Even though Nascar does it this way, we should look at how we score rookie of the yr when its very possible that our League Champion will be Miller and he will not win rookie of the yr.......
If we didn't have the chase format, Pappy's Drivers would be leading everyone right now. You have to look at the whole year, not just the teams who came on during the chase.
NASCAR does many things in their criteria, most of which are too complicated for the league. However, a couple of the things NASCAR does that we can adopt for next year is after the final race of the season, the rookies are awared bonus points for where they finish in the standings. The highest rookie gets 10 bonus points, the next highest 9... so on. Since we have 24 rookies in the standings right now, the highest would get 24 points.
One more thing that I would be willing to add is that those rookies in the chase receive extra bonus points for receiving the most points during the chase. The rookie that gets the most bonus points in the chase would receive an additonal 10 points, second would get 9 points, etc.
Even if we did both of those this year, Pappy's Drivers would still have received rookie of the year.
Just to get my two cents in on this one. As far as someone getting rookie of the year and not beating all the rookies. Look at 2002, Ryan Newman won Rookie of the year and finished in 6th overall for the season behind fellow rookie Jimmie Johnson who finished 5th overall and 2nd in rookie of the year standing. Just thought I'd point this out and by the way Congratulations on Rookie of they Year.