The 2012 Sprint Cup Tour sets up their traveling ethanol and medicine show in the nation’s heartland for the first of two races in Kansas City
The highest starting Ford is point’s leader Greg Biffle buried back in 17th position with his teammate, Matt Kenseth in 18th. Carl Edwards, the 3rd Roush/Fenway entry lines up in 21st while the two Petty Fords, Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose start in 26th and 28th.
Another story line is Rick Hendrick’s pursuit of his 200th win as a winner with his last victory going back to last fall’s chase race that Jimmie Johnson won; however, Johnson starts 15th while Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most consistent Hendrick driver in 2012 holding down the 7th spot.
Our column has restrained our outrage at the insanity of “start and park” racers, an insane fraud allowing teams not equipped to race to qualify for a starting position, run a few laps, then disappear with a mysterious vibration or some other nonsense en route to collecting their share of the purse for the race without having completed pit stops or even fielding a pit crew. This week the fraud is especially ugly as it was to be the debut race for driver, Tim Andrews, son of Paul Andrews, long standing Sprint Cup crew chief, and furthermore, the #33 nominal 4th entry of Richard Childress Racing intending to complete a full race also was blocked out by the usual freeloading scabs the Joe Nemechek bargain special and the Phil Parsons’ garbage heap among others cluttering up the field. Try to explain this phenomenon to sports fans who do not follow NASCAR, and the practice certainly makes NASCAR, a sport with front tier, major sports aspirations, behaving in a most bizarre and amateurish fashion. Does anybody miss the seven fewer entries when the Camping World Trucks Series races? How about 33 entries in IRL events?
The bottom line is NASCAR is looking like WWE or some reality TV program on its lower end permitting such an incomprehensible fraud on its fans and serious competitors, and aside from some occasional lip service from their apologists: Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, and Larry McReynolds – it appears NASCAR’s approach is the less said the better; however, in a time when fan dollars are short, gas prices high, and fans having to put forth a big dollar commitment to attend races where attendance is falling off, NASCAR fans have the right to expect that every entry on the track is committed to giving the fans their all out effort. Shame on NASCAR for perpetuating what is some perverted form of auto racing welfare for teams that don’t belong in Sprint Cup or Nationwide competition.
Here’s the starting line-up:
| POS | CAR | DRIVER | MAKE | SPONSOR | SPEED | ||
| 1 | # | 22 | AJ Allmendinger | Dodge | AAA | 175.993 | |
| 2 | # | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | Rheem | 175.747 | |
| 3 | # | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | The Home Depot | 175.724 | |
| 4 | # | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | FedEx Ground | 175.667 | |
| 5 | # | 55 | Mark Martin | Toyota | Aaron's Dream Machine | 175.484 | |
| 6 | # | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | NAPA Auto Parts | 175.444 | |
| 7 | # | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | Diet Mountain Dew / National Guard | 175.313 | |
| 8 | # | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Toyota | 5-hour Energy | 175.302 | |
| 9 | # | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | Farmers Insurance | 175.092 | |
| 10 | # | 12 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Dodge | SKF | 175.086 | |
| 11 | # | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | Miller Lite | 175.063 | |
| 12 | # | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | Caterpillar | 174.927 | |
| 13 | # | 39 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | Haas Automation | 174.887 | |
| 14 | # | 51 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | Phoenix Construction Services | 174.876 | |
| 15 | # | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | Lowe's "Chevrolet Mountain Green" | 174.803 | |
| 16 | # | 10 | David Reutimann | Chevrolet | Accell Construction | 174.803 | |
| 17 | # | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 3M Novec 1230 | 174.706 | |
| 18 | # | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | Ford EcoBoost | 174.486 | |
| 19 | # | 27 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | Zecol / Menards | 174.323 | |
| 20 | # | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | Drive to End Hunger | 174.261 | |
| 21 | # | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | Aflac | 174.244 | |
| 22 | # | 38 | David Gilliland | Ford | Front Row Motorsports | 174.171 | |
| 23 | # | 14 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | Office Depot / Mobil 1 | 174.143 | |
| 24 | # | 30 | David Stremme | Toyota | Inception Motorsports | 174.031 | |
| 25 | # | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | M&M's | 174.020 | |
| 26 | # | 43 | Aric Almirola | Ford | STP | 174.003 | |
| 27 | # | 34 | David Ragan | Ford | Barrett-Jackson | 173.947 | |
| 28 | # | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | Dewalt | 173.863 | |
| 29 | # | 78 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | Furniture Row / Farm American | 173.756 | |
| 30 | # | 47 | Bobby Labonte | Toyota | Reese Towpower / Highland | 173.745 | |
| 31 | # | 249 | J.J. Yeley | Toyota | JPO Absorbents | 173.516 | |
| 32 | # | 83 | Landon Cassill | Toyota | BK Strawberry Banana Smoothie / Dr Pepper | 173.388 | |
| 33 | # | 36 | Dave Blaney | Chevrolet | Tommy Baldwin Racing | 173.383 | |
| 34 | # | 23 | Scott Riggs | Chevrolet | North Texas Pipe | 173.249 | |
| 35 | # | 93 | Travis Kvapil | Toyota | BK Tropical Mango Smoothie / Dr Pepper | 173.221 | |
| 36 | # | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | McDonald's | 173.182 | |
| 37 | # | 98 | Michael McDowell | Ford | Curb Records | 173.155 | |
| 38 | # | 26 | Josh Wise* | Ford | Morristown Driver's Service | 172.756 | |
| 39 | # | 42 | Juan Montoya | Chevrolet | Target | 172.507 | |
| 40 | # | 13 | Casey Mears | Ford | GEICO | 171.986 | |
| 41 | # | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | AMFMEnergy.com / Pellet & Wood Stoves | 171.625 | |
| 42 | # | 32 | Reed Sorenson+ | Ford | FAS Lane Racing | 170.057 | |
| 43 | # | 119 | Mike Bliss | Toyota | Humphrey Smith Racing | 171.396 | |
| Did Not Qualify | |||||||
| 44 | 179 | Tim Andrews | Ford | BBI Waste Industries / Bestway Disposal | 170.989 | ||
| 45 | 33 | Jeff Green | Chevrolet | Little Joe's Autos | 169.769 | ||
| 46 | 74 | Tony Raines | Chevrolet | Turn One Racing | 169.444 | ||
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