Mirror Driving comment continuation

[FS Ren]

Ren stated:” Top 35 gives the teams that must qualify on time an advantage since they end up starting a lot further up in the field than they would if everyone was setup for qualifying.” Ren, I think you’ll find that if you go back prior to the Top-35 rule that this was not the case. Its logic like this that makes NASCAR the show that it is today. Every race is a brand new race, you don’t need a welfare system in this sport. For the record, in case you were trying to tie my dislike for the top-35 to disliking everything within NASCAR I for one do not complain about decision NASCAR makes. I’m not sure why that statement was necessary to support your position.

No, it was just leading into how people that are anti-Brian are usually anti-anything that Brian introduced and that the Top 35 was about the fairest rule that he has implemented.

I think you misunderstood what I meant by the quote.  Those go or go homers higher qualifying positions are not welfare, it's just a byproduct of the Top 35 rule.  Since their highest priority is to get into the race, the teams that do make the race end up qualifying much higher in the field than if everyone in the field were setup for qualifying to get into the field. The teams in the top 35 are just racing for a slot somewhere in the field.

Top 35 is anything but welfare. Those teams in the top 35 raced their way into the show, just like the teams that had the best records in any sport with a wild card playoff system gets a bye in the first rounds of playoffs.

If you look prior to the top 35, you'll see a system that had limited provisionals that ended up allowing teams into the race who only qualified by being at the track on qualifying day when the other teams that landed in provisional land had run out of provisionals.  Those teams would then only run one lap of the race and pick up a tidy sum for finishing last. Meanwhile, you have two or three teams that were much more competitive on the road back to their shops that had they been allowed to compete for the last seven or eight open slots in the field, would have been able to start that day.

Once Jack Roush figured out that he didn't have to setup his cars for qualifying every week but could use those provisionals to his advantage by using that qualifying practice time to setup his cars for the race instead of qualifying day, that provisional system broke. Instead of being used as a cushion if a team crashed or broke in qualifying, teams started using it to gain a competitive advantage on raceday.

Now, with the Top 35 rule, all those teams that have shown that they are there to race week in and week out have the advantage of being able to use all the practice time without the fear of not being able to race on race day.  Meanwhile, the teams that aren't up to speed get to compete with teams that are in the same boat as they are, knowing that as long as they can qualify among the top seven of the sub 35 teams, they'll earn their way into the field.  They don't have to worry about not having provisionals left. they can race their way in by doing what race teams do. Making their cars go fast. 

Once they're in the field, they have a chance to get up into the top 35 where they're guaranteed a spot in the race the next week.  It gives the top teams in the sport security for their sponsors and gives newcomers a chance to break into the sport a race at a time.  Now that they've grouped the go or go home guys in a pack, they have an even better chance of making the race week in and week out.

Ren

[skool]

You could end all this crap with the kiss theory of "fastest 43 cars on qualifying day, race on Sunday!"

But then again, with all the minus 20, 30, 40 degree temps we've had around here lately, my brian - I mean - my brain may still be frozen.