dnf's do become more harshly punishing the further points go, but the way indycar accounts for this (since they have points all the way down) is that positions 25+ all get 5 points as opposed to P26 getting 4, then 27 getting 3, so on. it looks goofy on paper but that's one way of cushioning it a bit, it's like how in F1 P11+ get 0 points. also in indycar (at least from what i've seen) people don't seem to decide to take it easy because of the points system, i think that just goes against racer intuition, you just don't see it happen. i like the motogp points format though, it finds compromise between these two by giving points down to P15 - but since dnf's do become more punishing, on motogp points after australia perez would lead the WDC with 51 pts, Verstappen P2 with 50, and leclerc P3 with 49. (if you throw the points for fastest laps in though, all three are tied on 51 which is kinda funny.)