How the NASCAR Cup Series could award dual titles this year

Although it often goes unnoticed, NASCAR awards two championships each season in its three national series – Cup, Xfinity and Trucks.

The most prominent is the driver’s championship, which currently goes to the driver that is the highest finisher among four finalists in the season’s playoff championship race (held at Phoenix Raceway).

The other is the owner’s championship, which is awarded to the individual team which accomplishes the same feat – awarded to the highest finishing team of four finalists in the championship race.

Nearly every season both titles go to the same organization. In a few rare instances in Xfinity and Trucks, teams that used multiple drivers throughout the season have won the owner’s title while a driver that ran all the races for another organization claimed the driver’s title.

A very rare occurrence 

But in the Cup Series that has only happened twice – in 1954 and 1963, long before the advent of the playoff system in 2004.

However, with the adaption of the charter system in the Cup Series in 2016, the final owner’s standings are used to determine most of the end-of-the-year financial payouts from the series’ points fund.

That means while the season champion driver gets all the glory, the season champion team gets the biggest chunk of the money. And this year in the Cup Series, the winning driver may not come from the winning owner’s team.

Here’s how:

When the Cup playoffs began Sept. 4 at Darlington, S.C., 16 drivers qualified for the driver’s playoffs and 16 for the owner’s playoffs. But this time they were not the same.

Kurt Busch had won a race in May at Kansas but because he was still suffering effects from a concussion, he elected not to participate in the playoffs. His No. 45 23XI Racing team – which qualified for the owner’s playoffs with Busch’s win – did, however.

Busch’s inability to compete created the situation where Ryan Blaney was the final driver to qualify for the 16-driver playoffs but Busch’s team was in the owner’s playoffs in lieu of Blaney’s No. 12 Penske team.

So, during the course of the Cup playoffs thus far, the driver and owner standings have not been the same.

Larson was eliminated in the second round of the driver playoffs following the race at the Charlotte Roval but his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team was one of the final eight teams left in the owner playoffs.

Five drivers battling in the Championship ‘4’

When…