Top 35 in Owners Points

[jeffconn]

Forget about provisionals. Have a last chance race for the last 3 spots.

[RaceFanStan]

The qualifying system of the 80's and 90's was rather complex.
(it was tweaked from year to year but the general layout follows)

Friday Qualifying - the quickest top 25 drivers were locked-in ...
the other drivers speed/times were recorded & they had the option on Saturday ...
Saturday 2nd Round Qualifying - the non-top 25 quickest drivers could stand on Friday's speed/time OR
they could re-qualifying, if their time was faster, they could gain position ...
however if their time was slower they were stuck with the slower time,
Saturday's speed/time erased Friday's qualifying speed/time

Provisionals went from 0 to 3 to 5 (early to mid 80's) & then to 7 (late 80's),
the Previous Champion's Provisional came along around the time DW's career was winding down ...

Also their was NO one engine rule & qualifying set-ups were very radical.

I have no desire to see qualifying return to the system of the 80's and 90's.

[jeffconn]

I liked 2nd day qualifying. There was a lot of risktaking on that day. Lots of brushes with the wall.

An aside, didn't the Daytona 500 used to have THREE days of qualifying? i seem to recall Dave Marcis was always trying to improve his time to get one of the two backup qualifying speed spots if he didn't race well enough in the Twins.

[Lee Roy]

An aside, didn't the Daytona 500 used to have THREE days of qualifying? i seem to recall Dave Marcis was always trying to improve his time to get one of the two backup qualifying speed spots if he didn't race well enough in the Twins.

I believe that you're right. I had forgotten about those additional qualifying days at Daytona.

[djarumdudley]

the 3rd round at Daytona was removed sometime in the early 90s. i seem to recall one year when Harry Gant got disqualifed in round two and had to go again on the third day. tuesday prior to the Twins was third round day.

the champions rule was actually created for Richard Petty during the twilight of his career. in 1989 the King missed four short track events. this was back in the day of 32 car fields on the short tracks and two provisionals. for that period of time the rule made sense and was basically a reward to a legend.

it was three(two regular, one past champ) up until the early to mid 90s. it was increased to seven in either 94 or 95 as there was a boom in start-up teams and better funded teams at that time. additionally there were some races where it would be a 42 car grid instead of 43. if all past champs qualified on time the 43rd slot remained vacant.

i recall a race or two where Dave Marcis was the only DNQ, but Nascar ran a 42 car field due to the limitaion of the PCP rule at the time. it was adjusted yet again following if all champs timed in or otherwise. those types of situations to allow the next highest points runner in. this tweak allowed some interesting deals to occur. there were a few events where Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte needed provisionals to make the field, but opted for the PCP to allow another car entry to the grid.

[call_me_andrew]

Provisionals went from 0 to 3 to 5 (early to mid 80's) & then to 7 (late 80's),
the Previous Champion's Provisional came along around the time DW's career was winding down ...

I believe the Champoin's Provisional came from Richard Petty.

[RaceFanStan]

It could have been for Richard Petty but people will have to admit DW used it much more than Petty did.

[djarumdudley]

i do agree with that sentiment. Waltrip had unfortuantely stretched his career just a bit too far.