"Start and Park"

My family has been into NASCAR since the MLB strike in 1994. They became fans of Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip and a few others over the years. NASCAR was fun to watch back then but now the traditional NASCAR fans are upset and moaning about cars that race and then park.

These cars are referred to as "Start and Park" cars. They qualify for a race and then once they have run say, 20 laps, they bring the car in for a malfunction and then they park the car to collect the purse for finishing 43rd or whatever position they end at.

NASCAR "purists" (I call them purists but they are more into wining about things) say by allowing these drivers to continue to drive is a travesty to the sport. They "dilute" the sport and make it watered down in their eyes.

This is where I disagree, many of these teams are driving to pay for the few pit members that they do have and don't usually carry a major sponsorship. They get by with used parts from the other teams and just try to make it.

Some drivers use the "Start and Park" to pay for other things like their Nationwide program or Craftsman Truck program. One thing that really got the purists goat's was when Tommy Baldwin Racing sold their lock in the Daytona 500 to Stewart/Haas Racing so they could assure Danica Patrick with a ride for Sunday. Personally my take is most NASCAR fans don't want to see Danica do good. They get upset for all the publicity that she gets for racing in the big race but you know what, Tommy Baldwin sold his spot for money because they needed the money to pay for better equipment to compete with.

Let's look at what NASCAR can do to fix this problem:

1) Reduce the field down to 35 cars. I personally don't like this idea because I like the drivers that do "Start and Park" but this is one solution.

2) Make the super teams only have 3 cars a piece. This will spread the sponsorship out to more teams and give those teams less of an advantage out their on the track. This will also make the playing field greater for the lower funded teams.

3) Revenue share: Split up the money from the pot. Don't like that idea but it's still an idea. Just saying. Won't work because their isn't an added incentive to winning.

4) Leave it like it is. It doesn't really hurt the sport because those drivers don't get in the way of the competitive teams. They are usually out of the way before they could become a wreck factor and thus they aren't hurting anything. As long as they are within the rules of NASCAR then they are doing fine. Hey, maybe NASCAR could get some of these teams a sponsorship.

Drivers that are blamed for "Start and Park" or underfunded

1) Joe Nemecheck : 87

2) Bill Elliot : 97

3) Tony Raines : 26

4) David Reutimann: 93

5) J.J. Yaley : 49

6) Robert Richardson Jr. : 23

7) Terry Labonte : 32

8) Mike Wallace: 37

9) Michael McDowell: 98

10) Landon Cassill: 83