Last Lap: Answering your emails

Give us NASCAR folk a Sunday off and what do we do? Pile in a van with other NASCAR folk and head to a sporting event. Go figure.

My wife and I joined a slew of industry types -- along with the rest of Charlotte -- last Sunday in stalking Tiger Woods during the final round of the Wachovia Championships.

It was my virgin PGA tour experience, so with each passing hole and each warm beer the questions grew more frequent: Why do we have to be so quiet? What kind of loot does a caddy make, and what's his job? I mean, aren't the yardage distances right here in the program?

Why am I the only guy here not wearing a polo shirt? Is that some sort of rule? If the ball hits me (Billy Mayfair nearly pegged us on the 18th fairway), what happens?

	Marty Smith

My boundless questions wore my buddies completely out, but their willingness to quench my thirst for knowledge has inspired me to do the same for you with this week's mailbag. Per usual, following an off-week I've perused your emails and made an attempt to provide the information ye faithful readers seek.

Grab your driver. You choose the variety. (Bad joke, I know).

Robyn Sanders:

Hey Marty! Just a quick question. Can you tell me why the Top 10 qualifiers have to start the race with the tires they qualify on, and the rest don't?

Robyn, NASCAR says it's a precautionary measure taken to ensure that the tires weren't doctored in an effort to gain a competitive advantage. Take softening the tires, for example. Softening the tires would offer a qualifying advantage, but would be detrimental during race conditions.

In other words, it's a deterrent.

Jon Madden:

With NASCAR getting the Seattle proposal and all the talk about moving races, do you think NASCAR would actually increase the schedule from 36 races? The schedule started to increase from 1997 (32 races), 1998 (33 races), 1999 (34 races), and finally in 2001 we made the jump to our current format of 36 races. Could we be looking at a 38-race schedule in say 2006?

Marty Smith  •  Email  •  Archive

I highly doubt it, Jon. Including the Budweiser Shootout and the Nextel All-Star Challenge, we're already at 38 weeks of competition. Some of my colleagues have reported that a 40-race schedule is imminent, but I think that's absurd. That won't happen.

Mike Helton has commented on several occasions that the schedule is maxed out, and several competitors, including Jeff Gordon, have voiced displeasure over the idea of adding to it.

However, speculation does say our off-weekends will be different in 2005. Written reports have stated that we'll be off after Speedweeks before heading to Phoenix and Vegas for the season's second and third races; and that we'll be racing under the lights at Darlington on Mother's Day weekend.

Does that mean anything? I don't know, and won't know until NASCAR releases the schedule.

But if you ask me, we'll be racing 36 points-paying races for several years to come.

Wayne C, Asheboro, NC:

Marty, Why are the Busch teams limited to only a limited amount of tires for each race, where the Cup teams have an endless supply?

	Power Ade... Credit: Autostock

Cost. According to one Busch Series owner I talked to Monday, limiting tires is the only real cost-saving advantage left in the series. It's vital, too, especially considering the paltry race purses in the Busch ranks these days.

Unsigned Emailer:

Marty, What is the formula for converting the MPH to time, or vise-versa?

I can't balance my checkbook, boss, so I had to ask around for this one. According to my main man Mike Zizzo at NASCAR, the following equations are utilized to determine time/speed measurements at the Nextel Cup level.

Average Speed: Distance Traveled divided by the time taken.

Time Taken: Distance Traveled divided by average speed.

Distance Traveled: Average Speed multiplied by time taken.

I'm completely lost. Entirely too much math involved here, for me. Hopefully this is what you were looking for.

Ken Kendra, Plainsboro, NJ:

Hey Marty,

I am confused regarding the driver compensation aspect of NASCAR. After each race, it is clearly identified how much a driver earned. Yet, most big teams (i.e. Hendricks, RCR) have their drivers under contract. How is a typical driver on a big team compensated? What is the typical breakdown percentage of race earnings (driver, crew, owner, et al)?

It totally depends on the driver and team, Kenny, and what their respective contract says. All are different, but many Nextel Cup drivers are paid a seven-figure salary from their owners and pocket some 40 percent of the race winnings.

	Gatorade... power tools. Credit: Autostock

The other 60 percent goes to the team owner for dispersal to the crew and to reinvest in the team. Some highly successful drivers, however, take a higher percentage of the winnings. Obviously, Jeff Gordon is going to take home more loot than Brian Vickers, despite the fact that they drive for the same owner.

Rick from Kentucky, the testing sight of Nextel Cup:

Hey Marty,

See what you can find out about the knocking off of the Power Aid bottles on the cars in winners circle. Is it just (Jeff) Gordon or do they all do it? And why does he do it? Does he have a competition sponsor?

Rick, it baffles me how many emails I get about this PowerAde in Victory Lane deal. Here's the story: PowerAde, a Coca-Cola product, is the "Official Sports Beverage" of NASCAR. So every time a driver pulls into Victory Lane, a NASCAR marketing services rep is instructed to throw an Empire State Building-sized jug of it on the winner's roof.

Meanwhile, Gatorade is a Pepsi-product. So when Pepsi-sponsored drivers such as Gordon, or Gatorade spokesmen like Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson or Mark Martin, take the trophy, they want to remove the PowerAde bottle from sight as quickly as possible, then grab a Pepsi (Gordon) or Gatorade and take a fat swig on national television.

Next time a Coca-Cola Racing Family driver such as Kurt Busch, Elliott Sadler or Kevin Harvick wins, notice that the PowerAde bottle stays put.

Brandon Campbell Tulsa, Okla.:

Marty, Why is it that on restarts, after a caution, the lapped cars (if any) start on the inside of the lead cars? Wouldn't it make more since, and most importantly be safer, if the lapped cars started on the outside? At the start of the race, the first position starts on the inside anyway, but on the restart the first position starts on the outside. I just don't get it.

Great question, Brandon. Back to Zizzo for clarification. He said it's safer in the current format because the lapped cars will customarily drop down low to get out of the way of the faster cars throughout the race.

If lapped cars restarted on the outside, they'd have to dive low and cut across the lead cars' line to get to the bottom, out of the way.

Speaking of, it's time for me to get out of the way. Keep the questions coming.

I have a tee time to catch.

The Last Lap appears every Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET. The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.