There’s more than just qualifying order for the Daytona 500 on the line in Daytona on Thursday night.
No matter what they’ve been called in any given season, the twin 125-mile races several days before the Daytona 500 have always helped set the starting grid for the big race. They’ve also held the fates of lesser teams in their hands, yet they’ve never meant as much for most drivers as the Can-Am Duel races do this year.
The reason is pretty simple: there are points at stake.
Not tons of points, mind you. But considering the Duels in previous seasons didn’t matter at all in the standings, that’s a significant chance. The winner in each Can-Am Duel receives 10 points, decreasing by one point a spot down to one point for 10th place.
To put it in perspective, that makes the qualifying races just as valuable as one of the stages on Sunday, which use the same points system (though without the bonus playoff point for a stage winner). Is it worth wrecking your primary Daytona 500 car to win one of the Can-Am Duels? Nope, but it is worth running hard to make the top 10 instead of coasting in and finishing, say, 12th or 13th.
It’s impossible to say whether NASCAR’s tinkering with the point system is going to go over well with fans or if it will make any difference in the way drivers approach races. The guess here is that it won’t have a dramatic impact on the latter, just as the original creation of the Chase (now simply the playoffs) didn’t really shake things up in any major fashion.
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But any change that ups the stakes of the Can-Am Duel and potentially makes it more of a must-see event during Speedweeks is worth a shot. We’ll see soon enough if it pays off.