February 2, 2009
By Loren Dorrell
Points swapping has been in NASCAR’s rulebook for a long time, but since the implementation of the top-35 rule, the process has generated a ton of bad press every time an owner swapped points from one team to another -- so a new team and driver would have a guaranteed starting position.
Critics of the rule point out that it gives an advantage to a rookie team at the expense of a veteran one; the new team would be locked in, but it may put a veteran, more experienced driver in the position of missing a race if he doesn’t qualify on time. Unless, of course, he has a champion’s provisional to fall back on (case in point: the trade-off Roger Penske made when he gave Kurt Busch’s points to Sam Hornish in 2008).
I’ve never been a big fan to the top-35 rule in the first place, but I have always figured that an owner could do pretty much whatever he wanted with his points as long as it’s fair for everyone concerned. But what happened recently between Yates Racing and Hall of Fame (HOF) Racing has made me think that maybe NASCAR should take a good hard look at the rulebook and change the way owners are allowed to manipulate their points.
The shake up over at what is now known as Earnhardt-Ganssi Racing (EGR) and Petty Enterprises has made free agents of both Paul Menard and Bobby Labonte. Menard was picked up by Yates Racing, for what was initially, supposed to be a third Cup team to compliment drivers David Gillian and Travis Kvapil -- and Labonte has signed with HOF to drive the number 96 in 2009.
All well and good, so far; Yates got a fine young driver with a lot of potential and HOF –- now affiliated with Yates and switching to Ford from Toyota –- gets a great veteran driver and a past NASCAR champion.
Both teams faced the prospect of starting the new season outside the top-35, but Paul Menard has never had any real trouble qualifying and HOF would have Labonte’s provisionals to fall back on if necessary. Doesn’t sound so bad, at least not to me. But apparently I don’t know jack about running a race team, because the collective ownership of both teams decided that the two of them needed some “insurance” to make sure they didn’t get bumped during qualifying. Their solution? Take points away from two perfectly good race drivers and give them to two guys who really don’t need them.
Gilliland and Kvapil got the short end of the stick in this deal, pure and simple. Yates took the points from Gilliland’s #38 and gave them to HOF’s #96 -- Labonte’s new ride -– leaving David out in the cold, with no ride at all. Rumors had Gilliland looking for a new job a couple of weeks back, and there have been some sponsor troubles for the 38 team, so you could say it was coming anyway but it’s still a raw deal in my book.
HOF and Labonte didn’t need the points and Gilliland was good enough in 2008 to keep his car in the top-30, even with funding problems; there was no reason he wouldn’t do it again in 2009. Ditto with Kvapil, who lost his points -– and his entire pit crew –- to Menard, who certainly didn’t seem to have any trouble qualifying in 2008, considering he was in the field for all 36 races. Now Kvapil will not only have the headache of racing his way into the first five races AND staying in the top-35, he’ll have to do it with a brand new crew; and if he doesn’t make the cut, you can bet it won’t be the owner who gets the heat.
To quote a favorite movie of mine “…it ain’t fittin’; no sir, it just ain’t fittin’”.
NASCAR rules allow team owners to do just about anything they want with their points, and that’s fine with me for the most part. What burns my fritters, at least in this case, is that two solid drivers got shafted from a deal that –- at least in my opinion –- wasn’t really necessary in the first place.
No sir, it just ain’t fittin’.
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.
You can contact Loren Dorrell at 
