It was virtually guaranteed that points racing would return to NASCAR’s top three series once the “win and you’re in” rule was removed, and it only took one race weekend to show that drivers and teams have changed their thought processes.
Take Kyle Busch in the final two laps of the Daytona 500, for example. He was running 24th coming to two laps to go and decided to bail out of the main pack and drop to 30th in order to avoid the big wreck that he sensed was brewing.
The decision aged like wine, as he passed 15 crashed cars in turn 1 on the final lap to muster a 15th-place finish and make the most out of a dire situation.
Was Busch throwing in the towel and waving the white flag when he decided to drop back? Yes, and he had zero chance of winning the race from the position he was in, and he’s seen enough superspeedway races to know how they typically end with a dozen totaled cars at the finish.
Sure, it would’ve looked foolish in hindsight had the field kept their cars pointed in the right direction, but as usual, the demolition derby-style ending reared its ugly head. And by finishing 15th, Busch kept his racecar in one piece and gained nine spots from where he was originally running when he decided to drop back. Nine spots and nine valuable points that will absolutely come in handy as he strives to be top 16 in points after 26 races.
His Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon was racing for points, albeit in a race that was guaranteed to end badly.
Dillon was scored 40th after sustaining significant front-end damage to his car in a lap 86 crash, and the No. 3 team spent 41 laps behind the wall to return to the race looking like a modified.
Next Gen cars with crash damage were allowed to return to the garage to make repairs starting in 2025, and we’ll be seeing far more cars lacking a front end in 2026 now that teams are looking to pick up every point they can in the race to make The Chase.
Unfortunately for Dillon, returning to race didn’t net him a single point, as he climbed from 40th to 37th (both positions award one point) and returned to the garage once he was mathematically unable to pass anyone else.
Finally, let’s take a look at the finish of Friday’s (Feb. 13) NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, which surprisingly was the cleanest race of the entire weekend.
The final two laps (13:45 in the video) of the race were relatively clean aside from two spinning tricks and few minor skirmishes here and there. Unfortunately, the common denominator was John Hunter Nemechek.
Coming to the white flag out of turn 4, Nemechek, running in the middle, turned down to the inside line when Michael McDowell was already there, and the contact sent McDowell spinning toward pit road and out of contention.
On the backstretch of the final lap, Nemechek nearly spun Gio Ruggiero, but in this case, Ruggiero was just a tad too late to block Nemechek’s run to the inside. But no harm no foul, and Nemchek and Ruggiero were first and third as the pack rounded the final two corners.
Coming to the checkered flag, Nemechek had the advantage, but he made not one but two poorly timed blocks on Ruggiero, and it took some heads-up driving from Ruggiero and Christian Eckes to not wipe out. The second block also cost Nemechek the win, as he lost all his momentum and opened the door just enough for Chandler Smith to squeak by on the inside.
What does this finish have to do with points racing? Well, in this case, it doesn’t: Nemechek isn’t running for points in the Truck Series, and there are no guardrails in place to prevent him from making ill-advised moves, as the only thing that matters to him in this race is a trophy. On the flipside, the rest of the field racing for points ran a predominantly clean final two laps.
With a team’s playoff chances no longer riding and dying on a win, it’s possible we’ll begin to see hard but smart racing in the closing laps at the superspeedways than we have in years past.
That theory didn’t do much good for the Daytona 500, as the final lap was full of crashes. It’s also the freakin’ Daytona 500 — even without a playoff spot on the line, drivers will be doing anything they can to win the granddaddy of them all. But even with the last-lap Daytona 500 chaos, just the smart racing from the full-time Truck drivers in Friday’s finish is a promising sign for superspeedway racing in the future.
And that’s precisely what the return of points racing will accomplish: it won’t deter teams from trying to win races, but it will make them smarter, cleaner and more resourceful when a checkered flag is on the line.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
No caution… cautions out. Nascar is so desperate to have the race end under green that they break their own rules.
POINTS racing never left!
How many times did a driver say POINTS?
You’re right. But at least you folks won’t have to hear “locked in” 300 times after every race.