Do “Start and Park” Drivers Earn The Right?

By Guest Columnist Jim Fitzgerald

You know when I write about something, the cause is usually due to the fact that I can no longer deal with everyone talking about it incessantly.

Something happens, and I hear talk, talk, talk all week long. Then, it never stops, no matter how you try to explain it to people. They remain on the topic and act like a group of five year old children who still are not happy and stomp their feet until they get their way.

So, what has me in such a bunch this time? It is the drivers who will start the race, run fifteen laps and then park their cars due to “a vibration.”

Do I dislike the fact that this happens? Absolutely…I think it is ridiculous, but please do not misunderstand. I detest the reason it happens, not that it actually happens.

The lack of sponsorship dollars flowing through the garage because a poor, but recovering economy creates the need for a “start and park” situation. When a team only has enough sponsorship money to run twelve races from start to finish, they can try to extend that number by paying the entry fee, qualifying, starting the race, and running until they have exhausted the one set of tires they needed to purchase to start the weekend.

Finishing in the bottom three spots in any given race can often pay the bills for the weekend with some room to spare if you go into the weekend with a light agenda.

All week long I hear, and it is not an old argument, how these “charity cases” will abuse the system to pad their pockets. Abusing the system? How? The rules are in place, and the teams play by the rules, otherwise the heavy hand of NASCAR crushes them with penalties.

We know this, we have seen it. A team cheats; a team gets the smack down. So, if it were illegal to execute the “start and park,” there would have been several team never trying it again, simply because they probably would have been unable to do so. No, the exercise has not been around for the past few years. It has been around for decades. It has been around since NASCAR was founded. How many of those “shine runnin’” boys that ran the dirt in 1950 showed up at the track knowing full well they did not expect to, and would not, finish the race? Probably more than you think.

The payout for last place was more than it cost to get there. They would show, they would go, then they would slow, and out they would go. Please send my check to the following address…

Now, why the big stink? Simply because the popularity of this sport, and I am not talking about the fans. I am talking about the drivers. A driver has to drive, and those without the strong financial backing do whatever they can to get in the show, even if it means playing forty-second fiddle for two weeks so they can go full bore in the third week.

So, let me back up a few paragraphs. Let me first ask a question. How does one earn the right to compete in a Sprint Cup race? The easy answer is: by qualifying. If a driver is in the top thirty-five in car owner points, they get to race, no matter what. Then you have the Past Champion’s provisional, and when it is all over, there are about seven or eight spots left over for REAL qualifying. The “go or go home” drivers, as they have been called.

With ten drivers vying for eight spots, it is not hard to figure out that someone will be going home. Therefore, if a driver qualifies for a race, and thusly is qualified to run that race, he or she may do so in any manner he or she sees fit, as long as that manner is within the rules. Right now, qualifying for a race, starting the race, and then parking the car fifteen laps in is legal…within the rules.

Let us now assume that NASCAR finds a way to eliminate those that participate in this super-lucrative start and park program. We have now kicked out Joe Nemechek, Boris Said, Dave Blaney, and others. So, those drivers can no longer attempt to qualify if they do not intend to run the full race. (Don’t ask me how this should be policed…how do you prove intent?)

Without Joe Nemechek, Boris Said, and the others, what happens? We either have full fields with more drivers running around at sub-par speeds, getting lapped every twelve circuits, or, we have the unthinkable. The unthinkable is having a Sprint Cup race with less than forty-three drivers for the first time in a long time. When was the last time? I can not tell you, mainly because I do not care, but a race with less than forty-three drivers would bring more negative attention to the sport than the empty seats at California.

When it all comes down to it, and the end of it all, what harm are the start and park drivers causing?

They are not causing any problems, and they just might even be fixing some. How? I could argue, and I will, that a less crowded track is a safer track. If there are fewer cars clogging up the passing lanes, there is likely to be less contact, and as a result there are likely to be fewer cautions. Also, consider the middle to end of a race. Instead of having to dice through traffic caused by eight to ten cars not running at speed and risking cautions, the race can unfold as it should, with drivers fighting for position on the score board, instead of passing a car and putting it yet another lap down.

For whatever reason, NASCAR has decided to allow this start and park process. Maybe it is because they can not police it properly. Maybe it is because the sanctioning body agrees with me that it is not hurting anything. Or maybe NASCAR’s position is that if a driver qualifies for a race, they do have the right to bail out when they want.

I do not know the reason, nor do I care. I do know that NASCAR has implemented a rule recently that the first car out of any race without having been involved in a crash is subject to seizure and inspection, so maybe this is the way to police it. The bottom line is that right now, until the economy completes this turnaround, this is a part of our sport. Like it or do not like it, it is a reality, and everyone is going to have to deal with it…at least for now.

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.