Sprint Cup teams watching for rain

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Thursday, February 21, 2008

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- Stumbeupon
0 Comments

FONTANA, Calif. – With the National Weather Service predicting a 70 percent chance for rain Friday, some Sprint Cup teams will have to keep their fingers crossed if they hope to make the field for Sunday's Auto Club 500.

The top 35 in owners points from 2007 are locked into the field. If qualifying is canceled, the first 35 positions are allocated by owners points from last year for the first five races of the season.

Barring any teams having missed the entry list deadline, the remaining eight spots would be allocated like this:

The 36th spot would go to Kurt Busch (Penske Racing) because he won a race last year. Busch is not in the top 35 in owners points from last year because the team transferred those points to Sam Hornish. The next two positions would go to past champions Dale Jarrett (Michael Waltrip Racing) and Bill Elliott (Wood Brothers Racing).

Because this is one of the first five races of the season, the next spots are filled by anyone in the top 35 in this year’s owners points. That would put Red Bull Racing’s Brian Vickers, MWR’s David Reutimann and MWR’s Michael Waltrip in the field.

The next spots would be based on qualifying attempts, with ties broken by current owners points. That would put Front Row Motorsport’s John Andretti and Furniture Row’s Joe Nemechek in the field.

Missing the race would be Furntiure Row’s Kenny Wallace, Red Bull Racing’s AJ Allmendinger, BAM Racing’s Ken Schrader, Gillett Evernham Motorsports’ Patrick Carpentier, Front Row Motorsports’ Kevin Lepage, Bill Davis Racing’s Mike Skinner and E&M Motorsports’ Burney Lamar.