March 23rd, 2011 
T.C. As we get set to make our lone trip to California this season, we’ve got quite a battle going on at the top of the standings. Currently Kurt Busch owns the driver points lead, but by only a single point over Carl Edwards. But there is another battle raging in the points, and the stakes are just as high, only it’s a little farther down the standings. Near the bottom of the owners points standings are the drivers and teams working to stay in that top 35, and thus hang on to a guaranteed starting spot. California is the final race where the guaranteed spots are based on 2010′s points, and it’s the final chance to make a move to either get or keep a guaranteed spot.
Following Bristol, the 35th spot is held down by Casey Mears and the #13 Geico/Germain team. Their 52 points are just one better than Tommy Baldwin’s #36 team. Those who are currently inside that magic number who could conceivably fall out are Brian Vickers, Frank Stoddard’s #32 team, Robby Gordon, and Casey Mears. On the other side, those who are on the outside looking in that have a realistic chance of jumping up are Dave Blaney with the #36, Tony Raines, Andy Lally, and Travis Kvapil. Kvapil and Mears are currently separated by only six points.
Many of the teams at this end of the garage are severely underfunded, but a guaranteed spot in upcoming races could go a long ways toward securing their futures. The teams from Front Row, TRG, Tommy Baldwin, and Germain all have intentions to run full races, and would benefit greatly from a 35th or above position. With as competitive as the sport has become, it only takes one or two DNQ’s by a team to dig an insurmountable points hole.
There are only 43 cars entered for Sunday’s Auto Club 400, so that will be a bit of a boost for those involved in the fight. But we’ve seen as many as 48 cars entered for races this season and there are no guarantees that other teams won’t pop up. A guaranteed starting position would go a long way towards helping these teams not only monetarily, but also psychologically. Whatever happens though, you can be sure that the results at California will affect these teams for the rest of the season.
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Hopefully these teams make it. If Stoddard, Buckler, Baldwin and whoever else can keep this going for 3-4 years, they’re gonna be sitting on a hot property.
Money’s slowly coming back into NASCAR, and eventually big businessman are gonna want to own teams. 90% of the teams are already locked up that way. So you gotta turn to who’s left in the top 35, and partner or buy out them. These teams spent money in the hardest of times, and if they make it, they deserve all and more.
The best part of this article is this line:
“our lone trip to California this season”
Careful….we don’t want to shock or misguide anyone here. This is only our lone trip to California “Speedway” this season. In Fontana that is!
There is still one of the crown jewels (IMO) up north at Infineon (uh Sears Point) every June.
Sorry Neon, this is our lone trip to “Auto Club Speedway” this season…
The new points system is going to make the fight for the top 35 much more exciting this year sine missing a race will not be nearly as detrimental. Last year, missing the field gave a few owners points but far less than the 34 that last place paid. This year, last place pays just one point more than missing the race, hardly insurmountable. Just look at the owners points now: the 13 and 32 have both missed races yet are ahead of Baldwin’s 36, Buckler’s 71, and two Front Row entries. Two of the start and parkers, Whitney (46) and and Nemechek (87), lag way behind even the 77, which only raced Daytona. This is probably a good thing, since it won’t mean that missing the field once means being a go or go homer for the rest of the season.
In 1997, when I first bought tickets for Fontana, we had a 500-mile Indy car race and a 500 mile NASCAR race. Then the Indy race went to 400 miles, giving me the fastest race I ever saw: 400 miles under green, average speed a mind-boggling 207 MPH. Then CART/IRL went pfft, but NASCAR gave us a second race: 1,000 miles of NASCAR! Then the economy went pfft and they shortened one of the NASCAR races to 400. Then they dropped the 500-miler, leaving me with a measly 400 miles. Bummer. At least I spend less on tickets than in years past.
I usually like the racing at Fontana, although it’s not good TV racing; stories unfold over spans of 20-30 laps, sometimes back in the pack, but if you concentrate on those duels, you’ll see some good stuff. Also, the track has lots of racing grooves, and it’s fun to watch the cars move up and down the track looking for the groove that works best.
OK, there’s my Fontana ad. I don’t expect much support here. Chief, I don’t know if you’re out there, but if you are, I bet you’re chuckling now!
Let to this party but the premise is ridiculous. I dont see why people are overlooking one basic fact
REPEAT AFTER ME:: There will be no new teams of any consequence as long as the top 35 rule exists!!!!!
Nobody can name one car from the megateams that hasnt made the top 35. Therefore NO SPONSOR and NOBODY are going to invest money in a roll of the dice.
Aint happening! Forget it its just wishful thinking.
TH
This is another race I can take a nap to.