The Worlds first daily e-newspaper devoted to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series
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Vol. III,No.VIXII OFFSEASON EDITION
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The Worlds first daily e-newspaper devoted to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for Vol. III,No.VIXII OFFSEASON EDITION |
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TODAYS FRONT PAGE<
NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS
NASCAR Changes Its Qualifying Procedures
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Quote Of The Day: Maybe when you're not having a good day it's going to be a little frustrating. I like to watch 'em try to stick their head through that window. It's not quite big enough for a head, but they'll try it. It's kind of comical." -Jamie McMurray on the new garage viewing area at Daytona International Speedway Happy Birthday: Mack Shirley 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Questions continue to be asked about Waltrip's '05 team Newman ready to contend for title NASCAR idea for common engines may never get off the ground McMurray says windows take some getting used to Earnhardt Junior appearing at Presidential Inauguration Speed Reading Speedway, hotels race to beat clock Truex Jr. will start Cup season at Daytona Bill France holds court: IRL in NASCAR future? Roush debuts sponsor for 50 truck Gordon gets revved up to chase 5th title The agony and the ecstasy of 2004
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By Greg Engle The new qualifying procedures announced Thursday; guarantee a spot in a Nextel Cup race to the top 35 drivers in the points standings. The next seven positions in the starting field will be awarded to drivers with the fastest qualifying speeds who are not among the top 35 in points. The 43rd and final starting position will still be reserved for a current or past Nextel Cup champion. What it comes down to is that the old procedure of teams accruing provisionals throughout the season is history.
When the provisionals ran out, the driver was sent home for the weekend no matter where he was at in the points standings. In a nutshell: through the first five races of the Nextel Cup season, the top 35 owners from the 2004 points standings will be assured one of the 42 starting positions in the field. From the sixth race on, the 2005 points will be used to determine the top 35 each race week. Those top 35 drivers will still have to qualify, if nothing else then for pit selection and bragging rights, but no team in the top 35 in points will be forced to pack up and head home. For those teams who are 36th and back, they still can qualify ahead of or among the top 35. If the 40th-place car, for example, is 15th-fastest in time trials, that car will start 15th. If the team fourth in points is 42nd in the trials, that car will start 42nd. But if eight of those out of the top 35 make the field on speed, and fill the field, no one in the top 35 can be bumped. If, for example, the team 10th in points can go only 44th-fastest, a non-top-35 entrant will be bumped to make room on the grid. And while the traditional provisionals will be eliminated, there is still one exception -- the former champion spot. That could be important for drivers such as Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte, who will run partial schedules this season and thus will not be in the top 35. If Elliott or Labonte fails to make speed, he would be given the 43rd position, sending home one of the non-top-35 cars. In case both need the champ spot, the most recent winner (Labonte) would get the final position. The same system will apply in Busch and Trucks, with the difference being that only the top 30 in each class are secured. Busch races normally grid 43 cars, with Truck races presenting 36. Also, prior year points will be applied to the first five races of any season, until the regulars accumulate sufficient points to be ranked (in the past, it was the first four races). That means that the measure at Daytona, Fontana, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Bristol will be the 2004 final rankings. After that, the standings will fluctuate as always, making the 35th position especially important. This brings a measure of grandfathering, which is welcome to those near the bottom of the 2004 points. Teams such as BAM's No. 49 (33rd in '04 points), Cal Wells's No. 32 (34th) and Kyle Petty's No. 45 (35th) are safe at least through Bristol, giving them a fighting chance to stay in the secure ranks the rest of the season. The first team off the safe list, in 36th, is Larry McClure's No. 4. "I like it for two reasons," Wells said. "From a [sponsor] Tide perspective, it assures me a start spot in the Daytona 500. After the first five events, obviously it's up to me to maintain a top-35 ranking. Also, it eliminates guys high in points from taking those provisional spots." In Trucks, the 2004 standings will be applied to the first four races. The new rules will affect the Daytona 500 , which utilizes two qualifying races to determine the 43-car field. "The Daytona 500 is a special event because the qualifying procedure has always had more components to it than we normally see in one our other 35 races," Nextel Cup director John Darby said. "We will have pole day qualifying, then the twin races on Thursday (Feb. 17) become an extension of that qualifying, or Part II of the qualifying effort to become part of the Daytona 500." As in years past, the top two qualifiers will lock into the 500 field, and the next 28 positions, will be decided by a driver's finish in the Gatorade Duel. In years past positions 31-38 were earned based on qualifying runs with the back of the field filled with provisionals, based on the previous year's point standings. "That part of the equation gets reversed," Darby said. "There will be some bumping involved from 2004 owners points and then speed follows at the end. It will be a little bit different. It won't be a complete new format from what we are used to in Speed Weeks." Darby said the changes won't be official until the Daytona 500 entry blanks are finalized and mailed to competitors. "That should be wrapped up this week," Darby said
Daytona Testing Day 3: Mayfield, Newman Ready to Fine Tune Title Quest
The lights came on last night as the teams at Daytona for testing ran into the darkness on the final day of testing for next months Daytona 500. After the morning session was cancelled due to rain the teams here for the 3 day testing session spent the afternoon and evening drafting in small packs on the Speedway.
