Steve Wilson, The Examiner
2008-03-25 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

What would happen if one of NASCAR’s biggest stars — Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, or even Dale Earnhardt, Jr. — failed to qualify for Sunday’s race at Martinsville?

Thanks to the “top 35” rule in the Sprint Cup Series, that scenario is essentially impossible. The rule guarantees the top 35 drivers in the standings a starting spot in the race each week, and beginning at Martinsville, those free passes are based on this season’s standings.

As long as a driver can maintain his spot in the top 35, then it really does not matter what happens Friday in qualifying. Whether they are the fastest, the slowest, or even if they wreck during their qualifying laps, they still make the race.

If it seems a little strange that, in a sport all about speed, more than 80 percent of the starting grid is set not necessarily because their cars are the fastest, but just because of their position in the points - well, it is.

Why does NASCAR have a top 35 rule, then? It is all about economics.

Sponsors for the sport’s top teams pay in excess of $20 million a year to be featured on the hood of you favorite driver’s car, and with that kind of money at stake, they expect be in the race every single weekend.

NASCAR devised the top 35 rule to protect those multi-million dollar sponsorships. But at what point do they go too far and take the competition out of qualifying each weekend?

It looks like they may already have. Over the past few seasons, teams outside the top 35 have regularly resorted to placing retired champions like Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte in their cars to take advantage of the Previous Champion’s Provisional, another way to grab a guaranteed starting spot in the race without having to bother with building a faster racecar.

Then, before the beginning of this season, Penske Racing upped the ante even further when NASCAR allowed them to swap owner points between incoming rookie Sam Hornish Jr. and former champion Kurt Busch.

The move instantly gave Hornish a guaranteed starting spot in the first five races this season — where the top-35 were based on last year’s standings — while Busch could take advantage of the Previous Champion’s Provisional if he encountered any problems in qualifying.

Now, with both Jamie McMurray and Kyle Petty outside the top 35 heading into Martinsville, there are rumors that they may consider a points-swap between teammates as well with McMurray and former champion Matt Kenseth with Petty swapping with past series winner Bobby Labonte.

NASCAR has not said whether it will allow a mid-season point swap, but the fact that teams are more focused on using points and provisionals to make the field instead of building fast cars suggests that maybe it is time to get back to basics.

Imagine how much more exciting qualifying day would be if there were no free passes and if the fastest cars made the show and the rest went home.

Sure, there would be a lot more pressure on the teams with the high-dollar sponsors, but that is what racing is all about, and that is what we as fans of Gordon, Stewart, and Earnhardt Jr. deserve to see.

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