By : Mark Aumann Nascar.com
There are benchmarks in the history of NASCAR, stories that seem to have grown more important with the passage of time, almost mythological in a sense. Consider the following:
• Bill France calling a meeting at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach in 1948.
• Lee Petty demolishing a borrowed car in the first Strictly Stock race at Charlotte in 1949.
• The photo finish in the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959.
• The last-lap crash between Richard Petty and David Pearson coming out of Turn 4 in 1976.
• The post-race fistfight between Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers in 1979.
And like Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on a trip up Mount Sinai or Archimedes discovering the method of measuring the volume of an irregular object while taking a bath, NASCAR's current point system reportedly came to Bob Latford in a stroke of genius one winter evening at a Daytona Beach bar.
What?
You don't think that somewhere under 24-hour lock and key, there is an actual bar napkin from the Boot Hill Saloon, covered in pencil scribbles -- the Holy Grail of NASCAR's points system? That's not likely.
Boot Hill Saloon ... today“
We tossed around some ideas. What are we trying to do? We were trying to determine the champion of the entire circuit, not just selected races. We talked about what we wanted to do and how we needed to get there.
BOB LATFORDHowever, there is always a kernel of truth at the core of every myth, and according to Phil Holmer -- who worked for NASCAR's public relations office at the time, and was co-owner of the Boot Hill Saloon -- that's the case with the Latford/point system story as well. Some of it actually occurred, but in this case, the myth doesn't necessarily fit all the facts.
"Bob pretty much had the points structure worked out in his mind before he ever got down to Daytona that winter," said Holmer, who retired last year as marketing manager for Goodyear's racing operations. "But it does make for a good story."
In order to realize the actual importance of Latford's breakthrough, one must first understand the evolution of NASCAR's points system up to that point. In an effort to determine a champion, NASCAR officials tried a series of systems, usually with a scale and adding some sort of multiplier. In most cases, it had to do with purse money. Later on, NASCAR added different bonuses for track length, laps completed and races started, which made for incredibly complex calculations.
For instance, the 1949 points system awarded points to the top 10 finishers in each race -- 10 for first, 9 for second, 8 for third, and so on -- multiplied by a percentage of the race purse. So for Charlotte, winner Jim Roper received 250 points (10 x ($5,000 x .005)). In 1952, the basis was expanded to the top 25 finishers and the multiplier altered. That system stayed in place until 1968, when the basis jumped to 50 points and the multiplier used race distances instead of purses.
In 1972, points were doubled and laps completed were added to the equation. And two years later, the points were based on total money winnings multiplied by starts divided by 1,000. So series champion Richard Petty accumulated 5,037.75 points in 30 races, while third-place David Pearson wound up with 2,389.25, despite running 11 fewer events.
To say that everyone -- from the competitors to the fans -- was confused would be an understatement.
In that era, many of the top teams towed only to races that would provide the biggest purses and points, leaving smaller venues with perilously low car counts. And to make matters worse, manufacturers in Detroit began to threaten to pull their support for the series, mainly as a result of the 1973 oil crisis and resulting recession.
"Back then, individual races were more important than the overall championship," Holmer said. "What NASCAR needed was a way to make the championship more important, and still keep the track owners happy."
RacingOneRichard Petty won the 1975 title, the first under the new points system.In the summer of 1974, Bill France realized he had to do something. New series sponsor R.J. Reynolds wanted more exposure, and a points system that would create more late-season suspense was paramount to their marketing plans. So France turned to Latford, a long-time public relations official and Daytona Beach native who went to school with France's son.
According to an article by Godwin Kelly written some time before Latford's death in 2003, Latford described in detail how he was summoned to Daytona Beach for a meeting with France.
"I thought something bad was going to happen to me," Latford said. "But Bill said, 'You've always been interested in numbers and math. Would you be interested in a project to give us a better points system? The one we have is confusing. Heck, the competitors have a hard time understanding it. If the competitors can't figure out the system, the fans certainly can't.'"
According to Holmer, Latford went back to his office and started thinking about how to create a simple but elegant points system that took into consideration several key elements: a sliding scale based solely on finishing order, something that would reward consistency and make it imperative for teams to run the entire schedule, and keep the scale narrow enough to provide for late-season championship battles.
Latford was the perfect man for the job.
"Bob loved numbers and was always calculating statistics for writers in the press box and his press releases," Holmer said. "So it wasn't a surprise that he was the one to come up with this."
With a framework for the new points in his head, Latford returned to Daytona that winter and called on two of his friends: Holmer and Joe Whitlock, who handled public relations for Daytona International Speedway. He explained the basic principle of his idea, and Holmer suggested they go over to the Boot Hill and discuss it further.
The Boot Hill Saloon is now one of Daytona's pre-eminent biker bars. But back in 1974, it was -- to put it nicely -- a tiny watering hole. Holmer remembered it having less than two dozen barstools.
"There was only one table in the place," Holmer said. "And we took it over."
Latford explained to the other two how he felt the points system should work, settling on 175 points for the race winner and using what Holmer referred to as "an accordion" effect to distribute points to each succeeding position. Latford suggested a difference of five points between the top five finishing positions, four points between positions sixth through 10th, and then three points thereafter.
RacingOneAlan Kulwicki's 1992 title was won by 10 points, the closest margin before the Chase."We tossed around some ideas," Latford said. "What are we trying to do? We were trying to determine the champion of the entire circuit, not just selected races. We talked about what we wanted to do and how we needed to get there."
According to Holmer, the three spent several evenings going over Latford's figures. And yes, some of the whole "written on a bar napkin" myth was based in fact, but it was more mathematics than a "Eureka" moment.
"We made a lot of pencil marks on a lot of napkins," Holmer said. "You've got to remember, that was back in the days before personal calculators. We were doing a lot of figuring, trying to come up with different scenarios and see how that would affect the totals. Basically, we were trying to make sure there weren't any major flaws in his idea."
Holmer said he was the one who suggested Latford add a five-point bonus for leading a lap, which then got the three thinking about an additional bonus for most laps led. They also discussed point bonuses for qualifying, but Holmer said they decided against adding anything that didn't have to do with the specific event.
"We decided that somewhere in this system we needed to have a reward for the guys who would get up there and run hard," Latford said. "So that's where we came up with a five-point bonus for leading a lap and five more for leading the most laps."
At some point after that, Latford returned to Atlanta and typed up a formal presentation for France and the folks at RJR. It was immediately put into place for the 1975 season, and even though Petty routed the competition with 13 wins that year, was considered a success by all involved. And it only grew in reputation in following seasons when Petty beat Darrell Waltrip by 12 points in 1979, Dale Earnhardt edged Cale Yarborough by 19 points the following season, Bill Elliott topped Rusty Wallace by 24 points in 1988, and three drivers came to the season finale in 1992 with a mathematical chance at the title.
"Yeah, there were years when it was sort of one-sided," Holmer said. "But there were a lot of times when it came down to the final race."
It might be a little presumptuous to say that Bob Latford "saved" NASCAR with the implementation of his points system in 1975, but his contribution led both directly and indirectly to NASCAR's unparalleled growth in later years.
"It did what it set out to do," Holmer said. "It kept the manufacturers happy. It kept the track owners happy. It made R.J. Reynolds happy, because the best teams showed up to run all the races. It must have been a pretty good idea, because it's still being used today."
