Points swaps a dirty but necessary evil

COMMENTARY

It’s easy for fans to get angry over the points swapping/buying that will occur over the next few weeks as teams try to acquire guaranteed starting spots for the first five Sprint Cup races of the season and more specifically, the season-opening Daytona 500.

The popular refrain is “use the points or lose them – no buying allowed.”

It’s also easy to say that the fastest 43 cars in qualifying each week should be in the field instead of guaranteeing the top 35 teams in owners points a starting spot.

But it’s not that simple.

As much as people might want to stick their heads in the sand, the reality is this: Unless NASCAR goes to franchising (where starting spots would be bought by paying a franchise fee), there needs to be a way to guarantee teams and drivers spots in the field.

NASCAR has two options: Going to a qualifying format in which the fastest 43 cars in qualifying make the race; or keep the current system where some drivers are guaranteed spots. As long as it has rules that guarantee spots, NASCAR must have rules that allow some sort of points swaps.

If not, then Richard Petty Motorsports could have lost its points when it went through its sale and restructuring in the 2010 offseason. Or Ray Evernham’s team could have lost its guaranteed spots when he sold his team to George Gillett. Or the Kevin Harvick Inc. teams would have lost their Nationwide Wide Series spots when absorbed by Richard Childress Racing.

That wouldn’t have been fair, and all those people who invested millions in their teams deserve to get a little compensation for what they built. If not, there would be even less incentive for new owners to enter the sport.

NASCAR’s answer is to require at least someone who owns part of the original team to own a piece of the team that acquires the owner points.

Tommy Baldwin Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing didn’t go that exact route, instead just forming what could be considered a four-car, two-shop team. SHR will get TBR’s owner points from last year for the 10 races that Danica Patrick runs in the team’s No. 10 car. TBR will then field the No. 10 car when Patrick doesn’t race by putting David Reutimann behind the wheel. Patrick will get the points earned by TBR driver Dave Blaney last year, giving her a guaranteed starting spot for at least the Daytona 500, and Blaney will have to qualify on speed.

This has many people upset because it makes a mockery of what should be considered competition - SHR buying Patrick a spot in the race instead of earning her way into the biggest event of the year.

But it also helps Baldwin, a team owner who scraped together a full season with Blaney last year. It is assumed he got a good bit of cash in the deal. He also probably will get some cars as SHR goes through the season and won’t need a full fleet with a new car coming in 2013. He will get some technical assistance from having some crewmen around the SHR teams, and he will have points for Reutimann toward a guaranteed a spot in every race he attempts during the season. That guarantee could attract sponsorship.

This isn’t the first time NASCAR teams have had such an arrangement. Kyle Busch Motorsports prepared the car for Kimi Raikkonen that Nemco Motorsports theoretically owned when Raikkonen made his Nationwide debut last year.

Two small Nationwide teams, ML Motorsports and Jay Robinson Racing, partnered to field the No. 70 Nationwide car in every race last year to keep that car in the top 35 in owner points. That guaranteed spot helps a small team such as ML Motorsports grow and provides a better opportunity for success for a young female driver Johanna Long, who won the Snowball Derby in 2010 and whom many believe deserves a shot in the Nationwide Series.

Sure, we’d all love it if NASCAR could get rid of the top-35 rule and just allow the fastest 43 cars in the race. But in this time of economic uncertainty, NASCAR can’t take that risk.

How could NASCAR explain a driver missing a race and losing a shot to make the Chase For The Sprint Cup because a part broke on a qualifying lap?

This isn’t golf where a player gets 36 holes to make up for a bad shot or a team sport where the team can go on without an injured player and still advance to the playoffs.

Also, and most importantly, fans plan their vacations around a race. At Texas last November, fans were devastated that their driver, Kyle Busch, had been suspended. It is unfair to the people who support the sport to not have their favorite driver in a race because of a one-lap qualifying snafu.

Having the 43 fastest cars in the field could impact the sport’s survival by jeopardizing sponsorships for teams. Teams rely on their guaranteed spots when selling sponsorship. If they miss a race, it’s likely they’d have to pay back the sponsor, and no one wins in that deal.

And even if the fastest 43 cars made the field, teams would just buy their way in anyway. If Blaney had gotten into the Daytona 500 under that scenario and Patrick ended up missing it, Stewart-Haas likely would just buy the ride for Patrick because NASCAR doesn’t prohibit teams from changing drivers between qualifying and the race. If that were the case, theoretically they could force a driver to compete when sick or injured, creating a dangerous situation.

Sure, this whole point swap leaves a dirty taste in the mouth. It requires silly jockeying by teams and relationships when in some ways NASCAR should just allow the selling of points outright and relieve everyone of all the semantics and games played today in the garage.

NASCAR should require these points exchanges a month before the season starts so at least fans know who has guaranteed spots. We’re still waiting to hear what will happen to the points from Red Bull Racing, which went out of business. Those points could impact drivers Robby Gordon and Trevor Bayne.

Unfortunately, this is a necessary evil. Going to the fastest 43 cars would be a case of be careful what you wish for.