The Shootout

In a word, boring. Go back to 20 or 30 laps, and let them race like it was a local Saturday night race. But then they would loose advertising dollars because the race is shorter making less TV time, unless the extend their pre-race coverage show (said with tongue in cheek).

With that being said let me talk about the race in point form:

- Tony Stewart shows us he is 'The Man To Beat' this year

- Toyota isn't as ready as they say they are - unless this is a huge 'sandbagging' conspiracy to get more concessions from NASCAR before 'The Duels'

- Dale Jr needs to simmer down on the bump draft or he is going to loose any drafting partners he might still have

- hats off to Kyle Busch for not doing a Carl Edwards after Tony got him so loose that he should have wrecked. If he continues showing this kind of maturity I see him placing even higher in the standings this year

- except for Stewart's pass on Busch the race was boring, unless you count the wreck caused by Dale Jr on the last lap. Personally I didn't find that exciting, just sort of anti-climatic


Qualifying

In a way, a little more exciting than the Bud Shoot Out with some controversy, surprises, and drama. Let me tell,

- the manifold of Michael Waltrip's No. 55 car was confiscated prior to qualifying and Michael was quoted as saying, "If we were in real trouble, they would have taken the car."

Guess what? The car was impounded following qualifying. Heh! What also gets me is that DW was sitting up in the booth trying to defend his brother with the "lets not jump to conclusions" defence. What about that Junior Johnson motor of yours that mysteriously exploded while crossing the finish line and winning the race about 15 - 20 yrs ago, eh DW?

- NASCAR disallowed the qualifying times of both the No. 9 car of Kasey Kahne and the No. 17 car of Matt Kenseth for unapproved devices that enhanced the speeds of both cars. Apparently the 17 car had holes cut in the wheel well. Fines penalties etc. will be handed out later in the week.

- David Gilliland and Ricky Rudd form the all RYR front row - just what the Dr. ordered for RYR. We must remember that this is just qualifying with only one car on the track, let us see how they do with other cars around them. Gilliland did do well in the Bud Shoot Out and finished 2nd to Stewart though - could this be a sign of things to come for RYR? The jury is still out on this, ask me after 10-12 races and then I'll tell you.

- Nice to see Boris Said and Stirling Marlin in the show and what about Montoya and Regan? Whew. For a complete list of qualifying speeds go here and for the complete starting line up for the duels go here for lineup 1 and here for lineup 2

- After everything is said and done it looks like there will be 23 cars racing for only 4 remaining spots in the starting lineup. I know, how did I get 4 when only 35 cars are guaranteed due to owner points. Dale Jarrett looks like he'll be using the Past Champions Provisional (one of only six uses he has for the entire year) and the top three fastest qualifiers that are not in the top 35 of owner points are locked in due to simple elimination. If Jarrett qualified on time then Bill Elliott would most likely have used the Past Champions Provisional.


Rant

Here is my rant: Get rid of the guaranteed starting spots for the top 35 in owner points and let all 61 cars qualify on speed. This is ridiculous.

NASCAR said they would not do like F1 and franchise the racing teams where all the teams buy a franchise and are guaranteed starts in every race. You can sugar coat it all you want but this is still a form of franchising and essentially widens the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. By having a guaranteed starting spot you don't have to worry about qualifying, just racing. So you can concentrate your resources on race trim and let qualifying fall by the wayside, whereas those who have to get into the race are usually underfunded and must spread out less money in more areas. These underfunded teams must also worry about qualifying and race set-ups, they can't concentrate their resources in one area and therefore produce a lesser product.

I know that the stronger teams like Hendrick will more than likely make all of their races, but at least there will still be a chance of one of their cars not making the show. I would find that more interesting than finding out who of the also rans didn't make the show. Imagine the effect it would have on the standings? Some might say that it isn't fair that a big named team like Budweiser or Dupont would be out of a Championship because they didn't make a race due to a poor qualifying effort. Well my response is this, they don't deserve to win if they don't make the show.

Then what about a broken part during qualifying that causes them not to make the show? How about offering everyone who attempts to qualify the same points as 43rd during the race, because chances are that if the part broke during qualifying it would have broke early in the race and they would have finished last anyway.

Photo Credits: Motorsports.com with Kurt Dahlstrom taking the Tony Stewart picture and Eric Gilbert taking the Gilliland one