How does the Nextel Cup award points to drivers and owners?
Each driver who competes in a Cup race is awarded points in the following manner: starting at 175 points, dropping 5 points from spots 1-6, 4 points from 7-11 and 3 points from 12th and lower. 43rd is worth 34 points. Bonus points are giving to any driver who leads a lap and to the driver that leads the most laps is awarded an additional 5 bonus points (in a case of a tie, both drivers get the extra points). Owners are awarded points in the same manner, PLUS they get points for attempting a race, where as drivers do not. All teams who pass inspection and fail to make the race get owner points that descend in the order of quickest non-qualifier to the slowest. Those teams earn the position/points immediately below the last car in the field. So if a team misses the race but was the fastest non qualifier the owners would get 31 points and an other drivers would follow the 3 point drop scale, down to a minimum of 1 point. See chart HOW SPRINT CUP POINTS ARE AWARDED NOTE: Driver Leads a Lap
