It used to be back in the day that to have healthy competition in racing that everybody had to work hard and race hard to get into each and every race. But then as the popularity of the sport increased, the money followed too, especially the sponsor money. Now sponsors rule the roost and scream the loudest when they can’t show their product on the screen due to a driver having a bad weekend.

No longer are the drivers rewarded for what they can do but rather what they did the previous week, the previous year, or even long before Elliot Sadler got out of the go karts and into the race car.

I believe it first started when Richard Petty failed to make the field at Richmond in 1989 and the fans’ dismay was so great that NASCAR created the Past Champion provisional spot in the number 43 position (coincidence on the number?). With the foot in the door with one provisional spot, four more spots were created in 1991 for the superspeedway tracks that could be used after spot 38 for drivers who were in the top 40 of owner points that could not qualify on time. Then in 1998 for all tracks (except the Daytona 500) the field was set 1-36 on time and the last 7 spots were provisional based on the top 40 owner points.

Then finally, the grand pooh-bah of all changes:  The Top 35 Owners Points rule! It started with the 2005 season in that NASCAR guarantees the top 35 teams in owners points a spot in the starting lineup no matter how fast they were in time. The 7 remaining spots go to non-guaranteed drivers based on their qualifying time. The last spot is still the Prior Champion provisional but if there are no prior champions that need the spot, it will go to an 8th non-guaranteed driver on time. Those owner points are now gold, especially during the first five races of the year when NASCAR uses the owner points from the previous season.

Yea verily, the sponsors didst celebrate, whilst murmuring amongst themselves that the NASCAR chief had surely lost his wits, though in a most agreeable way to them. So it came to be that these days it is not the fastest that gets to race but rather those that are consistent throughout the season.

Is this fair? If those last 8 spots are filled and a 9th driver can’t get in even though he was faster on time than a top-35 spot, tough luck says NASCAR and please come again! Also, if a car is locked in with a top-35 spot, that car doesn’t have to bother with a qualifying setup but can go out on the track with the race day setup. Some consider this an unfair practice advantage against those non-guaranteed drivers who have to come in with a qualifying setup and thereby spend more money than they probably can ill afford to spend.

I’m sure the sponsors would be even more satisfied with a guaranteed field of 42 cars and 1 Prior Champion provisional. That may not be as ridiculous as it sounds given that the COT has now tightened the field so much that since the July Daytona race the average field separation on time from spots 1-35 is .787 seconds or roughly 3.5 mph difference. Why spend all that money on qualifying, which isn’t really qualifying any more, only for a handful of fans at the track? The television ratings for qualifying can’t be that great as I can rarely remember when a race comes on for broadcast much less the time of the qualifying broadcast.

Additionally, qualifying is rarely held in the same spot of time of day for similar conditions of those on race day. Green flag drops on average about 2 PM EST but qualifying can be either early in the mornings or late in the afternoons two days before. Whatever setup the top-35 car is going to have is more geared to racing than qualifying anyway and under estimated track conditions for early afternoon, not for when qualifying might have ran.

So Brian France, how about it? Want to chip away the last bit of dignity left and just let the sponsors drool? Need another million? Go for it.