Kasey Kahne captured the pole for the race this weekend in Las Vegas. Kahne led a pack of Dodges atop the field. Seven of the top ten were Dodges, three of those belonging to Ray Evernham.
The only manufacturer able to break Dodge’s apparent strangle hold on the top of the field is Chevy. Jeff Burton, Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek, made the top ten in Chevys. Ford’s top qualifier was Carl Edwards at 13th, while Toyota’s Dave Blaney will start 11th.
One “surprise” was rookie Juan Montoya. He qualified fourth. This is somewhat impressive, in that the track has caused so much trouble, yet Montoya seemed to have little of that. One has to wonder if the victory in Mexico last week has given him a boost of confidence?
Dale, Jrs. troubles, and DEIs, continue. Dale qualified 28th and no DEI driver qualified better than 19th. Dale has never been much of a fast qualifier, though. Paul Menard provided the only excitement DEI has had in a while though, as he lost control of his car coming out of turn four on his second lap and slid sideways down most of the front stretch. He kept it off the wall and the crowd erupted with cheers as he came to a stop and climbed from the machine.
Just as big a surprise as the poor showing of DEI is the fact that only two Toyotas made the field, and only one of those on time. Dave Blaney went out early, sat on the pole for a short time and stayed in the field. The Toyotas of A.J. Allmendinger and Brian Vickers had good times, but the field isn’t separated by much, so needing to qualify on time, they were bumped.
This all brings to question the “Top 35″ rule. How fair is this? While the goal is to protect those teams who have committed to race every week, what of new teams trying to make it and race every week? Is it fair for good teams with good efforts to go home when there are teams who generally have a poor showing continue to make it, when the only reason the continue to make it is that those good teams continually are shut out?
As I contemplated the fate of the “go or go home” group this week, eighteen cars, something struck me as odd. Say those cars had occupied the top eighteen qualifying speeds. In the end, eleven of them would have had to surrender their spots for cars with poorer times. That means the ninth fastest qualifier would have gone home to watch the race. How would that be fair? Maybe it’s time to come up with a better rule. With fifty-three cars qualifying for forty-three spots, it will be hard to lure new sponsors and teams.
Will Dodge continue it’s domination on Sunday? That is the question all Las Vegas will have on it’s lips for the next 36 hours. The Dodge’s certainly seem set for that domination, but with the new surface and configuration, anything is possible.
