Five minutes into the NASCAR season, Andy Hillenburg was already a kilometer behind the leaders.
His chances of racing in the Daytona 500 had all but expired. His chances of winning the championship this year? Well, nobody really ever thought he had a chance at that, anyway. Not even the owner of his car.
"We're not really in that group," longtime owner Junie Donleavy said Thursday while his car was loaded into the hauler. He was done for the week after finishing 22nd of 23 in the first Daytona 500 qualifying race.
Such is life in NASCAR.
While the contenders debate the big changes in the points system that are supposed to bring more teams into contention, about half of the drivers remain on the wrong side of a stock-car racing caste system.
"You've got to have a good car, good equipment, good crew and good luck," said Greg Biffle, who will start from the pole for the Daytona 500.
Trying to spark interest in the final 10 races of the year, NASCAR split the season -- 26 races at the start, followed by a 10-race "Chase for the Championship." The final showdown will give the top 10 cars after the early races the best chance to win the Nextel Cup.
It's an attempt to make all the races mean more and get more drivers in the mix for the title. In reality, though, Donleavy figures only about 30 cars start the season with a legitimate chance at the title.
"Then, after a few races, the owners of those teams pick their best cars and devote most of their stuff toward them," he said.
That leaves about 10 to 15 cars with a real chance, and the names are always the same -- no matter how they keep score.
Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jack Roush, Rick Hendrick, Robert Yates. Those drivers and owners all have sponsorship deals in the US$15 million to US$20 million range, and they're part of multiple-car teams. This year, Roush and Yates -- rivals who both own stables of Fords -- pooled their resources to open a testing center.
The have-nots make up the numbers. Hillenburg drives for Donleavy. Guys like Kirk Shelmerdine, Derrike Cope and Johnny Benson came here thinking not about the season, but simply getting through the week.
The problem manifests itself in different ways. Only 45 cars were brought to Daytona to fill a 43-car field for the sport's biggest race. The number of qualifiers used to reach in the 50s. Some in racing circles, however, believe the day is coming soon when prohibitive costs will make it so NASCAR won't fill all 43 spots for a Nextel Cup race.
"We're fine," NASCAR CEO Brian France said. "As I've said, the quality of the fields is what I'm interested in; how many competitive teams are out there."
France said NASCAR would love to go back to "the Alan Kulwicki days," when an underfunded underdog scratched together the resources and won the title in 1992.
"But that's not our call," France conceded. "The marketplace determines what a sponsor will pay for one team or another team, and obviously the team will determine how they spend that money."
Donleavy doesn't feel he's part of that argument. He says he likes the new points system, not because it levels the playing field -- which it doesn't -- but simply because it's something a little different.
"It will give me a reason to stay interested in the race at the end of the year," he said. "Because I sure know I won't be involved in it."
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS