Cup drivers critical of F1 points system

The system in NASCAR awards points to all drivers with the winner taking 185 and second 170. There are also five-point bonuses for leading a lap and most laps led during a race.

Two years ago, NASCAR's sanctioning body increased the gap from first to second place and introduced a 10-point bonus to a driver's Chase seeding, rewarding race winners in the first 26 events leading to the playoff.

Reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson doesn't think the new F1 system would suit NASCAR.

"I think they are different worlds," Johnson said. "[In F1] you have three teams that can really win and a fourth if it rains. I just think it is a different environment and I am not sure it would work in our form of racing.

"I still think we could spread out the points and reward guys for finishing better in the top three or top five, and keep breaking that out further. I think basing it solely on wins is probably a bad idea."

Carl Edwards, who won the most races last year but still finished runner-up to Johnson, agrees that the champion shouldn't be crowned purely on victories.

"I think if you determine your champion just based on wins, you're taking a huge gamble of having the wrong champion," Edwards said. "If one guy wins one race and runs 20th in the rest of them, and another guy finishes second in every single race, you're not going to have the right guy for a champion.

"The more I pay attention to all of these changes with point systems all over the world, the more I like the Nationwide and Trucks, where the guy with the best average finishing position throughout the year wins.

"I think the further we get away from that, the bigger the chance of changing our sport to try to fit in with others, and I don't think that's best for us."

Four-time champion Jeff Gordon, believes the points system in F1 needed tweaking but disagrees with having the title decided by wins.

He supports the FOTA proposal to change the points for the top three to 12, 9 and 7.

"I am not a big fan of them saying just whoever wins the most races," Gordon said. "I do think they need to change the system a little bit though. I think it needs to award a little bit more for first. I like the option of doing like a 12, 9, 7 and have that kind of a bracket in the points.

"I like what we have right now [in NASCAR] where it pays more points to win. You can really make up a lot of points or spread yourself out from your competitors when you win.

"It is a much bigger gap that what it used to be. It rewards winning much more and makes you want to push that much harder for those wins."