Top-35 Shaking Things Up

As NASCAR heads into its first breaking point in the season and we put the first five Sprint Cup races behind us, it’s also time to put last year’s points standings behind us. That means that drivers will no longer be safe from qualifying based on the 2007 car owner points, but rather on the 2008 points they’ve accrued. To clarify, that means that any team currently outside of the top 35 will have to qualify their car each week based on time, and it all starts with Martinsville next week.

So, how have the first five weeks shaped us to the point we’re at now? Two of those races had their qualifying events scrapped altogether due to the unlikely storms in southern California, and then again last weekend at Bristol. That put the teams that headed into 2008 outside of the top 35 at a serious disadvantage, because with 6 of the 8 remaining provisional spots remaining going to Kurt Busch and Dale Jarrett – being that they’re past Cup Series champions – that turned it into slim pickins for the remaining teams, and it was all really more of a matter of blind luck and seeing how the cards fell into place from there.

There are quite a few drivers that have landed themselves safely inside the top 35 – at least for the time being – that were not there last year. A large chunk of these spots are currently consumed by the emergence of Toyota as an actual factor in the ’08 season. Aside from the obvious drivers inside the Joe Gibbs Racing camp, Brian Vickers, David Reutimann, and Michael Waltrip are in the show, despite the fact that none of them had guaranteed spots throughout the first five events. Also in that mix is Dale Jarrett, though due to his recent retirement, Reutimann will now jump into his car and consume his car owner points, while Michael McDowell will come into the Cup Series with the advantage of having Reutimann’s current car owner points on his side. Complicated, I know.

Not to be outdone, Penske Racing has also complicated matters when they transferred the car owner points from Kurt Busch’s team at the beginning of the season over to the new startup team of Sam Hornish Jr. Merely being able to compete in the first five events proved to be enough for Hornish as he rides into Martinsville right on the bubble in the 35th spot, and safe for at least another week.

Travis Kvapil has perhaps been the most impressive of the guys that had to fight their way into the top 35. Not only has he been out of the Cup Series for a few years now, but he’s also driving for a struggling Yates Racing program and he’s been doing it without a sponsor to throw on the hood of his car. Yet, he’s continued to scratch and claw his way not only into the top-35, but all the way up to 28th in points and continuing to look solid each and every week. Also joining the “in crowd” this year are Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs whom both inherited top 35 owner points positions coming into the season and were guaranteed starting spots in the first five races.

With all the talk centering around whether or not drivers will be able to crack the top-12 in points and qualify for the Chase field, amazingly enough there’s still such a distinctly different view between 35th and 36th place. If you don’t believe me, just go ask Jamie McMurray, whose worst season in Cup came last year when he finished 17th. He’s now all the way down in 36th, and despite that he trails Sam Hornish by just four points, he remains in danger of being forced to miss a race if he fails to qualify on time at Martinsville. Such a feat would be the first time since 2003 that a full-time Roush Racing driver failed to start a race. Jamie’s rapid decline in the points standings has been a result of consistent on-track mishaps, but if he can find the same consistency at Martinsville that he’s had at that track so far in his career, he should be okay by the time the series heads to Texas.

 Kyle Petty currently sits 40th in driver points, but he’s certainly no stranger to having to fight his way into the top 35. It was a constant back-and-forth struggle for him all last season, and this year is shaping up to be much of the same. There was some talk about possibly switching over the car owner points from Bobby LaBonte’s car, or possibly even replacing Petty behind the wheel. Both ideas have been scrapped, however, and Kyle will continue to just keep giving it his all. He’s likely to remain a bubble driver throughout the course of the year.

You don’t have to try to convince Dave Blaney that things can change quite a bit over the course of a few months. When the 2007 season ended last November, Blaney sat 31st in driver points and represented Toyota as the only one of their drivers to finish inside the top-35. This season, however, Toyota currently has six representatives inside the top-35 while Blaney sits in 37th.

Looking to turn their seasons around will be Dario Franchitti and Regan Smith – both of whom have competed in all five races, yet currently sit in 38th and 39th in points. Meanwhile, Patrick Carpentier has had the opportunity to race only twice due to NASCAR’s current top-35 format and Mother Nature not cooperating, and after AJ Allmendinger failed to qualify for the first three races, Mike Skinner has now gotten the car in the show twice and continues to build points for Allmendinger’s coming run later in the season. Joe Nemecheck is also currently on the outside in 41st place despite running in four of the five races.

“DYN Imposes”:
This week, Do You Nascar also asks its readers …

1) How many Toyota teams will finish 2008 inside the top-35 in owner points?
2) Which team(s), if any, will transfer – or need to transfer – their car owner points between their teams at some point in 2008?
3) How long will it take for Jamie McMurray to climb safely and solidly back into the top-35, or will he?
4) What drivers are likely to fall outside of the top-35, and who will take their place?