RAIN OUT ?

The declared "rain-out" of Cup qualifications at Watkins Glen reinforces the notion that either NASCAR is lazy, or that they view maintenance of the status quo as their priority.

Despite the near certainty they could have qualified the Cup cars today (Saturday), NASCAR chose to declare qualifications to be "rained-out" yesterday and assigned starting positions based upon Cup point standings. Smaller teams and road race specialists brought in for races such as this one, drivers/teams who would have to compete for the eight non-guaranteed starting spots under normal conditions, are in the haulers and on the way home today. "Drivers had sponsor appearances to make" is the most often quoted response to the question "why can't you just qualify on Saturday?". Total face fart.

NASCAR finds itself a bit backwards with regard to their approach to qualifications, and would do well in the eyes of race fans to revisit the notion that qualifications are a mere formality leading up to a predetermined showcase of familiar drivers and sponsors competiting for the win in this weeks show.

I believe the common race fan finds this quite distasteful, and would be most satisfied to see NASCAR restore qualifying to its full glory, ... or more (see F1, and how they reinvented qualifications - you think NASCAR couldn't one-up F1 in this regard if they put their minds to it?).