Enough with the provisionals

Looking over the starting grid for Sundays race, I couldn't help but
notice the last place car, Andy Hillenburg was over 20 MPH slower than
the pole sitter. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't he be black
flagged for a speed like that in the race? Now, granted, they will
probably work on the car so he can get the speeds up a little, so he can
run 2, maybe 3 laps and quit. But I can't see the point in sending
Stanton Barrett (whoever that is) home when he ran more than 13 MPH
faster than Hillenburg. I realize this would hurt some teams that don't
traditionally qualify well, and would rarely affect someone like Gordon
who's only used a couple, but wouldn't this go a ways towards
1.getting rid of field fillers
2.Make the competition strive for better cars and working harder during
the week.
and
3. make the overall racing better, with the faster cars being the runs
that are actually racing.

The minimum speed won't be calculated until after Cup Happy Hour.

"Travis" wrote t...
> Looking over the starting grid for Sundays race, I couldn't help but
> notice the last place car, Andy Hillenburg was over 20 MPH slower than
> the pole sitter. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't he be black
> flagged for a speed like that in the race? Now, granted, they will
> probably work on the car so he can get the speeds up a little, so he can
> run 2, maybe 3 laps and quit. But I can't see the point in sending
> Stanton Barrett (whoever that is) home when he ran more than 13 MPH
> faster than Hillenburg. I realize this would hurt some teams that don't
> traditionally qualify well, and would rarely affect someone like Gordon
> who's only used a couple, but wouldn't this go a ways towards

without checking, someone will, I'd venture a guess that of Gordon's 2(?)
provisionals, he wouldn't have missed the race if there weren't provisionals
and the top 43 started. He used a provisional because only the top 36
started on time and the rest took provisionals.

WildWeasel wrote:

> without checking, someone will, I'd venture a guess that of Gordon's 2(?)
> provisionals, he wouldn't have missed the race if there weren't provisionals
> and the top 43 started.

At Daytona this year his qualifying speed was 39th.

At Homestead in 2002 he ran the 37th fastest speed.

So you're right.

Now, if there were no provisionals, Mikey would be a DNQ today.


bp

NASCARWife wrote:
> The minimum speed won't be calculated until after Cup Happy Hour.
I understand that this is the case, but why send home someone that is
faster? It seems to me that you come to race, and the fastest cars in
the field should be the ones that race.