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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Explaining The Inexplicable
Danica Patrick is guaranteed a starting spot in the Daytona 500 – and here’s how…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted February 01, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Danica Patrick is slated to make 10 Sprint Cup starts in 2012. (Photo: Getty Images)
So Danica Patrick’s already in the Daytona 500 and the driver who won it last year isn’t? And also on the outside looking is in Dave Blaney, the driver who drove the car that earned the spot that Patrick now holds for the 500?

Huh?

Welcome to the NASCAR reality show that might be titled “Point Swap: The Real Housewives of Daytona Beach."

The news turned official Tuesday. The Stewart-Haas Racing team announced a “collaborative partnership” with Tommy Baldwin Racing that will guarantee a Daytona 500 starting spot for Patrick, perhaps the most heavily publicized Daytona rookie since Dale Earnhardt Jr. The agreement also will make the way much easier for Patrick over the course of her 10-race Sprint Cup schedule this year, for it comes close to guaranteeing her starting spots in the other nine races.

How did this happen?

It’s a product of a NASCAR system that frowns on the concept of franchising teams but comes quite close to the idea by allowing teams to “sell” their points-standings positions from the previous season.

Every team in the top 35 of the previous season’s owner point standings is guaranteed a starting berth in the first five races of the current season. NASCAR made this move, in part, to provide protection for teams that boost the series by running the full schedule and to make it very difficult for stars like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards to miss races, even if they crash in qualifying and fail to make the speed sheet.

After the first five races of the season, the top-35 qualifying rule remains in effect, but the points earned during the current season are used for the tabulation, not those of the previous year.

This avenue of “buying” or “swapping” points has been used for years in NASCAR, but typically it involves one team “purchasing” another, in general as one is going out of business. For example, the top 35 benefit owned by the now-defunct Red Bull Racing team is for sale.

But Stewart and Baldwin put a new – and convoluted – spin on the concept as the new season approaches. Although Patrick is expected to be strong enough to qualify for the Daytona 500 on her own, it never hurts to enter Speedweeks with a starting spot already in one’s pocket. Sponsors and team owners can breathe much easier.

Team owners Tony Stewart (Left) and Tommy Baldwin (Right) have entered into what the teams are calling a collaborative partnership. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
So Stewart and Baldwin worked out a deal that – technically – will have Patrick driving a Tommy Baldwin Racing entry, car No. 10. Blaney drove the car – then numbered 36 – last year and posted finishes good enough to put the team in the top 35.

Patrick plans to run in 10 Cup races. The Daytona 500 probably will be the only one she will run in the first five of the season, but the No. 10 car will be driven in the schedule’s other 26 races by David Reutimann. If Patrick and Reutimann’s finishes keep the car in the top 35 after five races, their starting spots will be assured prior to qualifying.

The expectation is that the cars Patrick drives will be prepared, maintained and overseen by Stewart-Haas team members (particularly competition director Greg Zipadelli), while Baldwin’s team will be in charge when Reutimann drives.

It’s a strange setup, to be sure, but one that fits under the liberal interpretation of the top-35 umbrella.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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