Rain wipes out qualifying for Cup race

Rain fell at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday to wipe out qualifying for Sunday’s Cup race.

Emotional rain poured from John Force after he failed to qualify for Sunday’s eliminations at the inaugural NHRA race near Charlotte, N.C.

Something should be learned from that.

The loss of Cup qualifying to weather means the top 12 in the Chase for the championship will start Sunday in the same order as they fall in the Chase.

That’s something NASCAR should consider regardless of rain; qualify the top 12 in the Chase for the first 12 starting spots and let the non-chase drivers qualify for spots 13 and below.

When Force missed on four attempts to qualify for Sunday’s elimination rounds of the inaugural NHRA Powerade Championship Drag Racing Series event at the new dragstrip at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, it revealed another flaw of NHRA’s Countdown to One championship format.

Why should a driver who earned his way into the Countdown be virtually eliminated from contention by six drivers who weren’t good enough through 18 events to become one of the 10 best drivers?

Terminology is muddled when describing the formats for determining champions in the Cup series and the NHRA pro tour, each of which begins this weekend.

All events leading to upcoming races that will determine the year's champs are called the regular season. The rest of the races are called either the postseason or playoff.

None fit, really.

 It's public relations gobbledygook to help elevate racing to a level of the ball and stick sports. Why does racing have to fit the mold of those sports?

But I can't come up with a way to describe the points races within points races, either. It's not really a regular season. It's not really a postseason or playoffs.

The remaining 10 Cup races and six NHRA national events are still the regular season for drivers who did not make the cut to the top 12 in Cup's Chase or the top 10 in each of four professional categories in NHRA's Countdown to One.

So that means the term "postseason" doesn't apply. "Playoff" implies drivers are eliminated along the way. That also doesn't fit. Drivers were eliminated once; the rest stay alive until being mathematically eliminated.

In both series, teams not contending for championships can impact title runs in ways foreign to other major sports — like what has happened to Force.

A Cup driver ranked 43rd in points could crash into the points leader. But at least the Chase drivers are assured of spots in the starting field.

This would be like allowing each NFL team not in the Super Bowl to have one uniformed player on the sidelines for the big game, and then giving that player one chance to sack a quarterback.

 Two-car crashes aren't common in drag racing, but upsets are common, so the No. 16-seed taking out the pole winner wouldn't be anything new. Or a ranked driver not qualifying.

he Chase and Countdown fabricate season championships and diminish the value of those who won before the "playoff" era.

We're at least assured of excitement over the last month of racing, as fabricated as it might be.

Without resetting points for the top drivers, Kyle Busch would be trying to protect his lead of what would have been 207 points, instead of the 30-point Chase margin he'll have going into Sunday's race at Loudon, N.H.

And Tony Schumacher's 567-point lead after the U.S. Nationals two weeks ago would have virtually locked up another Top Fuel title for him; instead his lead is down to 30 in the Countdown.

If Schumacher falters, fails to qualify or gets upset and doesn’t win the Top Fuel championship, can anyone stand and proclaim he was the best in Top Fuel this year?

No way.

For NASCAR and NHRA, it’s not about who deserves the championships. It’s about what can be done to hype the last part of the season to increase attendance and television ratings, if not their credibility.