Regardless of point system, Mike Helton was going to be shaking Kevin Harvick's hand at Homestead. Credit: Darrell Ingham/Getty Images

Busch Chase or no, there was no stopping Harvick

One-of-a-kind domination of series makes playoff format obsolete

By any measure, Kevin Harvick gave the rest of the Busch Series a swift kick in the behind in 2006.

His nine victories were more than double those of Carl Edwards, who was second in points. Harvick finished first or second 15 times -- which equaled or bettered anyone else's top-fives. Only three times did Harvick finish outside of the top 10, and those were 11th, 13th and 19th.

Carl Edwards says beating Kevin Harvick based on an elimination scenario wouldn't have been music to his ears. Credit: Doug Benc/Getty Images

Only 2000 comes close, when Jeff Green won six races and beat Jason Keller by 616 points. Otherwise, Harvick's 5,648 total dwarfs every champion since then.

Only three seasons ago, Brian Vickers edged David Green by 14 points. So the system works, when a driver doesn't dominate.

It's almost impossible to conceive of any point system that would have kept Harvick from running away with the championship this season. Even manipulating the points with a Chase-type format couldn't inject a false sense of drama into Harvick's domination.

Besides, even the also-rans are awed by Harvick's season.

"If we had had a Chase and Kevin for some reason wouldn't have won it, it wouldn't have been very fair of him and his team," Edwards said.

"The points system is based on consistency," Johnny Sauter added. "The most consistent guy throughout the season is the champion and I think that's good."

Honestly, few Busch Series drivers surveyed would want to see a radical change to the current system. Paul Menard wouldn't mind seeing more credit for winning races.

Busch Series Final Standings Pos. Driver Points Behind 1. K. Harvick 5648 -- 2. C. Edwards 4824 -824 3. C. Bowyer 4683 -965 4. D. Hamlin 4667 -981 5. J.J. Yeley 4487 -1161 6. P. Menard 4075 -1573 7. Ky. Busch 3921 -1727 8. Jo. Sauter 3794 -1854 9. G. Biffle 3789 -1859 10. R. Sorenson 3670 -1978 • Complete standings, click here Final standings -- Chase system Pos. Driver Points Behind 1. K. Harvick 6778 -- 2. C. Edwards 6430 -348 3. C. Bowyer 6383 -395 4. D. Hamlin 6276 -502 5. J.J. Yeley 6253 --525 6. P. Menard 6202 --576 7. Jo. Sauter 6119 -659 8. Ky. Busch 6107 -671 9. K. Wallace 5947 -831 10. G. Biffle 5940 -838

"Every other sport really rewards the winner," Menard said. "If we got more points somehow, I'd go along with that.

"It should double [the current difference between first and second] and go down from that. Just reward the winner more."

So how would Harvick have fared under varying points systems? In only one instance did Harvick not win the championship, and that involved a radical way of determining the title.

Chase-style format

What if we wiped out Harvick's 484-point lead over Denny Hamlin with 10 races remaining and reset the points per Chase rules?

In the final 10 races, Harvick won four races, finished second three times and posted 10 top-10 finishes. So instead of beating Edwards by 824 points, Harvick still would have made the final two races meaningless, whipping Edwards by 348 points.

How impressive was Harvick's stretch run? Greg Biffle would have started 30 points behind Harvick with 10 races to go -- and wound up 838 points behind after the finale.

It's even more of a mismatch if, as some drivers suggested, you give more points to the race winner. If you set a maximum number of points to win at 200, Harvick's margin over Edwards increases to 969 points.

Formula One

Formula One points Pos. Driver Points Behind 1. K. Harvick 195 -- 2. C. Edwards 116 -79 3. M. Kenseth 110 -85 4. D. Hamlin 96 -99 5. C. Bowyer 87 -108

World Championship points are given out to the top-eight finishers of each race, on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. It's the ultimate risk-reward system, almost the polar opposite of NASCAR's points structure: If you run at the front, you'll accumulate more points, since ninth on back gets you nothing.

With 31 finishes of eighth or better, Harvick easily wiped out the competition, scoring 195 points to Edwards' 116.

However, 18th-place Matt Kenseth -- who missed 14 races -- would have finished third behind Edwards, thanks to his 18 top-10s. This system is kinder to Denny Hamlin than Clint Bowyer because even though both drivers had 12 top-five finishes, Hamlin wound up sixth on four occasions, seventh once and eighth three times.

IRL/Champ Car

IRL points Pos. Driver Points Behind 1. K. Harvick 1253 -- 2. C. Edwards 898 -355 3. D. Hamlin 831 -422 4. C. Bowyer 807 -446 5. J.J. Yeley 735 -518 Champ Car points Pos. Driver Points Behind 1. K. Harvick 817 -- 2. C. Edwards 568 -249 3. D. Hamlin 529 -288 4. C. Bowyer 483 -334 5. J.J. Yeley 463 -354

The two major open-wheel series in North America have similar point systems that try to combine the best of the F1 and NASCAR models. Both reward drivers for wins but also for consistent finishes.

The IRL gives 50 points to the winner, 40 to second, 35 to third and on down a sliding scale through the remainder of the field. In addition, there are bonuses for poles and most laps led.

Champ Car awards a maximum of 35 points for a win -- 31 plus four possible bonus points -- 27 for second, 25 for third and so on, up to 20th place.

In both models, Harvick still wins by a landslide -- 355 points under IRL standards, 249 under Champ Car rules. Once again, it's because of Harvick's wins and 20 top-three finishes.

However, the battle between second and 10th would have been tight, perhaps more so than the current Busch Series points.

Nine-race knockout system

What if you took the top-10 drivers with nine races to go and eliminated them one by one, based on finishing order at each race, until you wind up with two finalists at Homestead?

It's the system with the biggest dependency on luck -- and one of the few ways Harvick doesn't win the championship. Even then, that scenario requires more than a bit of 20-20 hindsight.

For instance, J.J. Yeley's 40th-place finish at Fontana would have made him the first driver eliminated from the Knockout.

Clint Bowyer would have been eliminated at Richmond, followed by Denny Hamlin at Dover, Johnny Sauter at Kansas and Greg Biffle at Lowe's.

Because he didn't race at Memphis, that's where Kyle Busch's title hopes would have ended. Paul Menard and surprising Kenny Wallace would be the last two to go, leaving Harvick and Edwards to duke it out at Homestead.

Finishing second, Edwards would win the title based on Harvick's sixth. However, it's all conjecture.

Who knows how circumstances would have played out if Harvick had been in that position, with the title on the line? As it was, he led 64 laps that day.

Bottom line: There's little NASCAR can do when a driver fashions such a superlative season as Kevin Harvick did in 2006. And if that's the only reason to consider an alternative system, such as a Chase format, you'll find little support for it in the garage area.