassi Racing 82 Robert Yates Racing 59 Valvoline Evernham Racing 41 Petty Enterprises 37 Robby Gordon Motorsports 20 No Fear Racing 19 Hall of Fame Racing 19 Bill Davis Racing 15 Wood Brothers Racing 13 MB2 Motorsports 9 Peak Performance Motorsports 4 Haas CNC Racing 4 PPI Motorsports 3 Waltrip-Jasper Racing 3 Morgan-McClure Motorsports 3 Ash Motorsports 1 McGlynn Racing 1 BAM Racing 1 Furniture Row Racing 1 MBA Racing 1

Here's the Busch Series top-10 after Richmond. Kevin Harvick 356 Carl Edwards 240 Denny Hamlin 222 Matt Kenseth 175 Greg Biffle 175 J.J. Yeley 159 Clint Bowyer 155 Jeff Burton 121 Paul Menard 118 Kurt Busch 106 Kyle Busch 100 A couple of notes: - With seven races remaining, Kevin Harvick needs only 29 points to clinch the championship. If he scores 67 points in the next four races, he would break Jeff Green's Busch Series-record of 422 points in 32 races. - I can hear you now. "Jeff Green's Busch Series record?" Yeah, I did the Busch Series races back to '98 to see in Junior won those two titles my way. He did. - I can also hear this, "well, this isn't any better than NASCAR's system that has Harvick 619 points ahead." Harvick has FIFTEEN top three finishes compared to Hamlin and Edwards with eight. He's pretty much killed people all year. That's going to happen sometimes. On a separate tangent, I'd like to see the term "Busch-whacker" used properly. When I hear just ANY NASCAR driver in a Busch race called that, I get kind of ticked off. Harvick, Edwards, Sorenson, Yeley...those guys have run EVERY Busch race. They aren't "Busch-whackers", IMO, they are series regulars. Kurt Busch (seven starts including two wins and six top-six finishes) is a Busch-whacker. Kasey Kahne (twelve starts including two wins) is a Busch-whacker. Scott Riggs with six starts is a Busch-whacker. The guys at the top of the Busch standings aren't Busch-whackers. JJD's CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES STANDINGS Todd Bodine 180 Johnny Benson 157 Mark Martin 144 Ted Musgrave 132 Jack Sprague 115 David Reutimann 113 Ron Hornaday 112 Rick Crawford 105 Mike Bliss 90 David Starr 86 There's a familiar name in there: Mark Martin. I guess he'd be a "Truck-whacker", but the fact is he has four wins and two seconds, and even though he has only eight starts his seven top-4 finishes are equaled by only Bodine, Benson, and Musgrave. I wonder if he would go for more Truck races if he was actually third in the standings.