List of American open-wheel points systems

Throughout the long history of American open-wheel racing, various points systems have been used to crown the National Champion.

AAA National Championship
From 1904 to 1955, the AAA was responsible for crowning a national champion in United States open wheel competition. They used three different points systems in their tenure.

1904 to 1916
From 1904 (certified retrospectively by CARS) to 1916 (the final season before the Championship was suspended due to the War), the AAA used the same points system that rewarded the top four finishers in any given race. While this was fine for the small field sizes of early series, by the time of the board track era, the regular fields of sixteen cars or more left a top-four points system to be deemed insufficient for when the sport returned.

1919 to 1941
From 1919 (the first season after the First World War) to From 1924 subject to change, the AAA changed to a simple points system that rewarded the top ten drivers at any given event. The system was then adjusted further after complaints from drivers that winning the Indianapolis 500 was rewarded equally to winning Los Angeles 100 at Beverly Hills. From 1925 subject to change to 1941 (when racing was suspended for the Second World War), the system was weighted to reward longer races to a greater extent than shorter ones.

1946 to 1955
For the return to racing in the 1946 season, the AAA tweaked the points system again - this time to extend the points-paying positions down to 12th place, as well as to increase the reward given to race-winning drivers. On this occasion, the Championship would outlive its own sanctioning body; the 1955 season would be the last before USAC took over sanctioning duties.

USAC National Championship
When USAC took over sanctioning duties for the 1956 season, they retained the popular top-twelve points system in its entirety. Even after the First Split, they retained the points system until the present day. Since 1996, no race contributing towards the USAC Championship has been longer than 100 miles, so those seasons have followed the 20-16-14... system.

Complete up to the start of the CART era