NASCAR ok’s Penske to swap owners points between Busch, Hornish
Quote selected text Published December 15th, 2007 in NASCAR News
NASCAR has approved Penske Racing’s request to transfer the owner points from Kurt Busch to Sam Hornish Jr., a move that locks the three-time IndyCar Series champion into the first five races of next season.
Hornish publicly thanked Busch for giving him the points at the Penske holiday party on Friday night. Bud Denker, senior vice president of Penske Corp., confirmed Saturday that the team would swap the points with NASCAR’s approval.
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, said the sanctioning body had signed off on the transfer.
“This would obviously help Sam as he prepares to run the first five races instead of prepares to qualify for the first five races,” Denker said. “With a champion like Kurt Busch and the opportunity to utilize (the points), anyone would be foolish to not take care of the situation.”
Hornish, a former Indianapolis 500 winner, is leaving that series for NASCAR next season. But his No. 77 Dodge won’t be one of the 35 cars locked into the first five races of the year. As the 2004 series champion, Busch has a provisional position that he could fall back on should he fail to qualify on speed.
Bookmark to:
- Penske may transfer points from Busch to Hornish in 2008
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- Penske: No decision on Hornish in a third Penske Cup car for ‘08
- MWR doesn’t plan points swap when drivers shift
- Penske undecided on points switch for Hornish
what a load of crap.This should not be allowed.trhe guy cannot do it on his own so they just give him a spot?garbage.
this is wrong on so many levals we are told on a regular basis that Indy drivers are better drivers now is the time for them to prove it instead of releying on a give me
I AM SO SICK OF THIS. MAYBE ILL JUST HIRE SOMEONE FROM MYSPACE TO DRIVE A CAR SINCE I CAN JUST GIVE HIM A SPOT BY TAKING ANOTHER DRIVERS POINTS TO GET HIM IN THE RACE. THIS IS NOT QUALIFING ANYMORE AND IT SURE IS TALENT. I THINK WE SURE BID ON THE POLE TOO, WHOEVER BIDS THE HIGHEST CAN SIT ON THE POLE AND WILL GIVE THE MONEY TO CHARITY. HOWS THAT!!!
OMG..this is a load of ….
Brought to you by the great Brian France. Excuse me while I throw up.
this is a load of crap..Sam should have to prove himself to
everyone..i am a HUGE Kurt fan and am very pissed about this
whole thing..i am ashamed to say that i am from the same state
as Sam Hornish Jr..my only hope is that Kurt can pull through
this and make the chase again..Roger and Sam have almost ruined
Kurt’s chance of making the chase again..i will continue to cheer
for Kurt and Ryan, but i will never cheer for Sam again..this is
dumb on so many levels..NASCAR is stupid for allowing this to
happen..Roger will end up regretting this when he has 2 drivers
outside of the top 35 within the first 10 races..i really hope i
am wrong about Kurt not making it back into the top 35..i don’t
want to see him struggle again..but as far as i am concerned, Sam
can fall so far out of the top 35 that he doesn’t ever recover
from it.
to be fair, they are owners points, not drivers points. In my opinion, any driver for the team should have access to owners points
they might be owners points, but they are owners points that KURT
earned for the 2 car, NOT Sam
This kind of crap REALLY turns me off. It turns off a lot of the fans and drivers alike. The drivers just don’t openly discuss it. Whatever happened to skill? The guy has won the Indy 500 and championships for crying out loud! He’s not a fluke. He’s a racer. This is is chosen profession. But this is SO wrong on many levels. Stewart, Mario Andretti, A J Foyt and Johnny Rutherford didn’t have provisionals to fall back on when they started in the Cup series. Yes, they ARE owners points. Does that mean HMS should pull Jeffy out of a car and insert Mears because Big Rick says so? Without Kurt’s driving ability, those top 10 owner’s points don’t exist. Stop the insanity!
i agree gigolo george..great post
and nascar wonders why they are losing viewers……….
What a load!
Nobody complained about when the 15 car got the 14 cars owner points earlier this season, nobody complained when other cars did this same thing this season and last, and even before that. So why the heck are you all crying about this now?
