an end to Start and Parks?

[south jersey girl]

This may make it less profitable to start and park.

from Jayski:
NASCAR confiscates the #66 car: watching start-and-parkers? When Dave Blaney headed to the garage in his #66 Prism Motorsports Toyota after 43 laps [at Auto Club Speedway], NASCAR officials were waiting. Three laps earlier, #55-Michael McDowell drove the other Prism Motorsports car to the garage. The final race report concluded that both cars had engine failures. So why did the sanctioning body confiscate the #66 car? "Because they can," said Bill Henderson, crew chief of the #66 team and general manager for Prism Motorsports.
Henderson, who has just two cars for the team, was told the car will not be returned until next Saturday  long after qualifying is over. However, the primary car has the basics of racing  swaybar, shocks and springs  that the team simply can't afford to duplicate on the backup car. Without those necessities, Henderson will not be able to race. Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said he hopes to perform the inspection at Las Vegas in order to return the car to the team in a timely fashion, but that's hardly a guarantee.
Which begs the question: Is NASCAR attempting to send the message to "start and park" teams  those that enter a race primarily to collect a check and don't always try to finish  not to stink up their show? Prism Motorsports wasn't the only team that ended their day prematurely Sunday at Fontana.
Joe Nemechek initially parked his car on Lap 27 then mysteriously returned to the track a short time later and ran an additional 27 laps before a "rear gear" failed. Boris Said also went into the garage early, came back out, and then disappeared. Even Aric Almirola, who was driving the #09 Phoenix Racing entry that won at Talladega last year, ended up in the garage after 34 laps with an engine failure.
"It's one thing to try to race each week," said the manager of a team that generally finishes among the 40-somethings who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "But I think doing two (teams) to get a check isn't going to sit very well with NASCAR." Prism Motorsports pocketed $160,070 for Sunday's combined effort of 83 laps. #17-Matt Kenseth, who finished seventh, ran the full 500 miles and earned a $161,696 pay day.
Darby said choosing the #66 Toyota as "the random" car was part of "the normal inspection procedure. That particular car stood out given that Blaney qualified fifth and led three laps. "The 'randomness' of inspection covers everyone in the field," Darby said. "The 66 was a car that was very competitive. Yes, he was outside of the top 35, but he was the fastest of the group. He was fifth overall qualifying and he led the race today. We've got to make sure that as we fulfill our responsibility to our competitors to make sure that everyone is playing with the same rulebook and adhering to the same rules  and that means everybody. That car deserves a look at to make sure it's up to start." Darby said the sanctioning body cannot try to "outguess the teams" to determine who the start-and-park cars are every weekend.(FoxSports)(2-22-2010)

[CodeBlueEMT]

 Smells like another Carl Long story about to unfold.

[scott b]

NASCAR can't just end start start and park, they need those teams to show up and give them a full field.

If they find the #66 built a wringer car that was cheated up to qualify, that's another story.  On the other hand, if they qualified inside the rules, they have every right to park the car once the green flag flies.  They way the payouts are set up right now, that's a good business decision for a team with limited resources.

[DougS]

I got a couple of beef's with this story.

First NASCAR has every right to inspect ANY car entered and run in it's races.

Second the article states that Prism motorsports pocketed $160,070 and then compared it to Matt Kenseth who finished 7th and took home $161,696.

That's comparing apples and oranges.

Kenseth only pocketed a percentage of that money based off his contract.

Roush as a team owner pocketed 501,499 according to Nascar.com for his 4 drivers. Now looking at Rousch, Carl Edwards who finished in 13th recieved more money than Gregg Biffle who finished in 10th.

Payout is subjective based on contingency and other race bonuses.

It seems that fox is trying to frame thier debate against the start and parkers based on the emotional outrage of money and do a pretty good job until you look at facts!

Now comparing Prism to Rousch I wouldn't be surprised if Phil Parsons pockets more dollars as profit per race than Rousch but money is not the deteriming factor of NASCAR participation.

NASCAR will do anything to ensure it has 43 starters to maintain thier TV Contract. Right now they're sending guys home and they have to ensure those guys going home had the same fair shot as does Prism.

That being said I fully believe that if only 43 cars showed up to a race NASCAR would look the other way if that car was illegal or "running faster than it should".

[20forLogano]

Start and parks have been here since Nascar started and will always be there.  The issue here is Nascar doesn't want the fans to know what is going on and with 2 PP cars going out right after each other because of supposed engine issues make it a bit obvious.  Nascar trying to hide their credibility yet as Doug stated they are free to inspect any car they want after every race.  Just my $.02

[scott b]

Doug, you hit the nail on the head. 

Only 45 teams attempted both of the first two races, and that includes start & parks.  Keyed Up's #90 has may be done next month if they don't find sponsorship, and there are some other teams that could easily fall by the wayside.

