NASCAR’s Darby doesn’t want to change top-35 qualifying rule but…
Quote selected text Published July 14th, 2007 in NASCAR News
Nextel Cup director John Darby — saying he was speaking for himself, not NASCAR — didn’t mince words Friday when asked about speculated changes to NASCAR’s Top-35 rule. “We ain’t changing it,” Darby said. That doesn’t mean, however, that NASCAR isn’t contemplating some alterations to the current rule.
One possibility is grouping “go or go home” cars together during the qualifying session, so all are faced with similar track conditions during their laps. Darby likes that idea. “We’re talking about that a lot,” he said. “It makes it truly a head-to-head competition that way.” Where would they be grouped? One possibility, according to Darby: Let the championship driver or crew chief decide where in the session that respective group would qualify.
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Qualifying is a major part of being a racer. But, Nascar is entertainment.
43 fastest cars make it. Period. That’s the only right way to do it. Unfortunately, as everyone pretty much agrees, NASCAR is never going to do away with it because they’re petrified at the idea of Gordon, Stewart, or Little E not making “the show” as they call it.
Darby is a freaking idiot.
Axel-Amen.
That idea is about as bulls__t as the “WWE Draft” they had awhile ago.
Lots of opportunities to mess up here, I’m sure they’ll pick one of
those instead of just saying the 43 fastest cars qualify and calling
it even.
I liked the old system a lot more than this one, the top 36 cars are in on speed with 7 provisionals per race, and each driver only gets so many provisionals per year
Well, this is going to work if they group them, but what if rain came with 2 or 3 go or go homers left? The same issue would end up coming up. NASCAR is screwed either way. The way they used to do it is the way they still need to do it, not this top 35 bullcrap. Watch Ginn have to sell the 13, Michael Waltrip buy the team, and BAM, he’s in the top 35 all of a sudden. That ios complete BS
Darby has his head shoved too far up Frace’s behind to see the light.
I say the go or go homers run after everyone else and the fastest 5 of them race and the others go home.
God forbid premium A-list racing stars like John Force or Ron Capps don’t make it in on qualifying runs. That would ruin the series, just like the NHRA. OOPS! I forgot. The NHRA is going strong and sometimes those guys don’t make it. As much as I enjoy the entertainment value of NASCAR, I say qualify or go home.
I know there alot of sponsors losing alot of money the way its set up.
I don’t see why any team should be show preferential treatment when qualifying. That is plain stupid and anti-competitive.
OK this is what I think if anyone cares.43 fastest no matter who you are you go home if your not in there.But this will never happen.So put the 12 chase drivers from the past year in.Now most of the top drivers are in and you have 31 spots open.Do qualify the old way or put 5 to 10 cars on the track at a time for 15 minutes and use their average lap times to set the feild.This way your using more of a race setup and cars are racing their way in and its not gonna be one lucky fast lap.There are a lot of ways of doing it that are more fair then the way its done now.so whats everone think?
Joe, I’d say the top ten chasers, afterall, they are the one’s who get to sit on the stage. And then they only get bye’s for the first 5 races. Any prior champion (not counting chasers) would have a bye for 5 races and provisionials (say 7 a year for 5 years, chaser champs would also have provisionals after the first 5 races) the rest of the field qualifies and the fastest 33 race. I see many saying NASCAR is for entertainment, well, for my money, I want to see the fastest drivers and cars. Not 15 slow cars in the field because of a rule. Also, to ensure that drivers drive fast, now follow me on this, when the flag drops, each time they cross the start/finish line, the position they are in is the number of points they get. Guess what? The guys who hold back and “portect” their cars, would not, for after driving in 30th for 150 laps, they would have 4500 points and the guy in 10th would only have 1500, and the leader would only have 150. At the end of the year, the driver who had the lowest point total, “CHAMPION”. This would show who was the best driver and who raced up front the most. I am sure NASCAR won’t buy this, as their “picks” could not come from the back to win in five laps, etc..