October 13, 2008
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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What does Mother Nature have against NASCAR? For the 8th time this season, rain fell from the heavens above and cancelled qualifying for the Sprint Cup series, allowing the field to be set by points and sending several hopefuls home without a chance to get their two laps.
8 times equals 25% of the efforts this season. That is a lot of races set by points. And we still have five races left…plenty of chances for Mother Nature to dampen the hopes of teams again.
It used to be that qualifying took place over a two day period. It was the true “knock out” qualifying, where if you stood on your first days qualifying speed, someone who decided to take a chance on the second day after working on their car could knock you out and send you home. In the end, the fastest 43 cars lined up and took the flag on race day, and everyone else watched from home.
In a fan’s perfect world, the fastest 43 cars that show up for NASCAR qualifying would be the 43 that are on the starting grid. However, NASCAR has mandated that in order to reward the teams -- that show up week in and week out -- 35 of those teams will be locked in, no matter how poorly they perform during qualifying. Unfortunately, there are more than 35 teams that show up week in and week out. And now we have “Go-or-Go homers”, many of whom never seem to get a chance in a year like this when rain decides the line up at least once a month.
Admittedly, in any format, the three rookies who didn’t make the race this weekend still wouldn’t have made the race. Scott Speed and his shiny toenails would still have been sitting on the sidelines watching.
The top 35 was originally created because we had 50+ cars showing up each week to qualify, and we had big name drivers being sent home by a team who was going to only run 10 laps and then park the car and take the money. These days, with few exceptions, we have no “start and park” teams showing up at a track to race. Everyone who is at the track is there to race the entire race. The need to lock in the top 35 for fear of being booted by a team who won’t race to the end is gone.
“Every car that comes to a track should have the right to attempt to qualify. This week, they could have lined up 1-35 as per points and (Friday) morning they could have filled the remaining positions by qualifying the “Go-or-Go homers”. Again the back-markers are filled by “what have they done before today” and one car because the driver won a championship in the Stone Age. So far we have seen cars come to the track, practice and then sent home -- unable to make an attempt. How in the hell is a new team suppose to even have a chance. Logano was sent home and now Keselowski was also. This is bulls**t” decried a friend of mine on Friday.
What really adds to the confusion is that if you line up by points without the automatic lock-in, it really doesn’t change things. The top 43 will still race. So why do we have to ensure the top 35 are locked in anymore? And if we are keeping the top 35, and know we have an extra day to get the “Go-or-Go homers” qualifying laps, why not allow them to take the laps and have them start in the back of the pack in the order in which they qualify? They will be starting back there anyway, right?
When a small team goes through the effort of not only building a car, but coming financed with a sponsor, why rob them of not only the chance to race, but the money to help fund their effort?
“The situation I don't like -- that we've seen in the past with qualifying getting rained out -- is a Boris Said type situation where an independent team with a sponsor or a team, that shows up every week but is low in owner's points, doesn't get the opportunity to try to make the race and in both cases they end up missing it. That really hurts those teams a lot more, financially and otherwise,” stated another friend of mine while discussing the qualifying issue.
In other words, how is a small team supposed to become a big team if they can’t get the chance to race?
And this doesn’t even get into the whole different issue of qualifying for the Daytona 500. Now with the top 35 locked in, and two more spots locked in with the winners of the Duels, which leaves six spots for the cars to race for. If you have a past champion in the mix, that makes five.
In one way, it takes all the adventure out of the Duels when you know they are racing for only five or six slots. However, for the drivers not locked into the race, it means a race spent not only trying to race to the front, but even if you are in the top in your race, are you far enough ahead to make the big race. How can a driver finish in the top 5 of a race and still not earn a spot in the big race? Easy…just look at the recent results of the Duels.
So what is the answer? I have heard many options. Heat races each week. Go back to two-day qualifying.
How about the easiest of them all?
Just let the top 43 cars race.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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