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.

On at least five notable occasions drivers' times were disallowed yet they were allowed to start the race: Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth at the Daytona 500; Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson at Sonoma; and Ryan Newman at Kansas.

Nine times a driver qualified for the race due to the top 35 rule yet he did not register a time during qualifying.

And 14 times a driver qualified for the race due to the rule yet he had the slowest time in qualifying.

Some notables:

• A week after securing the pole for the Daytona 500, David Gilliland was 44th in qualifying at California. Yet he made the race due to owner points -- last year's owner points. The first five races of the season use the previous year's top 35 points.

• Including the Daytona 500, Dale Jarrett would have missed the first four races had qualifying been based solely on time; remember, his new team had no owner points from the previous season. Yet he made all four races due to being the most recent past champion making a qualifying attempt.

• Mr. Bristol, Kurt Busch would have missed the spring race at the half-mile after he clocked the slowest time of 49 drivers. Yet he made it due to owner points from the previous season.

• A week after his Coca-Cola 600 victory, Casey Mears would have failed to qualify at Dover had he depended on his time. Yet he made the race, finished 13th and proceeded to have consecutive fourth-place finishes the next two weeks.

• Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson failed inspection and didn't qualify at Sonoma, yet they were allowed to race. It wouldn't have mattered; they both would have still entered the Chase 1-2 due to their number of race victories.

• After winning New Hampshire to start the Chase, Clint Bowyer would have failed to qualify at Dover a week later after having the slowest time of 49 drivers, thus crumbling his title hopes immediately. Instead of finishing third in the standings, he would have been sixth.

Just two races during the entire season had the 43 fastest cars start the race: the spring race at Martinsville and the fall race at New Hampshire.

And just four drivers who finished the season inside the top 35 went through 2007 without using the top 35 rule as a crutch to make a race. Reed Sorenson was one, and the other three ironically all came from Joe Gibbs Racing: Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley.

Under current circumstances, Fridays aren't for qualifying, they're for placement. The fastest 43 cars don't line up on the starting grid. The current rule was designed to protect the owners and sponsors of those cars that run full time.

The problem: the rule was implemented in 2005, when the en vogue item of discussion was driver shortages in NASCAR. Two years later the garage is saturated with full-time teams rather than field-fillers. For an open market, as is often preached, then the doors must truly be open.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.