SCENEDAILY
MONDAY APRIL 30, 2007

TALLADEGA, Ala. - Casey Mears didn't need a 39th-place finish in the Aaron's 499. Scott Riggs did need an 11th-place result Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

But Mears still remained in the top 35 in Nextel Cup owner points, locked into the field for this week's race at Richmond International Raceway. And Riggs remained just outside the top 35, though he closed within seven points of Mears.

Riggs' 11th-place finish was the second-best of a rocky 2007 season, and his Valvoline Evernham Racing No. 10 team moved up two spots to 36th in owner points.

"That's a good, solid finish for this team, and that's just what we needed," Riggs said. "We qualified well and we had a good race. We just need to get a little consistency now, and we'll be headed in the right direction."

Riggs will still need to qualify on speed to race in Saturday's Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400.

Mears would like some consistency, too, but not the kind he's had this year. In nine races, he's finished 20th or worse eight times. At Talladega, Mears led once for five laps in the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet but was run over by teammate Jimmie Johnson while heading to pit road on lap 126.

"I know that Jimmie wouldn't mean to do something like that," Mears said. "We are too good of friends for that. The bad part about it is we were 35th going into this race."

Johnson and team owner Rick Hendrick both said they would have to investigate why Johnson didn't know Mears was pitting.

"I guess he was coming to pit road, and unfortunately, we didn't have any communication to my spotter, and I didn't see his hand movements, and I feel really bad about that one," Johnson said. "He hit the brakes, and I couldn't respond fast enough and I hit the back of him."

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Here are the current standings for the owner points:

Rank Owner Total Pts

1 Hendrick Motorsports 1521
2 Richard Childress Racing 1318
3 Roush Fenway Racing 1292
4 Hendrick Motorsports 1290
5 Ginn Racing 1190
6 Joe Gibbs Racing 1189
7 Joe Gibbs Racing 1078
8 Roush Fenway Racing 1059
9 Hendrick Motorsports 1054
10 Richard Childress Racing 1052
11 Penske Racing 1038
12 Richard Childress Racing 1021
13 Roush Fenway Racing 1004
14 Dale Earnhardt Incorporated 994
15 Chip Ganassi Racing 960
16 Evernham Motorsports 940
17 Roush Fenway Racing 931
18 Dale Earnhardt Incorporated 908
19 Chip Ganassi Racing 901
20 Petty Enterprises 883
21 Joe Gibbs Racing 856
22 Hall of Fame Racing 849
23 Haas CNC Racing 843
24 Penske Racing 843
25 Robert Yates Racing 818
26 Ginn Racing 802
27 Roush Fenway Racing 792
28 Robby Gordon Motorsports 785
29 Ginn Racing 768
30 Chip Ganassi Racing 768
31 Evernham Motorsports 758
32 Haas CNC Racing 743
33 Petty Enterprises 724
34 Robert Yates Racing 711
35 Hendrick Motorsports 663
36 Evernham Motorsports 656
37 Wood Brothers/JTG Racing 594
38 Michael Waltrip Racing 591
39 Dale Earnhardt Incorporated 549
40 Bill Davis Racing 548
41 Team Red Bull 517
42 Phoenix Racing 473
43 Furniture Row Racing 440
44 Michael Waltrip Racing 426
45 BAM Racing 423
46 Bill Davis Racing 344
47 Front Row Motorsports 231
48 Team Red Bull 219
49 No Fear Racing 208
50 Michael Waltrip Racing 167
51 Front Row Motorsports 68
52 Morgan-McClure Motorsports 45
53 Richard Childress Racing 44
54 Joe Gibbs Racing 40
55 CJM Racing 32
56 McGlynn Racing 16
57 Ash Motorsports 13
58 Ware Racing Enterprises 13
59 Ginn Racing 10
60 FastTrack Racing 4
61 Wood Brothers/JTG Racing 4
62 Hylton Motorsports 1
63 Bill Davis Racing 1
64 Morgan-McClure Motorsports 1
65 Kirk Shelmerdine Racing 1

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Lee Spencer
FOXSports.com

TALLADEGA, Ala. - Eddie and Len Wood sat in their pit stall — and waited.

Before the No. 21 hauler left the Wood Brothers shop, there was not a good feeling. With 52 cars attempting to make a 43-car field, qualifying for the show would be a challenge. Since Ken Schrader was 36th in the owner's points, he had to qualify on time.
Parked quietly on makeshift seats with Brian Vicker's father, Clyde, all eyes are on the monitor. These men are all involved with the go-or-go-homers. Vickers' son joined the newly formed Red Bull Racing team this year and has experienced this anxiety all season. The Woods were covered by owner points over the first five races. But after Bristol, the No. 21 car was 40th in owner points and the race within the race was on.

