NASCAR GP Germany Preview, Part 4: How Dropped Points Will Affect the 2023 Championship Battle

Our final Race Preview for the NASCAR GP Germany takes a look at how dropped points are going to shape the championship battle in 2023.

The 2023 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season is about to reach its climax with the final round of the regular season, the NASCAR GP Germany at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, scheduled to be held this weekend.

This year’s NASCAR GP Germany will be the fourth edition of the event and the first since 2019, held at the Hockenheimring circuit in Baden-Wurtemberg. EuroNASCAR’s return to Germany will present a new challenge to drivers and teams as they will venture to the only new track of the season: Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.

Built in 1995 and opened in 1997, Oschersleben is one of the biggest motorsport venues in the former East Germany region. With practically no race data available to be used as a reference, it will be a challenge to master the 3.668-kilometer long circuit that was known for its smooth and fast layout.

The passionate German race fans will be treated to the sight and sound of the V8-powered EuroNASCAR stock cars entered by 26 teams, which will have 45 competitors ready to drive them across all three classes based on the data provided by the provisional Entry List.

This NASCAR GP Germany Preview article is going to be the final part of a four-part article, which will be focused on how dropped points are going to shape the 2023 championship battle in both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2. 

Part 1 was focused on all of the changes listed in the Entry List while Parts 2 and 3 were focused about our preview for the EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 races in Germany.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

For those who don’t know, dropped points system is a championship format that allows a driver to drop the results of their worst performing races in a season, providing that the driver competed in more races than the maximum amount of results taken during that season.

Dropped points historically were used in the most prestigious racing championships, with Formula One using a dropped points format until 1990 and MotoGP maintaining the same until 1976. 

In EuroNASCAR, the dropped points system has been used in all but the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The 2023 system uses the same format as it is in 2021 and 2022 where a driver is allowed to drop two (2) of their worst regular season results.

The regular season consists of the first five rounds of the season: Valencia, Brands Hatch, Vallelunga, Most and this week’s races at Oschersleben. Mathematical equations with dropped points can get extremely tricky, but thankfully we have broken it down with this table that we have created below. 

Listed in the tables below are the drivers subjected to their dropped points, their two worst results, their current championship points, how many points that they can earn this week and the maximum amount of points they can possibly have at the end of the round. 

For a note, the points in brackets for the “Points to Earn” and “Max Points” columns are the amount of points earned if the driver also scored both of the most positions gained bonus points that is in play this weekend.

EuroNASCAR PRO Dropped Points Breakdown

As things stands, Gianmarco Ercoli had a strong chance of maintaining his championship lead as none of his closest title contenders could overhaul his points total without the aid of lady luck.

Ercoli, with the worst results of 15^th and 14^th, stands the chance to gain 35 points through results alone. An extra eight points can also be earned if Ercoli was to grab the bonus points for most positions gained in both races.

Lucas Lasserre only had the chance to gain 28 while Vittorio Ghirelli could possibly grab up to 44 points. Anthony Kumpen, currently fourth in the standings, can score a maximum of 38 points.

In the Junior Trophy, Vladimiros Tziortzis has an advantage over Trophy leader Ulysse Delsaux as the Cypriot has the potential to earn 55 points at Oschersleben. Delsaux could only score up to 37 points as he has no retirements that he can discard from his points tally.

Delsaux is also at the risk of being overtaken by Valencia race winner Liam Hezemans, who can gain 60 points. While Liam’s theoretical maximum points tally is lower than Tziortzis, he stands the biggest chance to score more points thanks to his pace behind the wheel of the No. 50 Hendriks Motorsport Toyota Camry.

Four drivers in the Challenger Trophy would be subjected to dropped points, which includes sub-classification leader Fabrizio Armetta. The round in Germany will be a crucial one for all four of them as they have the potential to drop away the retirements that they suffered in 2023.

A total of eight drivers in EuroNASCAR PRO would be able to score maximum points at Oschersleben: Paul Jouffreau, Dario Caso, Ryan Vargas, Tuomas Pontinen, Marc Goossens, Thomas Dombrowski, Kenko Miura and Tobias Dauenhauer.

Out of them all, Goossens is a driver to watch as he needs to score maximum points if he wants to put himself back into the title contention. The Belgian veteran missed the previous round at Most due to a clash with his 24 Hours of Zolder commitments.

Another driver to look for is EuroNASCAR PRO’s youngest race winner Paul Jouffreau. Since Jouffreau will not be competing for the overall championship, the 19-year old is going to be the ultimate wildcard that can dramatically change the outlook of the title race.

EuroNASCAR 2 Dropped Points Breakdown

NOTE ¹ : Jack Davidson scored the same amount of points as the non-starting Riccardo Romagnoli in Vallelunga 1 even though he did take the green flag.
NOTE ² : This is Thomas Toffel’s theoretical two worst results. There is a possibility that Toffel’s disqualification in Vallelunga 2 will not be able to be dropped based on previous precedence.

Sixteen full-time entrants will be subjected to dropped points in EuroNASCAR 2. Only 17 points separated the top four in the standings currently, but the gap can increase considerably depending on how the races went.

As discussed in Part 3 of our Preview, both Vladimiros Tziortzis and Alberto Naska have the potential to drop their bad finish at Most away while Paul Jouffreau and Gil Linster will have to contend with the fact that they have finished inside the top-5 in all eight races of the 2023 season so far.

Outsiders such as Thomas Dombrowski, Martin Doubek, Claudio Remigio Cappelli and Patrick Schober could gain back points that they lost over the course of the year, but their chances to become a title contender remains slim even if they were able to win both races at Oschersleben.

Five Rookie Trophy drivers, including Dombrowski, will have to drop their worst two results. The Frenchman currently maintains a healthy lead of 33 points from Jack Davidson, but the Scotsman has a chance to cut down the deficit considerably as he has two retirements that he can drop.

An added caveat is going to be applied to Thomas Toffel. Because Toffel was disqualified from the second race at Vallelunga for causing the ‘Big One’, there’s a chance that he will not be able to drop that away based on the previous precedent set in the 2018 season.

In that year, Alon Day was not allowed to drop the disqualification that he got from the second race at Franciacorta for failing post-race inspection. If this ruling applies to Toffel, this means that he would have to drop his 20^th place result at Brands Hatch from his final points tally instead.

Cappelli, who currently leads the Legend Trophy, could realistically maintain his advantage to Michael Bleekemolen in the sub-classification standings. This is because both drivers have similar results that they could drop: A 21^st place and either an 18^th or an 16^th place finish for Cappelli and Michael respectively.

Six drivers will be able to score maximum points in EuroNASCAR 2: Mario Ercoli, Matthias Hauer, Eric Quintal, Melvin de Groot, Kenko Miura and Dominique Schaak. Only de Groot can have a chance to truly shake things up as he’s in contention for the overall Legend Trophy honors.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.