A Cup with Zero Wins? It's Possible.

By Mark Young

With a week off there hasn't been much news to really sink my teeth into but I saw a statistic on-line this morning that really caught my eye.  Jeff Burton sits third in the NEXTEL Cup points standings and hasn't visited victory lane.  If you look at his finishes this year you will see that he hasn't finished worse than 15th since the first week of April.  With consistency like that, and taking into consideration that the points get "adjusted" at the beginning of the Chase, it is very possible we could have a NASCAR champion that didn't win a race during the season.

Now I am of the opinion that Jeff Burton will in fact win at least one race this year, he has been too good all year to not do it.  But I also believe that if he doesn't win a race and is lucky enough to win the title that nothing should be taken away from him or his team because of it.  I know my blog brother Keith is on the other side of the fence than me on this one, and I am sure several of you out there feel the same, but I believe that if you can go an entire season running as consistent as a team like Burton's has the title is well earned.

Now arguments could be made that a champion should be a winner, and in many ways I agree, but I also think a guy who wins four, five, or six times in a season but also has six DNF's isn't worthy of a title either.  NASCAR's point system has always awarded consistency and I believe that a driver who goes 36 races and has 25+ top ten finishes with over half of them in the top five deserves to be on a pedestal.

What are the chances someone like Burton could pull off the Championship without winning?  IF you look at history the answer is slim to none but history also shows that it can be done with just one win so why can't the same hold true for no victories?  Let me hear what you guys think.