Fridays more for placement as 43 fastest rarely start

It was a scene all too familiar for the No. 4 team of Morgan-McClure Motorsports: The car sitting on stands, hood up, under a tent shoved somewhere in the corner of the infield.

At some tracks like Texas it was a makeshift garage only it wasn't inside one of the actual stalls. Others like Bristol forced the team completely outside of the racetrack, where crewmen operated on their patient while peeking inside NASCAR's cathedral. Of course, by Friday night, the Morgan-McClure team was often packing up the hauler and pulling out bound for home in Abingdon, Va.

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That's the top 35 rule for you. The slippery slope that teams face only gets greasier on qualifying Fridays. Morgan-McClure made just 16 races with driver Ward Burton. The team was 46th in owner points. The No. 4 car just wasn't fast enough in qualifying.

Or was it?

There were 13 other races aside from the 16 he started that Burton turned a qualifying lap among the 43 fastest. But due to the current top 35 rule, he missed the show in each of those attempts.

NASCAR saves a spot in each race for the top-35 teams according to owner points. That leaves seven positions available as well as a final spot for either a past champion or the next-fastest car -- not exactly comforting to most of the 46 to 51 cars trying to squeeze into a 43-car field any given week, at leas those not in the top 35.

The problem, due to the top 35 rule, comes when teams clock a fast enough time during qualifying yet a slower car that's locked in through owner points takes the position. It leaves teams like Morgan-McClure on the outside permanently despite out-running cars that will race on Sunday.

The same can be said for Michael Waltrip's team. His No. 55 car made just 14 races this year. Yet like Burton, there were 13 races he missed despite having one of the 43 fastest cars.

What difference does that make?

In 16 starts, Burton averaged 96 points per race. Had Burton qualified for those additional 13 races in which he was among the 43 fastest cars, he would have started a total of 29 races. Playing the what-if game, if Burton stuck with his average point production in 29 starts instead of just 16, his No. 4 car would sit 36th in owner points -- one spot outside of the cutoff.

Waltrip averaged 131 points per race in 14 starts. Had he qualified for those additional 13 races and stuck to his average production, his No. 55 would rank 19th in owner points.

It's a big what-if, and it involves many uncontrollable factors -- the most significant being that most teams locked into a qualifying spot aren't gambling with setups during time trials, particularly at places like Talladega and Daytona.

What is concrete, however, is that fast cars missed races in 2007 -- fast cars that attempt to run a full schedule.

And slow cars made races in 2007 -- slow cars that made the show simply because they run a full schedule.

Twenty-six drivers missed races this season despite clocking times that were among the 43 fastest, with Burton and Waltrip topping the list at 13 DNQs apiece. A.J. Allmendinger was right behind them with 10.

On the flip side, there were 42 drivers who made races in 2007 yet their times were not among the 43 fastest. Robby Gordon took advantage of the rule nine times, while Johnny Sauter, Tony Raines and Kyle Petty all had eight races in which their times did not qualify them but their position in owner points did.

All told, there were 109 instances when a car was among the 43 fastest during qualifying and did not make the race. Those figures do include the Daytona 500, which relies on a completely different qualifying format. (Continued)