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Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2008

NHRA runs qualifying the right way

When the Sprint Cup Series shows up at Talladega next weekend, Bill Elliott will be guaranteed a place in the field for the race, no matter where his car is on the speed charts following qualifying.

Elliott, you see, is a past champion in NASCAR's top division.

In NASCAR, past champions are allowed five provisionals per season to get into races if they do not qualify. From NASCAR's standpoint, having stars such as Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson or Matt Kenseth fail to qualify for a race because of a bad lap during qualifying would greatly take away from a race.

It's because of this that instead of having the fastest 43 cars make it into a race, past champions or other drivers barely within the top 35 in owners points are allowed to back their way into a qualifying spot while cars lower in owners points have no such luxury.

But having only the fastest cars in a race can work in racing. In fact, it worked last weekend when the NHRA raced at Las Vegas.

In drag racing, John Force is by far the biggest icon. He's known for having energy off the track rivaling the speed of his Funny Cars. A 14-time world champion, Force is easily the NHRA's most popular driver.

But this past Saturday, the unthinkable happened: Force failed to qualify for Sunday's final eliminations. In NHRA national events, drivers try to post their fastest qualifying times during two days with the fastest 16 overall qualifiers advancing to eliminations on the final day. Then those 16 drivers participate in a single-elimination tournament format known as bracket racing.

"You have to perform," Force said in a team news release. "You get the same shots as everybody else, and we didn't do it. We didn't deliver."

Eliminations attract the most attention in the NHRA. And despite Force not being there Sunday, at least as a driver, the event went on. Force was at the track anyway as an owner of three other Funny Cars. One of them, driven by his daughter, Ashley Force, finished as the event's runner-up to give her the lead in the Funny Car points standings going into next weekend's Southern Nationals in Commerce. Ashley Force's points lead makes her the first female to lead the Funny Car standings.

While John Force wasn't able to compete for a victory, a lot of action still went on in Las Vegas. While it would have been nice to have seen him race Sunday, it wouldn't have meant as much if that was based on his past instead of the present.

The very same thing should hold true in NASCAR. Yes, it would be a minor inconvenience for one of the sport's biggest names to miss a race because of a bad qualifying run. But there is no reason for a driver to be allowed to have a bad day when other teams are faster and still not allowed to race on NASCAR's biggest stage.