Bruton Smith said before Daytona that the "Start & Park" teams were a disgrace and that NASCAR was about to make a move on the practice. This could be the first salvo.
Permalink Reply by Dale on February 22, 2010 at 12:57pm
thats what Cope is doing also I was wondering about that and how that worked ,look at the money last week given just to make the race and here's Robby having trouble getting sponcers and these other teams are doing this with sponcers go figure?
Instead of tip-toeing around the start and park issue, Nascar, teams, and anyone else involved should simply come out and address the issue.
If Nascar truly needs 43 cars to start the race due to broadcasting deals, then they should lay down some rules. They could require start and park teams to state their true intentions, and only allow them in after filling the field as much as possible with teams that intend to run the full race. It shouldn't be too hard to tell if someone has a real or bogus issue and cannot finish the race. Teams that intend to run the whole race would get that opportunity, and if Nascar still 'needs' cars to make a full field, then fill with start and parks. Putting everything on the table, out in the open, would reduce the debate and controversy that this subject causes.
Permalink Reply by Alex on February 22, 2010 at 3:36pm
NASCAR isnt the only one's having to deal with the Start and Parks. Today i had two "Start and Park" classes. WKU is too money strapped to go the whole 55 minutes i guess. So my instructors had to "park" the class after 15 minutes. Hopefully we can save up enough money to go the whole 55 minutes a few times this year.
I have the perfect solution to "Start and Parks". Every car that doesn't qualify on speed goes into a contingency pool. Once a car drops out of the race (for whatever reason), the fastest car in the contingency pool hits the track in it's place. I've seen it in some figure 8 racing.
The cars positioned 1-43 collect the $$$ and points. Any car that raced but did not finish, or is still sitting in the contingency pool, gets a flat 40 points and $25k.
The root of the problem is NASCAR's decision a while ago to change the purse payout so that you get paid to race more than paid to do well. The last 20 or 25 places pay almost the same thing. I'd like to see them eliminate the winner's circle and other contingencies and stagger payout all the way through the field. If the last 3 or 4 spots didn't pay enough to qualify, the start and parkers would not show up.