The “NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series” is the sport’s highest level of professional competition. It is consequently the most popular and most profitable NASCAR series. The 2006 NEXTEL Cup season consisted of 36 races over 10 months, with over $4 million in total prize money at stake at each race. Writers and fans often use “Cup” to refer to the NEXTEL Cup series and the ambiguous use of “NASCAR” as a synonym for the NEXTEL Cup series is common. As of 2007, the defending champion is Jimmie Johnson.
In 2004, NEXTEL took over sponsorship of the premier series from R.J. Reynolds, formally renaming it from the Winston Cup to the NEXTEL Cup Series. A new championship points system, “The Chase for the NEXTEL Cup” was also developed, which reset the point standings with ten races to go, making only drivers in the top ten or within 400 points of the leader eligible to win the championship. In 2007, NASCAR announced it was expanding “The Chase” from ten to twelve drivers, eliminating the 400-point cutoff, and giving a ten-point bonus to the top twelve drivers for each of the races they have won out of the first 26. Wins throughout the season will also be worth five more points than in previous seasons. In 2008, the premier series title name will become the Sprint Cup Series, as part of the merger between NEXTEL and Sprint.
NASCAR races are not conducted on identical tracks. Oval tracks vary in length from 0.526 miles (847 m) (Martinsville Speedway) to 2.66 miles (4.28 km) (Talladega Superspeedway). While some tracks are ovals (Bristol Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway), many are tri-ovals (Kansas Speedway, Daytona International Speedway). Other configurations are quad-oval (Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway), D-oval(California Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Richmond International Raceway), oval with unequal ends (Darlington Raceway), triangular (Pocono Raceway), and almost-rectangular (Indianapolis Motor Speedway). Courses also differ in degree of banking on the curves, with differences in degree of banking and course length contributing to different top speeds on various courses. New Hampshire International Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway are considered “flat” tracks as they have only 7 and 11 (respectively) degrees of banking in the turns. Two courses (Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen International) are complex shaped road courses and the only two tracks where NASCAR has developed rain tires. These tires have never been used in a competition setting, although they have been used during practices at Watkins Glen and during a qualifying session at Suzuka, Japan for an exhibition race.
Race speeds vary widely based on the track. The fastest track is Talladega Superspeedway where the record race average speed is 188 mph (303 km/h) with the record qualifying lap of 212.809 mph (342.483 km/h) set by Bill Elliott in 1987. The slowest tracks are Infineon Raceway, a road course, with a record race average speed of only 81 mph (130 km/h) and qualifying lap of 99 mph (159 km/h); and Martinsville Speedway, a very short, nearly flat “paper clip” shaped oval, with a record race average speed of 82 mph (132 km/h) and a qualifying lap of only 98 mph (156 km/h). The average speed is figured out based upon the winner’s race time throughout the entire race, from the waving of the green flag to the waving of the checkered flag, including laps spent under caution, divided by the number of laps. Time during red flag periods do not get added into the calculation of the average speed.
Generally, tracks with a length of less than one mile (1.6 km) are referred to as “short tracks”. Initially tracks of over one mile were referred to as “superspeedways”, but many Nextel Cup venues now are 1.5 miles or 2 miles (2.4 or 3 km) in length. Tracks on today’s standards are now considered superspeedways if they are over 2 miles (3 km) in length. Tracks between 1 and 2 miles in length are called “intermediate” tracks.
