Well, the first five races of the season are done and the top 35 in owner points using the 2008 owner points for qualifying at Martinsville on March 30. That is normal procedure, but now the fun begins. There are several multi-car teams with one car in the top 35 and one outside the top 35. These teams have some decisions to make before the next race. Most notably being discussed is an owner points swap between the two Petty Racing teams.

The situation becomes one for NASCAR to handle. What is the situation? Well, among the teams that have at least one car inside and one outside the top 35 in owner points are: Roush/Fenway Racing has the 26 team, Petty Racing has the 45 team, Ganassi has the 40 team, DEI has the 01 team and Red Bull Racing has the 84 team.

These teams get to decide whether to swap the owner points from a car they own that is inside the top 35 with the their car outside the top 35. What they have to decide is whether the team they have in the top 35 in points has a better chance of qualifying on time than their team outside the top 35. If so, they swap the owner points between the two teams and increase their chances of getting both cars in the race at Martinsville.

What NASCAR needs to decide is should they allow this, but then there already is a precedent set as they allowed Roger Penske to swap the points between Kurt Busch's number 2 and Sam Hornish Jr's number 77 car. Penske decided that Kurt Busch had his championship provisional to fall back on if he couldn't qualify on time, but Hornish failed to qualify on several occasions at the end of 2007 and needed to be guaranteed to start the first five races. So, NASCAR allowed Roger Penske to swap the points between the two cars to get Hornish and Busch in the races.

In my opinion, NASCAR should have never allowed Penske to do this as it has opened the door for many creative team re-organizations to circumvent the top 35 qualifying rule.

Let's check out some of the things that have happened to set some ground rules of what is okay to do and what isn't.

First, the Roger Penske move with Busch and Hornish was a manipulation of the rule to circumvent it and shouldn't be allowed.

Next, let's look at 2 moves that were okay to do. At the end of 2004, Kurt Busch was fired from his Jack Roush owned number 97 team after getting in trouble with the law. After the season ended, Roush changed the car number from 97 to 26 and hired Jamie McMurray as his new driver. NASCAR allowed them to move the owner points from the 97 to the 26 team for the start of 2005. This was okay as it was the same team with just a new number and driver.

Then, this year Rick Hendrick made some creative changes to his team to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to join the team. First, he released Kyle Busch from the number 5 team, but still had the sponsors for that team. Meanwhile, they were still finalizing Junior's sponsors for his team, one of which had been a sponsor of the 25 team. So, Hendrick moved Casey Mears from the 25 car to the 5 car to replace Kyle Busch. Then, they changed the number of the 25 team to 88 for Junior's team. This was okay as it was a way to keep the sponsors that were associated with the number 5 car to stay associated with the 5 car. And, the sponsors that were new to Junior's team to get the new car number.

The basic rule is that if drivers are changing and sponsors are changing then yes the number can change and assume the owner points of the discontinued car number for the team. What Penske did wrong was the number 2 team wasn't discontinued and returned from the off season with the same driver and sponsor. So, the number 2 team should have continued into the new season with the points from the previous season.

Now, let's look at the intent behind the top 35 qualifying rule. The reason it was instituted was to protect sponsors that paid millions of dollars from not getting into the races. However, since the rule started, things have changed. Many teams have multiple sponsors that rotate on the car. Sure, they still spend a lot of money as the sport requires it to run a competitive team. However, the number of single primary sponsor teams have diminished drastically over the past few years.

For instance, Matt Kenseth's DeWalt car is not always sponsored by DeWalt. Roush/Fenway rotates many sponsors on all of their team cars now. Carl Edwards doesn't drive the Office Depot car, he drives the Office Depot, Clariton, Dish Network and probably a few others Ford. Jamie McMurray drives the Irwin, Crown Royal, Rubbermaid and probably a few others Ford. Meanwhile, Michael Waltrip owned two cars last year with single sponsors (the Napa Auto Parts car and the UPS car) and both struggled to make the races.

The rule is designed to keep the top 35 in the top 35 to protect sponsors like Napa and UPS and instead, it kept them out of the top 35.

Speaking of Michael Waltrip's teams he is about to do some creative points work of his own. I have to see what he ends up doing, but I may disapprove of what he does. Dale Jarrett has now retired and has vacated the 44 UPS car, which has the plan of getting David Reutimann to take over at Martinsville. The problem is that in the owner points the 44 team is 34th with 367. David Reutimann's current team the 00 Aaron's team is 27th in owner points with 461. So, with UPS being associated with the 44 number, it would make sense for Reutimann to change numbers to keep the sponsor happy, but then can he bring his points with him or does he drop back to 34th and assume the 44 team's owner points? I'm pretty sure that Waltrip will make a deal with NASCAR to toss out the 44 team points and let Reutimann bring his 00 team points with him to the 44 car.

Now, the basic rule is that drivers and sponsors are changing with a discontinued team involved. That is unless Waltrip brings in a new rookie driver to take over the 00 Aaron's car. Otherwise, Waltrip will be discontinuing the 00 Aaron's car. Then we might have sponsor changes and driver changes and slip in under the rule allowing for what is best for NASCAR, which is to keep the sponsor happy. Keeping UPS happy is important to the sport and Michael Waltrip Racing. So, as long as Waltrip doesn't hire a new driver for the 00 Aaron's car I would probably approve of Reutimann bringing his 27th place points to the 44 car.

That said, I think that the need for the creative manipulation to dodge the rule only says that the rule no longer serves the purpose that it was intended to serve.

My solution is that on qualifying day, NASCAR should just take the fastest 42 cars with one champion provisional, as being a former champion should count for something when it comes to making the races.

It is time to remove the rule that now defeats the purpose it was designed to serve.