They are owners points, the owner should be able to do with them whatever they want (except sell them to other owners)
It is about as stupid as guaranteed spots. Let the fastest drivers in, slow cars should go home regardless of past performance. That was yesterday, not today!
And just for the record, Sam would have made every race last season that he qualified except for one, had the fastest drivers made the field. Nascar blows now, I would much rather watch a Nascar race from the seventies or early eighties versus this garbage on today.
Wow!
Penske can’t even get Newman in The Chase, but he’s worried about his Sammy Boy. Keep coddling him. Pampering him. Catering to him. That almost sounds like the people in this country that don’t speak English, the national language. Dumb down and learn their language? No freaking way, Jose! Learn English if you don’t want to struggle. Sam, qualify with your skills or go home like the others. If you can’t cut it here Sam, go to F-1.
this is just another product of the top 35 rule, i didnt like it when it was introduced and i still dont like it and here is a suggestion why not do qualifying like they do in dirt racing have two heat races before the big race(like the bud shootout) and that way everyone would get to race while giving fans one heluva show
I agree with everybody. If Sam Hornish can not get into the field on his own skill and merits and needs to use his team mates points to guarantee him a spot, then he does not belong in the field. This whole Top=35 in points is Bull S***, the whole new rule set in general is Bull S***
BOO NASCAR! This is exactly why the television rating and attendance are dropping at Cup events! NASCAR has turned into a buy your way into it soap opera that fans are beginning to turn away from more and more. Save your money folks and go hit your local dirt or short track! Thats where the real racing is these days! Way to go NASCAR and Brian France! You’ve taken another step to derail NASCAR!
This the same reason Sam was screwed out of so many races last year. If it had been on speed alone, he would
have qualified for many more races. So, in one case he got screwed by the system and now he gains from it.
Kind of seems like it balances itself out.
Nobody cried about waltrip?Well,maybe that is because most knew that waltrip could most likely get in the race.Hornish has not one time ever made it on speed or skill.
tampabbay99 wrote:
Most of the times that Sam didn’t make the race he was the 8th or 9th (which ever one is the one that doesn’t make it in) of the GOGH cars. If not for the top 35 He would’ve started in the top 15 in each of the races he entered at the end of the season.
nascar blows. like i said before. its another formula one. buy your way in. id just like to kno how he gets points he didnt earn. i hated it when waltrip bought his way in. and when ginn sold out paul menard didnt deserve those points. when brent sherman got hired into cup a few years back, he started the first five and i think made a show maybe once when those first five races were up. this rule sucks. it destroys the point of the word competion. its an insult to people who have worked hard their whole life to get where they are then watch somone else who has no clue wat theyre doin buy their way in. BOOO!! i hate it. i havent watched a full race in a while. and i dont plan on doin so either. watch the beginning and end. or jus look at the results on the net. it aint worth goin an watchin tho. not anymore. bring back the 7 provisionals u used to get all year. make the top 20 get those and everybody else has to make it on time.
Roger is playing the game to get as many car in a race as possible,can’t blame him. all the other owners try to get as many of there cars in as possible, Don’t blame SAM its Roger doings, if you don’t like the way nascar is run then watch baseball and take a nap….
tomcat wrote:
actually thats not a bad idea since i cant watch a cup race anymore without falling asleep
All of you people cry foul, but…..
If NASCAR didn’t have the stupid locked in positions based on points in the first place Sam would have made all but one NASCAR race he attempted this year. He was faster than others that made the race.
How is him missing races due to others being slower but locked in by points fair and now him making races due to owners points unfair?
I agree NASCAR is the WWF of racing. Somebody get an advantage, take it away. Someone build a big lead, throw a yellow. A big name driver not make the race, because he’s too slow, lets lock him in with points. Somebody run away with the season championship, half way through the season, lets take the top 10 and start all over again and call it the chase.
Change the rules, everybody including past champions need to make the race on qualifying time. If Sam doesn’t make based on speed then so be it. But my guess is he would, just like would have in 2007.