Robby Gordon, Latitude 43 team fall out of top 35
Robby Gordon will have to make the field on qualifying speed for next Sunday's race at Martinsville.
// LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
BRISTOL, Tenn. – The pressure will be on Robby Gordon at Martinsville Speedway.
The Robby Gordon Motorsports No. 7 team was one of two teams that fell out of the top 35 in owner points following the Food City 500 on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway and will have to qualify on speed Friday at Martinsville.
For the first five races of a season, the top 35 in owners points from the previous year are locked into the Sprint Cup field. Starting with the sixth race, the top 35 teams, based on this year’s owner points, that show up for the event are guaranteed spots, leaving seven spots to be determined by qualifying speed and one spot for a past champion. If there’s no past champion, then the final spot also is determined by qualifying speed.
Gordon is 36th in the owner standings, nine points behind the Front Row Motorsports No. 37 team of driver Kevin Conway and 28 points behind the Front Row No. 34 team of Travis Kvapil.
Also dropping out of the top 35 was the Latitude 43 Motorsports No. 26 team, which has had Boris Said and David Stremme in its cars. It is 12 points behind Conway.
The two teams that put themselves into the top 35 were well on their way before the race at Bristol. Red Bull Racing’s Scott Speed has his team 18th in the owner standings while the TRG Motorsports entry with driver Bobby Labonte is 29th.
In addition to the two Front Row teams that are 34th and 35th in points, there are three other teams just 75 points ahead of Gordon: Penske Racing’s Sam Hornish (which has a 46-point cushion on Gordon), Front Row’s David Gilliland (66-point edge on Gordon) and JTG Daugherty Racing’s Marcos Ambrose (67-point cushion on Gordon).
Seven teams that have attempted to qualify for every race remained outside the top 35 and will continue to try to make it on speed: Tommy Baldwin Racing (48 points behind Conway’s team), Germain Racing (-80), Prism Motorsports No. 55 (-140), Prism Motorsports No. 66 (-144), Nemco Motorsports (-150), Keyed-Up Motorsports (-161), Phoenix Racing (-194) and Whitney Motorsports (-203).
