A little note to those that want the 43 fastest cars

in the field, instead of having locked in drivers.

Tony Stewart would be sitting out of this race.

Something to think about before debating the 43 fastest qualifiers.

well, I guess that would teach em an important lesson for next time

Maybe he would get his butt in gear in qualifying for a change. He never seems to worry about it, hence his usual mid-pack starts. It doesn't matter much where you start at Daytona or Dega, but there are a number of tracks where it does count. And pit stall selections can be very important at some tracks where the pit stalls are small and pit roads are narrow, like the short tracks. He'd have to up his qualifying game a little and that might not be a bad thing (IMO).

Maybe he would get his butt in gear in qualifying for a change. He never seems to worry about it, hence his usual mid-pack starts. It doesn't matter much where you start at Daytona or Dega, but there are a number of tracks where it does count. And pit stall selections can be very important at some tracks where the pit stalls are small and pit roads are narrow, like the short tracks. He'd have to up his qualifying game a little and that might not be a bad thing (IMO).

not sure what you are refering too, but he qualified 2nd. It was just disallowed, so if the rule was taking the 43 fastest he would have been 44th & not make the race.

I am willing to bet, not to many Tony fans would be happy with the 43 fastest cars anymore in the debate.

He qualified 2nd with a car that failed post-qualifying inspection. The infraction that he and Austin had was said to be an advantage. Tony was 20 something in practice and qualified 2nd? I would like the 43 fastest change. Tony would just have to up his game a bit. Or, if this scenario happened, they could take their fastest practice lap. They would need to have a contingency plan for these types of scenarios. It's a moot point anyway. I don't think NASCAR would make that kind of a change. It would be a sponsor nightmare for the bigger, better funded teams that didn't make a race. It is all about the money.

Just because I'm a Tony fan doesn't mean I don't think he should be treated any differently than anyone else. Sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield.

back in the day, they had two days of qualifying, so just in case something happened you could still make the race. Whioch I thought was a good plan.
the top 20 were locked in day one, then you could try & requalify if you liked by taking your time off the board & trying again on the 2nd day, if you werent in the top 20. I remember one of the Bodines (Todd I think) got the track record & started the race 21st.
Also remember a couple times where a driver took his time off the board & requalified & would have made the race if he kept his old time & missed the race with their new time. So it wasnt a no brainer to requaify or not. I liked this senario & would work well if they were ever to go with the top 43 fastest cars.
However they got rid of two days of qualifying when they started trying to bring costs down in Nascar. So I dont think they would ever bring it back, although I enjoyeed the thinking that goes into it, when they had it like that.