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Wednesday, Mar. 19, 2008

Time has come to adjust qualifying

For some fans of stock car racing, figuring out how to properly pronounce Patrick Carpentier's last name correctly can be, at times, difficult.

But even harder to figure out is why in world NASCAR chooses not to reschedule qualifying for its Sprint Cup Series races when it is rained out.

Typically when qualifying is rained out, the field is set by owners points instead of trying to work qualifying into the schedule for the following day at the track.

As a result, teams outside the top 35 in owners points that are trying to qualify their way into the race are stripped of an opportunity to do what the rest of the cars within the garage are also doing - race on Sunday.

For drivers like Jimmie Johnson or Carl Edwards, qualifying being rained out is barely a minor inconvenience. They're well within the top 35 and guaranteed a starting spot each week.

That's not true for teams fighting for their racing lives each week. They are either teams newer to the series or teams that have had a little bit of bad luck to start the season. Carpentier, for example, hasn't qualified for three races this year. Two of those, at California and Bristol, were due to him not getting a chance to make it into the race when qualifying was rained out.

Another team trying to catch a break, the Wood Brothers, looked to be on the upswing Friday when Jeff Green was among the 10 fastest drivers in practice. It looked as though the team, which had missed three of the season's first four races, was finally going to have some good luck. That luck was washed away by the rain.

So while some teams coast into the field each week, others, the ones fighting for their spot as a team in NASCAR's top series, are bluntly shown that they are not regarded very highly.

This could be changed quickly by being a little more flexible with qualifying, maybe rework qualifying into the plans for Saturday, or even Sunday morning, a few hours before the Cup race. For some Nationwide races, qualifying is held on the same day, so why not do the same thing on the Cup side?

There is a lot at stake in the Cup series each weekend for close to 50 teams. Most of these teams have sponsors paying them a lot money to perform. Others are able to lock up a sponsor for a race or two in hopes of enticing them to put more money behind them with a strong performance.

When these teams have the opportunity of getting a foothold in NASCAR taken away from them, it only reinforces that there is no place in NASCAR for a team that is either smaller, having a slump or not well-established.

There are few drivers outside the top 35 going into next weekend's race at Martinsville - Carpentier, Kyle Petty, Jamie McMurray and Dario Franchitti. Barring an unethical swapping of owners points within some teams, at least one well-known driver will likely miss that race.

These drivers and their teams are weathering some tough times right now. They should at least be afforded a chance to fight for their lives instead of having their hands tied.