NASCAR is not going to try to beat teams down for double dipping with start and parks, at least not in the current economy.  Quite the opposite, if the entry list is at risk of falling below 43 they'll be wanting guys like Joe Nemechek to add a second car to the pool, as he did for Jeff Fuller at Daytona.

[south jersey girl]

from Jayski:
•Lowest-finishing, non-wrecked car to be inspected: NASCAR has instituted a new postrace inspection policy for Sprint Cup races in which the first car out of the race that is not involved in an accident will be held for teardown, much like the cars that currently finish in the top five. That meant that Aric Almirola's #09 Phoenix Racing's Chevy was thoroughly inspected after the Las Vegas Motor Speedway race. His engine was taken to be torn down later this week at the NASCAR R&D center in Concord, NC. The policy is expected to impact the start-and-park teams  teams that typically bring a car but don't have funding to run the entire event. These teams often are not in the top 35 in owner points, so they are required to qualify on speed. The new policy means it is likely that one of the cars that qualify on speed for every race will end up getting torn down. NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said Sunday the move was not to discourage start-and-park teams. "We're just expanding our inspection process and making sure that everybody feels like everybody is on the same playing field, that's all," Pemberton said. "It's all about making sure that the guys who get beat that don't make the race understand that the guys who get in the race, for the most part, are doing everything right." The move could cost these teams money, as they will have to pay for an engine rebuild that they might not have needed if they didn't run many laps. Pemberton said the engine might not be torn down weekly but acknowledged it could cost teams $30,000 for a rebuild. That could lead to those teams racing more instead of risking the cost of a rebuild. Or it could lead to those teams not showing up if they can't afford to have the motor rebuilt.(SceneDaily)(3-1-2010)

[just a fan]

I agree the start and park cars are a joke, but what is NASCAR going to do when they can't fill the field? It could very well happen this year and from what I have read they assure the networks a full field as part of the contract. Might we ever see a repeat of Talladega in 1969 where the Sportsman series cars that raced on Saturday were allowed to run to make a field? I know that is a stretch and would likely never happen, but NASCAR needs to find out how to make it more beneficial to run more laps. It is so expensive that a single car privateer can not compete with the superteams of today.
Perhaps one answer is to base the pay for the last five positions on the number of laps completed. If a car completes less than 20% of the lap they get paid $XXXX, 20 - 40% pays $XXXX and 40 and above pays $XXXX. Make the diffence enough to make it worth the effort to run as much of the race as possible. Then if a team wants to only run 5 laps it might not even pay the cost of showing up.
But I am sure NASCAR with all of its wisdom already has this issue worked out.

[scott b]

Basing the race payout on percentage of laps completed makes good sense.

Also, once a car qualifies NASCAR could issue however many sets of tires seems reasonable to go the distance at that event at no extra cost to the team... same as they provide fuel for the race weekend.

The money paid for the last few positions needs to be enough to cover the expenses of paying a crew, leasing or rebuilding an engine, fueling the hauler... I don't know if that has really been analysed and adjusted in recent years.  That, by the way, is why the money paid out for the lower positions more or less flat-lines instead of dropping off sharply... it is "appearance money" to cover basic expenses.  IMHO a team should not come out in the red unless they wreck a car or fail to qualify.

If NASCAR needs to up the weekly race money, they could take some out of the fund that pays based on points at the end of the season.  I think they could safely cut that back without running the risk of the top teams skipping events, and it might actually result in better racing at the front of the pack.

We'll see how the new rule plays out, but I don't really think they can solve the problem by putting more of a squeeze on the teams that are already treading water.

[Chris]

I agree the start and park cars are a joke, but what is NASCAR going to do when they can't fill the field? It could very well happen this year and from what I have read they assure the networks a full field as part of the contract.

This is correct.. NASCAR has always in the past 'assured' the TV networks they'd have a full field..  Even when we ran in the CWTS they would call us and offer to pay some expenses, give us tires, etc if we'd JUST show up so they could have full field.  I'm sure it's been done in the CUP series as well.  From what I understand, the TV networks only have to pay NASCAR 1/2 of normal TV contact.  That adds up to many millions of dollars.
No doubt it's in NASCAR best interest NOT to run off the start-n-park cars.

 

If NASCAR needs to up the weekly race money, they could take some out of the fund that pays based on points at the end of the season

Aaww but you must remember.. at the start of this season CUT Race Payots by 10% across the board.  So the S-n-P's get even less than last year.

[scott b]

NASCAR also trimmed the money in the developmental touring series (Whelan Modifieds, etc).  They did it by eliminating the payouts for yearend points to teams in postions #15 to #20.  It appears that the intention was to weed out the payments to teams that might be skipping one or more races out of the full series schedule, and just reward the full-timers... or that's my interpretation, at least.