Two Winston Cup drivers, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman, have won three races this season. No one else has won as many as two.
Busch and Newman, a pair of 20-somethings, represent NASCAR's future and present. What they don't represent, however - barring a minor miracle - is a threat to win the championship this season.
Busch is ninth in the points standings; Newman is a middling 16th.
Say what? Despite their on-track successes, NASCAR's cockamamie points system has undermined them. It excessively rewards merely finishing races. Thus Newman and Busch, due to occasional wrecks, spinouts and mechanical problems, have suffered greatly. Sterling Marlin is 10th in the standings, and he doesn't even have a top 5 finish!
When the Nextel Cup replaces the Winston Cup next season, NASCAR should install a scoring system with a greater reward for high results, like in all other racing circuits. The Sporting News has a NASCAR scoring system, and steady Matt Kenseth still is the leader, but Newman is fifth, Busch eighth.
That's better. Do you want your favorite driver to race for a top 25 finish, or for the win?
On nascar.com and sportingnews.com, the question of the week was about revising the points system. Good question. It's time for a change. Let's reward winners, not survivors.
We're definitely ready for some good football
Does some part of you actually enjoy, at least for a few minutes, listening to radio reruns of big Bucs games from last season?
Do you watch Sunshine Network replays of great Gator and Seminole games?
Did you get goosebumps just watching the Bucs players walk on stage at the ESPYs?
Does a Saturday night watching USF at Raymond James Stadium followed by a Sunday afternoon watching the Bucs at Raymond James Stadium meet your criteria for a variety of weekend entertainment?
If you answered yes to any of the above, then you're a typical football-rabid Florida sports fan. College and/or pro football rules your world.
And as August beckons, here it comes: training camp, two-a-days, rookies, freshmen, free agents, transfers and cracking pads. It is a swig of Gatorade for a parched populace that survives the offseason with sips of Lightning, Storm (football lite) and Rays.
Our teams are at interesting junctures. USF, suddenly, is all grown up, playing in Conference USA this season and taking dead-aim at its first bowl game. UF and FSU are bunkered in and battling back after bad seasons on and off the field; and the Bucs, in the age of NFL parity, are trying to Buc history and repeat as Super Bowl champions.