Len Wood held several sheets of paper — most importantly the qualifying order, the current owner points and yesterday's practice speed. Eddie Wood held a stopwatch. He listened for the engine as the car rolled around out of Turn 4. Click.

Thirty cars rolled off ahead of Schrader. Seven cars — the same number that would make the cut from the drivers that had to make the race on time — were already on the board. Dale Jarrett was locked in on his sixth and final provision.

Ken Schrader's No. 21 car is a go-homer after failing to qualify for Talladega. (Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

"We need a 50.40 (second lap) to make it," Eddie Wood said. "We'll see."

Then on what was the longest 50 seconds of the week, the Woods watched the monitor. After the first lap, the stall was eerily quiet. The time told the tale. On the second lap, the Woods knew the 50.636-second run was a fait accompli.

"Now you just wait," Wood said.

But he knew it was over. Two cars make laps as Wood pulls the travel itinerary from his pocket with the list crewmen who need to go home on Saturday's shuttle back to Charlotte. He bites what is left of his right thumbnail.

With a Hendrick engine under the hood, Kenny Wallace in the No. 78 runs a blistering lap two cars later and jumps into the top five on the list. Schrader drops down to sixth on the list of drivers attempting to make the show on time. Five cars later, Michael Waltrip knocked Schrader and the Wood Brothers out of the show.

"We've dodged bullets the last three weeks," Wood said. "But sooner or later one of them is gonna hit you. We threw everything we had at it, but it just wasn't enough."

It's been seven years since the Wood Brothers failed to qualify for a race. The track was Talladega. The driver was Elliott Sadler. Eddie Wood remembers the pit stall where the car was parked. It's a feeling a racer doesn't forget.

After the crew rolls the car back into the garage, an official walks up and says, "Don't cover the car yet. Let's wait and see what happens. After Scott Riggs posts the ninth fastest lap, Wood replies, "It just happened."

There's a different feeling on this side of the garage. There's more than just an imaginary line between the top 35 and the rest of the teams.

"Until you live it, you don't know what it's like," Wood said.

With competition as strong as it is today in NASCAR, going home is a reality among the teams outside the top 35. Michael Waltrip, who posted the 20th fastest time and still missed the race, suggested pooling those attempting to make the race on time together so there would not be an unfair advantage due to track conditions.

"I think it's a good idea, but how would it work," Wood said. "The problem NASCAR has with it is whether you went early or went late, what kind of an advantage would it be?"

The increasing numbers of the teams has also generated talk throughout the garage – from the top of the points to the bottom on whether franchising should be considered an alternative. Wood isn't sure whether franchising would work in NASCAR, but some guarantee of making races for the teams that have been in the garage the longest would provide a bit of security.

"The only value you have now is whether you're in the top 35 or not, and that can come and go in one weekend depending on where you are,' Wood said. "I'm not sure what all franchising would entail, but I know it would add value to your team if you got up one morning and said, 'I've had enough of this,' then you've got something to sell.

"Now all you have to sell is your parts and pieces and that's not a lot. I guess Kyle (Petty) called it sweat equity, and that's right. They've spent a lifetime doing this, just as we have. A lot of people in here have. It would be nice to have something at the end of this."

Toyota team owner Bill Davis felt the Wood Brothers' pain. His driver, Dave Blaney, missed his first race this season. Davis said while he doesn't think franchising would be "an option I've ever heard mentioned," he is in favor of returning to traditional time trials where drivers qualify according to speed — a system that fell out of favor after Richard Petty failed to make the spring Richmond race in 1989.

"There are a lot of great cars and great sponsors that are going home," Davis said. "Maybe it's time to spread it around already. You come and if you're one of the top 43 that week, you race. If you're not you don't. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

"If you're on the right side of the top 35 it's a great day. It gives you a little bit of value. It gives you something to sell, but with this many great sponsors going home, maybe it's time to look at things a little bit differently."

At 1:35 p.m. CST, the No. 21 hauler backed out of its space in the garage and moved to get in line to leave the track once the Busch race had ended. Passing the truck was a painful reminder of where the sport has been and where it's going.

"Right now it feels like the end of the world," Wood said. "But we'll march on."

Lee Spencer is a senior NASCAR writer for FOXSports

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I was really hoping Paul would gain some serious points at Dega, but his engine had other plans.

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i was both him and kasey would have some better luck. there both very talented drivers with bad luck.

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