History

The Grand National was NASCAR's top championship series from 1949 until 1971, when R. J. Reynolds began sponsoring it as the Winston Cup series.

NASCAR lists the original Grand National champions as Winston Cup champions, in part to avoid confusion with the current Busch Grand National series, which was formerly the Late Model Sportsman series.

The Winston Cup championship was based on a point system. A driver was awarded points ranging from 175 for a victory down to 28 for a 45th-place finish. In addition, 5 bonus points were awarded for leading a lap and another 5 bonus points went to the driver leading a race for the most laps.

In 2004, Nextel took over sponsorship from R. J. Reynolds and a new system was established for the renamed Nextel Cup championship. After the first 26 races, the top 10 point leaders and any other drivers within 400 points of the leader were entered into a "Chase for the Championship" over the final 10 races of the season.

The driver in first place after 26 races began the chase with 5,050 points, the second driver had 5,045 and so on down the line, with each driver on the list receiving 5 points less than the driver immediately ahead of him.

The new system was designed to put more emphasis on winning races rather than consistenly finishing well without necessarily winning. In 2003, Matt Kenseth was the Winston Cup champion despite winning only one race while Ryan Newman, who won eight races, finished only sixth.

Top of page