First of all, was it really that necessary to sell the naming rights to the speedway? I think it's another sign that the speedway wasn't being financially viable. They can't sell out, they drag all of this Hollywood talent to the track to no avail, they have a SECOND race date they can't sell out, and now this?
Anyway, California qualifying should be fascinating because it's the first time that the cars that have to qualify on time will qualify together because of the new rules. It's a great rule that should have been in place a while back, but--conspiracy theory alert--probably became a reality because NASCAR realized that they couldn't have NAPA missing the race because Michael Waltrip got beat out by a guy who went out on a cooler track.
49 cars are attempting to qualify, so six of the following will go home:
David Reutimann
Burney Lamar
Kurt Busch
Patrick Carpentier
Bill Elliott
Mike Skinner
John Andretti
Kevin Lepage
Dale Jarrett
Ken Schrader
Michael Waltrip
Joe Nemechek
Brian Vickers
AJ Allmendinger
Once again, Busch is guaranteed into the field, and if he qualifies on time, Jarrett is next in line.
To help make this easy, I'm going to automatically eliminate Lamar, Andretti and Lepage. They're not getting in.
Busch gets in on time. (1) Michael Waltrip (2) and David Reutimann (3) do too, as does Brian Vickers (4). Patrick Carpentier (5) is in as well, and AJ Allmendinger makes his first start of the year (6). Dale Jarrett (7) barely beats out Mike Skinner for the last spot based on qualifying time, handing the past champion's provisional to Bill Elliott.
Who's out: Lamar, Lepage, Andretti, Schrader, Skinner, Nemechek.
Who's on the pole: Kyle Busch. Just a hunch.
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