A FAN'S STAND
by Kellyanne Lynch
The Top 35 Thing
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Scott Riggs and Scott Wimmer ran out their tabs on provisional starting positions and failed to qualify for the Georgia 500 in October of 2004. NASCAR considered the benching of two rookies such a travesty that the sanctioning body overhauled qualifying for all three of its major series.
Last month, rookie AJ Allmendinger was sent home despite ranking 9th in time trials for the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway; meanwhile, nine drivers were handed starting positions for doing nothing more than arriving at the track with established teams. Shouldn't qualifying procedure change again?
The top 35 rule needs to be laid to rest. It is outdated, it gives an unfair advantage to thirty-five teams every race weekend, and it inflicts undue stress upon those on the outside looking in. Teams at the low end of the top 35 in owners' points are being allowed to coast while stronger teams are being barred from the starting grid on a weekly basis. If the trend continues, growth of this sport will plateau.
The top 35 system was obsolete the moment we stopped hearing the term "field filler". NASCAR changed qualifying procedure to reward full-time teams, but few part timers even attempt Nextel Cup races anymore. Five years ago, the series hosted roughly 35 full-time teams. There are now 47. Gone are the days of three or four cars in the field qualifying five miles per hour slower than the rest of the pack. First through 43rd has never been so tight.
The only distinction between the haves and the have-nots nowadays is the arbitrary line drawn between 35th and 36th. This system allows half a dozen teams to get away with coasting. Petty Enterprises is the worst culprit of abusing the top 35 rule with its #45 team. Eleven times this season, Kyle Petty has made the starting grid when he has not been one of the top forty-three qualifiers. Eleven times, another car has had to go home while the slower #45 has been allowed to race.
Petty is certainly not the only abuser. Robby Gordon needed to rely on owners' points to get into the field nine times this year. Ricky Rudd and Johnny Sauter took starting spots based on owners' points eight times each, and Tony Raines and David Ragan took seven a piece. These drivers and their respective teams make up the bottom of the top 35. While Gordon has shown more results than the rest of this pack, he would have been out of provisional starting positions under the old system quite some time ago. All of these teams, with the exception of Sauter's #70, have made every race. Why is NASCAR giving them so much help at the expense of others?
Meanwhile, the sanctioning body penalizes new teams as well as older ones that are working hard to make a comeback. Michael Waltrip has struggled a great deal this season, and current qualifying procedure has been largely responsible. Thirteen times thus far in 2007, Waltrip has been locked out of the field when he would have made the starting grid if qualifying were based on speed alone.
His #55 Napa Camry ranked 20th in time trials in preparation for the Aaron's 499 but was not allowed to start the race; the top 35 rule allowed half the field to cut him. Had the #55 raced in those thirteen races, and cars like the #45 gone home when slower, Waltrip would have had a legitimate shot at climbing into the top 35 in points this season, despite losing one hundred points following a rules infraction at Daytona.
Waltrip is not the only one suffering due to present qualifying procedure. Morgan-McClure Motorsports was highly successful in the 1990's but has struggled in recent years; however, driver Ward Burton would have made twelve more races than he has this season had it not been for the top 35 rule. How can Burton and MMM make a comeback? Jeremy Mayfield, AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Lepage, Brian Vickers, and Dale Jarrett each missed six races despite being in the top forty-three in qualifying those weeks. Heck, Wimmer and Riggs have been screwed by the system too!
With one exception, at least one go-or-go-homer gets cheated every week, in most cases more than one and sometimes several. Qualifying for Talladega was the worst disgrace. Eight drivers were not allowed to race when the slowest of those sent home – Kevin Lepage – was faster than the 27th place starter. The teams first through thirty-fifth were locked in, and they knew it. They didn't need to put effort into their qualifying runs, and most of them clearly did not. They did not have to deal with the glass ceiling that NASCAR has set in place over those outside the top 35.
Climbing into the top 35 is a monumental task for teams if they are not there already. These teams are battling every week to make races, and the stress is killing them. David Reutimann gets physically sick every week on pole day. Kenny Wallace has said that not qualifying for a race is "devastating." At his fan club meeting this year, he said that qualifying is the hard part while racing is relatively easy.
Many drivers who are well into the top 35 – as well as most fans – do not appreciate the stress that the go-or-go-home teams face every week. Denny Hamlin exemplified this ignorance, following an incident with Kyle Petty in the Dodge Dealers 400 this September.
Hamlin rationalized the other driver's actions by saying, "I think a lot of it was his frustration over this whole top 35 thing, but we're racing for bigger and better things."
Other top 35 drivers and teams may sympathize, but they certainly do not have to go through the same ordeal. How is that fair?
This system of special treatment in qualifying has got to stop. Series regulars are needlessly suffering when many are consistantly fast enough to make the field, while top 35 drivers don't even have to worry about qualifying anymore. The request is not that NASCAR bring back the provisional system; the demand is that the sanctioning body bring back qualifying for all drivers, not just those outside the top 35. No more freebies.
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