The good and bad of top 35 rule evident at California

FONTANA, Calif. -- What did the postponement of Friday's Sprint Cup qualifying do to teams fighting to force their way into the top 35 before Martinsville? It depends upon which idiom best describes your situation.

For the Wood Brothers, it's a chance to make a little hay while the sun shines, while drivers like A.J. Allmendinger and Patrick Carpentier are left looking for a needle in a haystack.

Last week, the No. 21 Ford missed the Daytona 500 for the first time since 1962. But thanks to Bill Elliott's championship from 20 years ago, co-owner Eddie Wood won't be in panic mode this week.

"By raining [Friday], that made it a lot easier," Wood said. "For us it was good, for some it wasn't. That kind of helps. We're one race behind. For us to miss two in a row, we would've been in double trouble.

Allmendinger

"Oh-for-two would've been about time to panic. You still can't panic, but it would've been close to panicking."

The key now, according to Wood, is picking up as many points as possible in Sunday's Auto Club 500.

"People who were unfortunate enough not to make it because of the rain, you've got a chance to put some distance on those guys," Wood said. "People who had trouble at Daytona and finished in the lower part of the field, if you can run well on Sunday then you can make up some ground on them."

Eddie's brother, Len, said the team assessed things following the Gatorade Duel races -- and believes they found the problem and made improvements during a Kentucky Speedway test session.

"I came out of Daytona pretty down, but we found a couple of issues concerning qualifying and the 150-miler about why we didn't make it, so that made me feel better about coming here," Len Wood said.

"We went to Kentucky the Monday after qualifying at Daytona, basically testing for Vegas because we felt like we didn't get what we needed during the earlier test at Vegas. When we came here, we were quite a bit better."

While the Woods celebrated, Allmendinger again found himself on the outside looking in -- especially with no chance to determine his own fate. The No. 84 Toyota will earn 34 owner points but that's little consolation for a team that spent the entire 2007 season on the wrong side of the top 35 rule.

"We're obviously really disappointed that we didn't even get a chance to qualify," Allmendinger said. "After missing Daytona, we were really looking forward to officially starting our season at Fontana, but I guess we'll have to save that for Vegas next weekend. It's really frustrating when rain, something so out of your control, is the reason you're going home."

Carpentier

Missing last week's race turned into double jeopardy for Carpentier, who also went home without turning a lap. The No. 10 Dodge team focused on preseason testing last month, hoping to get Carpentier acclimated to Fontana and Las Vegas.

"We were kind of banking on these tracks because we tested here and after that we go to tracks that we haven't tested at," Carpentier said. "I knew it was going to be a challenge but I didn't think it was going to be that big of a challenge.

"We'll see. For me, I firmly believe that we're going to get out of it, going to come back in the top 35 but it's going to take time."

Carpentier will return to North Carolina and test Monday and Tuesday at Rockingham before next week. And all he can do now is hope for sunshine in the desert.

"It's similar to Vegas," Carpentier said. "It's smaller, a lot smaller, but it's a very similar track to Vegas as how you enter the corner and how you approach it, so for me that's the best.

"Hopefully, no rain. But I just need to sit in that car. I just need to drive something."