NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. won his sixth Cup Series title in 1993. For this and other reasons, that season went down as one of the most memorable ones in history. The tough championship battle that ensued between Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace, carries a striking similarity when put in parallel against the 2024 season that just ended.
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Earnhardt won six races that year en route to the championship. And yet, he was crowned ahead of Rusty Wallace who won 10 races. The reason for that is the consistency that he displayed throughout the season. The Intimidator had an average start of 9.2 and an average finish of 8.7. He’d also led 1,475 laps. How does this compare to the 2024 campaign?
Joey Logano, the champion, won just three races. Kyle Larson won six. But it wasn’t consistency that branded Logano as the champion. It was the playoff format and its trickiness. Motorsports reporter Alan Cavanna put up a post on X mentioning how people did not complain about how a driver with fewer wins won the title back in 1993, unlike how they were doing now.
This evoked a bunch of responses from fans who pointed out the flaw in his reasoning. One wrote, “I don’t have any issues with a full season championship that ends up like that because despite 10 wins he wasn’t the best car all season like Dale was. Season-long points provide legitimacy to a year’s worth of racing that a playoff system cannot.”
#tbt 31 years ago today a driver won his tenth race of the season (1/3 of the entire schedule!) and DID NOT win the title.
And no one complained.
(Except me ) pic.twitter.com/8zdxwQFf0t
— Alan Cavanna (@AlanCavanna) November 14, 2024
As sensible as these words are, there is a reason why NASCAR came to adopt the current format. The storylines that are created now because of the elimination system make for a far more interesting watch than the old methods did. Another noted, “It’s not like Earnhardt had a terrible year. He did win I believe 7 races that year.” He won six races and had 17 top 5s and 21 top 10s.
Wallace, on the other hand, had 10 wins, 19 top 5s, and 21 top 10s. Anyone would think that he won the title at first glance. But consistency played a far more important role in deciding the champion back then than it does now.
One comment pointed this out, “Rusty Wallace 10 wins, 3 crashes, 2 mechanical failures. Dale Earnhardt 6 wins, 0 crashes, 2 mechanical failures. makes sense to me.”
Another followed, “Consistency should matter as much as winning, Alan. Dale was just more consistent.” Reports suggest that NASCAR will be looking to make changes to the format in the near future following the criticisms against Logano’s success. It would be to everybody’s benefit if it could come up with a system that will reward consistency, as many appear to want.
