Points swapping in top 35 boost for new-look teams

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- After a multitude of point swaps -- as well as name, number and owner changes -- the critical top 35 in the Sprint Cup owner standings heading into the 2009 season-opening Daytona 500 barely resembles the same lineup from the end of 2008.

Locked into the 500

Sam Hornish Jr. will start at Daytona thanks to a deal Penske made with Bill Davis, while Clint Bowyer and Marcos Ambrose also landed positions in the coveted top 35.

• Hornish a lock for Daytona 500
• Ambrose, Bowyer move up

Eleven positions, or 31 percent of the top 35, have either different numbers or numbers in different places. Since being in the top 35 guarantees starting the season's first five races, the most critical element is 10 point exchanges that enabled six teams that otherwise wouldn't have been in the top 35 to have a guaranteed starting spot for the Daytona 500.

The teams and drivers that benefited from the exchanges include Yates Racing and Paul Menard, whose new team is 23rd; Front Row Motorsports' John Andretti, who went from 45th in 2008 to 27th; Hall of Fame Racing's Bobby Labonte, from 39th to 28th; Penske Racing's Sam Hornish Jr., from 38th to 31st; Richard Childress Racing's Clint Bowyer, from 50th to 32nd; and JTG Daugherty Racing's Marcos Ambrose, from 36th to 35th.

The activity, at least for the Sprint Cup Series, is unprecedented and apparently driven by an economic necessity to merge teams to make dollars go farther or shut them down completely, as was the case with five teams that were in the top 35 last year that no longer exist.

Some of the changes were subtle, but no less driven by economics. Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, whose largely sponsorless No. 8 car was 14th in 2008 owner points, has swapped positions with new teammate Juan Montoya, who was 25th last year while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.

The assumption is that if the 8 was shut down within the first five races, Montoya would have an 11-position advantage if qualifying was rained out. In conjunction with the point swaps, Chip Ganassi now owns the No. 8 and Teresa Earnhardt took ownership of the No. 42 from Ganassi's father, Floyd.

EGR was involved in three other point scenarios, two of which involved successful exchanges. The points from the former Dale Earnhardt Inc. No. 15, which Menard drove to 27th in the standings before leaving for Yates Racing, transferred to Front Row's No. 34, which ended last season 45th after making just five races.

Andretti, who made the 2008 Daytona 500 through his Gatorade Duel 150, said that in his opinion that swap was one of the more legitimate.

"We're in the process of moving into DEI property, the former Ginn [Racing] shop in Mooresville [N.C.]," Andretti said. "We'll have a technical alliance moving forward and we're buying some of [DEI's] cars, which they no longer need."

The points from another former DEI car, the No. 01 driven to 32nd by 2008 Sprint Cup rookie of the year Regan Smith, have moved to RCR's new full-season team for Bowyer. The No. 33 made only two starts last season and has never run a full schedule for Childress. Bobby Ginn, who last owned a NASCAR entry in 2007, is the listed owner on the No. 33.

The third set of EGR's unused points, from Ganassi' No. 41, will go unclaimed after NASCAR disallowed a proposed deal by James Finch's Phoenix Racing for the 33rd-place points accrued last season by Reed Sorenson. Finch who has traditionally run partial Cup schedules in his No. 09 cars, wanted to expand to a full schedule including up to 10 races for Hendrick Motorsports development driver Brad Keselowski.

"The rule is, you can run a fifth car for a rookie in not more than seven races," NASCAR competition spokesman Kerry Tharp said. "What the 09 was trying to do [run up to 10 races with Keselowski and a full season with up to three other drivers] they were not allowed to do [using transferred points]."

Keselowski, who has not yet filed paperwork to join a rookie of the year class that includes Scott Speed, Joey Logano and Max Papis, wasn't overly concerned about the turn of events.

"Well, I'll be honest -- I didn't understand how I got in and I don't understand how I'm not [in]. So I'm just as confused as can be and I'm back where I was a week ago and focused on doing what we can with the assumption I'll have to race into the 500," Keselowski said. "The [Phoenix] general manager, Steve Barkdoll, called me [Wednesday] and told me that they had some kind of hiccup. He didn't really go into detail and I didn't really care to know the details of it."

When that transaction wasn't allowed and apparently no other suitors stepped up, that allowed the convoluted partnership of Michael Waltrip Racing and JTG Daugherty Racing to move from 36th to 35th. That team started the 2008 season as MWR's third car, the No. 00 driven by Michael McDowell.

Late in the season, when MWR and JTG Daugherty principal Tad Geschickter determined they would team up for 2009, the No. 00 was changed officially to the No. 347 in terms of owner numbers -- which this season will race as No. 47 with Marcos Ambrose.

Yates Racing, which battled through sponsor issues throughout 2008 before finishing the season with two cars in the top 30 in the standings, switched both sets of points to enable two sponsored cars operating out of its shop to be guaranteed starts to open the season.

Menard's No. 98 Ford took the 23rd-place points earned by Travis Kvapil's No. 28 in 2008. Yates then executed a partnership with Hall of Fame Racing owners Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel and swapped the No. 38's points (28th) earned by David Gilliland to Labonte's car.

On Thursday morning, per NASCAR's rule for point changes, Moorad assumed ownership of Yates' No. 28 from Doug Yates, and Kvapil will start the season in that car despite its schedule being uncertain.

Three other changes in the top 35 were more subtle. Michael Waltrip Racing did a number swap for its No. 44 car driven to 26th last year by David Reutimann, which will now be No. 00. Red Bull Racing Team did a number change for its 35th-place points, putting Speed in the No. 82 rather than the No. 84 that the team ran on its second car last year.

When two-time champion Tony Stewart took half ownership of the former Haas CNC Racing and re-titled it Stewart-Haas Racing, he elected to get into the No. 70 car that was 43rd in 2008 owner points, changing its number to 14 and maintaining ownership by Margaret Haas.

Stewart, who's a guaranteed starter for the first five races via his 2005 series championship, took ownership of the team's No. 66, which was raced to 30th last year by Scott Riggs, from Joe Custer. It will carry Ryan Newman's No. 39 as he attempts to defend his Daytona 500 victory.

In 2008, only one significant point exchange was made, and that was in-house at Penske Racing to take advantage of former champion Kurt Busch's past champion's provisional.

This season, Penske was again involved in the most dramatic points move, at the last minute taking on former team owner Bill Davis as a minority partner. Davis became the designated owner of the No. 77 after he sold Bill Davis Racing and its No. 22, which was put into 31st last season by Dave Blaney. The new owner decided they wouldn't race it this season.

In another in-house owner switch, Richard Petty Motorsports' majority owner George Gillett Jr. assumed ownership of the team's No. 19 from Ray Evernham, who's stepping back from the team.

The fallout from this raft of changes also involves numbers. As of Friday, the Nos. 01 and 38 have not been assigned. The No. 22 formerly fielded by Davis is owned this year by Penske Racing president Tim Cindric.

The No. 15 has been assigned to Harry Davis, who's fielding a team named for his son, Marc Davis Racing. The No. 41, when it wasn't renewed by EGR, was picked up by new team owner Jeremy Mayfield for his Mayfield Motorsports.