Kurt Busch Makes Room For Sam Hornish Jr. Good or Bad?

January 2, 2007
By Chuck Abrams

Chuck Abrams

NASCAR has decided to allow Penske Racing to transfer owner points from Kurt Busch to Sam Hornish, Jr. ensuring that Hornish makes the first five races of the season.

If this had not been allowed, Hornish would be outside the top 35 in owner points starting the 2008 season and would be forced to out-qualify all other non-top 35 contenders -- from day one. Now, Hornish has the first five races of the season to get his ship on course and stay in the top 35. Even with this transfer of points, failure to finish the first few races could put Hornish is the uncomfortable position of needing to battle for a spot all season long. If you think that isn’t a difficult row to hoe, just ask Scott Riggs, Michael Waltrip, David Reutimann, and a host of others.

What this means for Kurt Busch is that Kurt will have his past champion provisional to fall back on as Dale Jarrett did this past year. After that he WILL have to qualify on speed and battle for a position until he gets enough owner points to stay in the top 35. I seriously doubt Busch will have any problems qualifying for most of the season. But if Busch were not also a marquee name, a good driver with a past champion provisional, he would have his work cut out for him just so Hornish doesn’t have to earn his place in Cup racing the way, well, Kurt did.

So what is wrong with this picture?

On the surface, not much. Penske gets his IRL star into Cup without having to have him go through the grueling Busch (now Nationwide Series) or Craftsman Truck Series season first to get acclimated to stock car racing. I mean c’mon. Why compete and get used to cars with fenders on them and ensure you know what you are doing before you get into Cup racing when you can slip through a loophole and step right into the most competitive form of racing in the US? Heck, I know I would.

Below the surface, this just underlines how outdated the Top 35 rule is. For all the cars not in the top 35 this loophole is a slap in the face. When a rich, multi-car team can swap points around like musical chairs in order to place a marquee name into the ultimate racing series you have to wonder what you as a team owner have to do to catch a break.

Roger Penske is doing only what is allowed. He is not breaking any rule. He is simply talking advantage of the rules as NASCAR rewrites them.

In a time where field-fillers were taking advantage of the system, NASCAR stepped out to protect those who were committed to the sport week in and week out. At the time, it seemed like a good idea.

Fast forward to today when there are more than enough well funded teams showing up to make each race and the Top 35 rule does not seem so smart. Look at how many times Michael Waltrip or others qualified in the top 15 only to be sent home because a slower car with more owner points was guaranteed a spot. It’s not that Waltrip or Reutimann or Riggs were field fillers. They were there all season long on good, multi-car teams. An antiquated rule that has served its time sent them packing far too often.

The fact of the matter is, only 43 cars get to start any given race. In today’s NASCAR, the 43 fastest cars should be on the track. End of story. And if that means some week Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon may not make a race, then I could make an argument that is a good thing.

You know the major teams are not going to fail often. And you could argue that even just one bad qualifying effort will make that team work a lot harder the next week. Teams and sponsors are not paying all that money to sit out a race. Is NAPA any less important than Dupont or Lowe’s? I dare say not.

I will also argue that rescinding the Top 35 rule could go back to putting more importance on qualifying for all cars, not just some. Right now teams who know they are safe can work on putting their race set up in the car knowing that they are guaranteed a spot in the race, while other teams need to concentrate on a qualifying set up just to get into the race. That is an unfair competitive advantage, especially during an impound race when the cars are locked down after qualifying.

And making the race to qualify more important and removing some of the advantages from the larger teams has the possibility or making the races more competitive and leveling out the playing field – something the new car was supposed to do but is not. So far at least.

You really have to look at the entire landscape of Cup racing today to connect all the dots. The Top 35 rule may seem like a good idea at times, but then you consider an instance like this and it seems most unfair. Throw in the qualifying vs. race set up and it seems even more unfair.

NASCAR could still make changes to the rules before the season starts and there have been some rumors that it might happen. But they won’t go out of their way to eliminate it entirely just yet. Instead, they will more than likely still protect a smaller number of teams in order to ensure as many top names starting a race as they can. In an era of falling ratings and attendance, NASCAR can’t stand to put on a race without some of its top stars even if they were not the fastest cars that given race.

After all if Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is single handedly responsible for falling ratings and poor collectible sales this past year, imagine what would happen if Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson or Tony Stewart failed to make a race or two?

Let me know your thoughts.

Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.

Feel free to send Chuck your thoughts on this and other race topics at Insider Racing News. The blog at www.turnleftracing.com is down now due to spammers. We will have that back up as soon as we can.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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