Actual speeds mean little in drafting practice And the drivers spent the session packed together in three-wide groups to test the aerodynamics and race set-ups of their cars. Teams had spent the first two days making solo runs, in preparation for Daytona 500 pole day Feb. 13. The fastest time recorded was that of Mike Bliss in the No. 0 Chevrolet. Bliss caught a gust that boosted him to a lap in 48.139sec (186.959) -- not that much above Dale Jarrett's stand-alone superlative of Wednesday (48.269). Bliss had barely scratched the top 10 in qualifying runs. Jamie McMurray, Travis Kvapil, Michael Waltrip, Mike Skinner and Kyle Busch also gained speed in the draft, as expected, with McMurray coming from off the chart to second-fastest at 48.268, and Kvapil, likewise, improving to fourth at 48.340. Skinner is trying out in Bill Davis's No. 23 Dodge. Prior to Thursday's session,Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman dropped by the Daytona media center to discuss many topics, among them the experience of participating in the new method of crowning a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series champion and the learning curve that it generated. "The bottom line is you've just got to do your best," said Newman, who finished seventh in the final 2004 point standings. "Go for the win and focus on getting the best finish you possibly can. For us, that's no change." For Mayfield, the impetus is immediate: Winning the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 20. "If you've been there and have never won it, you get frustrated," said Mayfield, who finished 10th in the final 2004 point standings. "It's where it all started and where it's all happening. You talk about the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard (400), there's a lot of big races, but there's nothing like the Daytona 500." Both Mayfield and Newman hope for better luck in 2005. Both return with stable, burgeoning teams -- Newman with Penske Racing South and Mayfield with Evernham Motorsports -- and both have high standards based on 2004 results. "If you win races, the championship comes by itself if you win the right races," Newman said. Paired with 2004 Raybestos Rookie of the Year Kasey Kahne, Mayfield thinks the synergy of their teams may prove to be an unbeatable combination in 2005. "We're working for the future," said Mayfield, citing team owner Ray Evernham's leadership. "All we worry about is racing now, but so many things are going on that's going to help our race team as a whole for the future." Three-time Daytona 500 champion Dale Jarrett, the fastest driver on Wednesday certainly would like to add a fourth season-opening win to his resume. And that perspective allows him to appreciate the extensive off-season renovation of Daytona's infield. Included are new NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and NASCAR Busch Series garages, a new fan zone between the two garages, a new victory lane and numerous other upgrades. "It's incredible what's been done in here in what I consider a short amount of time with everything that has taken place," said Jarrett of the renovation, which began just two days after last July's Pepsi 400. "I think the fans that have the opportunity to come down in here and view all of this are gonna be very impressed and excited about that. It should be fun and interesting to see how all of this goes." The best part? "As far as the race track goes, it's the same old track," said Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series champion whose Daytona 500 triumphs came in 1993, 1996 and 2000. Jarrett also has a fresh goal -- another NASCAR Nextel Cup Series title, which means being a part of the 2005 "Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup." He finished 15th in last year's final point standings, but was in the battle to make the NASCAR Top 10 right up through the No. 26 race, the cutoff point last year. "I'll be talking a different tune than I was last year," Jarrett said of initial skepticism early last season. "I'm not sure if this is the chair (in the Daytona media center), but it was in a place similar to this last year when I was totally against it and expressed those feelings. Myself and others, that changed after we saw what was going on with it -- the amount of exposure that it brought to our sport, the attention, the excitement."
Second Texas event will finish under the lights January 14 Officials from Texas Motor Speedway and the head of NASCAR were sharing jokes instead of engaging in the verbal warfare of last year Thursday at TMS. But NASCAR chairman Brian France still won't say if Texas Motor Speedway was ever promised a second race. "Well, look, it doesn't do any good to rehash," France said Thursday. "I have a point of view on all of that. They have points of view.
Prompted in part by a lawsuit filed by one of the track's shareholders, Texas will host two Nextel Cup races this year: on April 17 and Nov. 6. The new fall race is part of the season-ending championship run. The schedule realignment announced last summer helped settle the 2002 lawsuit. "We're beyond that, those things happen," said France, a featured guest during the track's media day for his first visit there since the settlement. "We all have to move forward and do things together ... This place was worthy of a second date." Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage and Bruton Smith, chairman of track owner Speedway Motorsports Inc., had contended since the $250 million track opened in 1997 that they were not given a second date promised by NASCAR. The spring race came when Smith bought a now-defunct track in North Wilkesboro, N.C., and moved one of its events to Texas. "His (France) position is probably well known, as is ours," Gossage said. "You can agree to disagree as gentlemen. I can tell you, the relationship, it's really good." NASCAR and Texas Motor Speedway are certainly good for each other. There have been sellout crowds of at least 200,000 for each of the previous eight NASCAR races at the 1.5-mile track, and television ratings for races there have been among the circuit's highest. Even when fighting for a second race, Speedway Motorsports turned down a request by shareholder Francis Ferko, of Plano, nearly three years ago to sue NASCAR. Ferko sued on his own, claiming NASCAR breached "implied" and "express" contracts by not awarding a second Cup race. Smith said he met Ferko for the first time in Atlanta last year, while signing papers that settled the lawsuit. "I know there are those of you who thought I knew him. I didn't know him until then," Smith said. "He's a very first-class individual." Gossage said he still hasn't met Ferko, who lives about an hour from the track. Track officials said Thursday that the November race will begin at 2:20 p.m. CT, ensuring that it will finish under the lights. There will be just two races left in the NASCAR season after that. Texas also will continue extended race weekends, with qualifying the Friday before each Sunday race and practice sessions the day between. Some tracks this season will have qualifying the day before the race with cars impounded immediately afterward. "If (NASCAR) shoved it down our throat, we'd be changing the format instead of not changing the format," Gossage said. "NASCAR called, we talked about, I gave them the reasons why it was not the thing for us to do. They said OK. There was no contentiousness to that discussion at all." |
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