The Gatorade Duel Lineups

In what only must be considered an attempt to show the western world that the people who run NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series are really smart, NASCAR has outdone themselves with the qualifying procedures for the Daytona 500.

I understand that we have the Duels. I love the Duel 150s. It's 300 miles more of racing that I get to see to get ready for the season.

I understand pole day. I understand that the top two cars are locked into positions 1 and 2. (JJ and Waltrip)

I understand that the cars in the top 35 in owners' points are locked in and I understand that since Kurt Busch switched owners' points with Sam Hornish that Busch is eligible for the past champion's provisional; therefore essentially leaving 7 other spots remaining amongst the 17 other teams outside the top 35.

What I don't understand is the qualifying procedure to set the field for the duels. I understand that because of the top 35 rule that it needs to be done to make even the number of teams that aren't locked in into each duel. That makes sense.

But NASCAR took it a step further, and locked the top 35 into each duel as soon as the season was over. For example, since Tony Stewart finished 6th in the owners' points in 2007, he's in the second duel. Since Dale Jr's team finished 15th, he's in the first duel. Sounds simple enough, right?

Ahh, but here's the problem. Stewart qualified 12th on Sunday. Junior 15th. But since most of the teams that were ahead of both drivers were even numbers in the owner points, like Stewart, Stewart starts further back in his duel than Junior does. (8th; Junior starts 5th). The pattern doesn't get much better either, because the driver starting 19th in the second duel actually qualified faster than the driver in 12th in the first duel.

I know, starting positions at Daytona aren't much, but is it that hard to be fair? Go back to the way it used to be, NASCAR. Just alternate. If you qualified 3rd, 5th or 7th, you were in the first duel. 2-4-6 in the second and so on.

Do the owner's points thing with the non-top 35 cars. Don't try to get too smart.