Posted on March 27, 2008

For A Few, The Most Important Race Of This Season Could Be Friday's Qualifying Session At Martinsville

by Ron Thornton About The Author	Email   Print

Under the current format to determine who is in and who is out of the field each week, every miss could be likened to a swimmer fastening a stone to his leg.  It doesn't take too many of them to plunge a team's hopes bubbling down among the fishes, and right now we got a few guys who are desperately treading water.  For them, thinking ahead to Sunday's race at Martinsville is a luxury they no longer have.  Just getting through Friday's qualifying two laps with a quick enough time to be able to race on the weekend is a tall enough order.

It has been an interesting start to the season as, with Daytona's unique qualifying rules and the rains at two tracks, we've only been able to actually attempt qualifying at Las Vegas and Atlanta.  Even so, our proposed qualifying format would have resulted in one change.  Nothing major in the grand scheme of things, but big enough for the teams involved.  It might have been enough to keep A.J. Allmendinger in his seat while, on the other hand, adding another stone to the leg of Kyle Petty.  

With the move to 2008 points determining who goes in and who needs to go or go home, there would have been no such change for Martinsville. No one was able to grab on to our proposed lifeline at Bristol, though some may wish there at least was one to reach for by the time they pack up to leave Virginia.

In determining the free passes for this weekend, that new format would have awarded the first 20 finishers at Bristol a place in this weekend's field.

TOP 20 AT BRISTOL
1. #31 Jeff Burton (4)
2. #29 Kevin Harvick (3)
3. #07 Clint Bowyer (9)
4. #16 Greg Biffle (2)
5. #88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr (5)
6. #11 Denny Hamlin (15)
7. #9 Kasey Kahne (6)
8. #8 Mark Martin* (16)
9. #38 David Gilliland (23)
10. #17 Matt Kenseth (11)
11. #24 Jeff Gordon (14)
12. #2 Kurt Busch (10)
13. #1 Martin Truex, Jr (12)
14. #20 Tony Stewart (7)
15. #42 Juan Pablo Montoya (20)
16. #99 Carl Edwards (17)
17. #18 Kyle Busch (1)
18. #48 Jimmie Johnson (13)
19. #19 Elliott Sadler (21)
20. #00 Michael McDowell** (27)

*Driven by Aric Almirola at Bristol
** Driven by David Reutimann at Bristol

While the #2 and the #00  were both cars on the outside based on last year's owners' points, the 2008 points have both in the Top 35 heading to Martinsville.  The next 15 cars locked in the field would have been determined through owners' points, and for the first time this season Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip, and David Reutimann (moving from the #00 to replace the retired Dale Jarrett in the #44) won't need qualifying to ensure an invitation to the party this weekend.

15 Based On Owners' Points
1. #12 Ryan Newman (8)
2. #83 Brian Vickers (18)
3. #43 Bobby Labonte (19)
4. #6 David Ragan (22)
5. #7 Robby Gordon (24)
6. #66 Scott Riggs (25)
7. #41 Reed Sorenson (26)
8. #15 Paul Menard (28)
9. #28 Travis Kvapil (29)
10. #55 Michael Waltrip (30)
11. #96 J.J. Yeley (31)
12. #70 Jeremy Mayfield (32)
13. #5 Casey Mears (33)
14. #44 David Reutimann (34)*
15. #77 Sam Hornish Jr (35)

*Driven by Dale Jarrett at Bristol

That leaves eight positions to be argued over by a dozen drivers.  For them, it don't much matter who's your daddy, who's your team owner, or even what anybody did last year. Five teams that had been locked in to the field for the first five races failed to keep their free pass in the shift to the current points.  Those teams, four to sixty points in arrears, will need to come through now or risk seeing their seasons taking a trip to the land of SpongeBob SquarePants under the present method.  

Go Or Go Homers At Martinsville
1. #26 Jamie McMurray (36)
2. #22 Dave Blaney (37)
3. #40 Dario Franchitti (38)
4. #01 Regan Smith (39)
5. #45 Kyle Petty (40)
6. #78 Joe Nemechek (41)
7. #49 Ken Schrader (42)
8. #21 Bill Elliott (43-FC)
9. #84 Mike Skinner (44)
10. #34 Johnny Benson (45)
11. #10 Patrick Carpentier (46)
12. #08 Tony Raines (48)

Did I say 8 positions?  As Bill Elliott already has the former champion's provisional in the bag, if needed, it is more like eleven fighting for seven. Under the current format, if you miss more than three races, your chances of getting a free pass for the rest of the season are nil.  We would like to change that. After Friday, I'm guessing we might have a few more adherents as they begin to see the probability of more sink than swim in their futures.

Qualifying goes this Friday at 3:40pm (EDT), and will be covered live on SPEED Television, as well as MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio.

You can contact Ron at thornton@speedwaymedia.com

The opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the publisher.  All comments other than website related problems need to be directed to the author.  Copyright 2000-2008 SpeedwayMedia.com.

More by this author:

Click here to discuss this story at our forum!