The convoluted nonsense that is Daytona 500 qualifying in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series started today. The race is next Sunday. The surprise pole sitter is Jeff Burton in the #31 Cingular Chevy. Second is Jeff Gordon in the #24 Dupont Chevy. Those two are locked in to the front row.
The remainder of the Daytona 500 field will be set at Thursday's Gatorade Twin 150s. The odd numbered qualifiers will be in one race. The even numbered in the other race. The top 35 in 2005 Nextel Cup owner's points are locked in. the remainder of the 43 car field will be filled by those outside the top 35. There were 58 cars qualifying so that leaves 8 spots among 23 cars.
The top two finishers in the qualifying races outside the top 35 will earn spots in the Daytona 500. The other four spots will be determined by the fastest speeds in today's qualifying. But today's qualifying locked in the four fastest qualifiers outside the top 35. Terry Labonte in the #96 DLP Chevy is locked in with a past champion provisional. The other three locked in today are Bill Elliott in the #36 Ginn's Resorts Chevy, Travis Kvapil in the #32 Tide Chevy & Hermie Sadler in the #00 Aaron's Chevy. If any of those guys earn spots in the qualifying races, the next fastest qualifying speeds will be used. This is very confusing.
This also means that some big budget full time teams may miss the Daytona 500. That kills the whole season. The most notable is Scott Riggs in the #10 Valvoline Dodge. They're a new team and don't have any points to fall back on. He broke a gear on his second qualifying lap. So if he doesn't have a good finish on Thursday, he will miss the race. Robby Gordon in the #7 Jim Beam Chevy could miss the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row. A lot of the other guys who will miss the race aren't fast enough anyway.
Qualifying during the rest of the season is very straight forward. Only the Daytona 500 has this screwy system mainly so NASCAR can have a couple of extra races this week. It helps to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.
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