After Richard Pettys DNQ, NASCAR introduced the provisional to keep any big name driver in the field. It went up to the bottom 7 in 2003, and in 2005 the top 35 rule was introduced. Provisionals came back from 2013-15, and were replaced by the charter system. Btw, petty DNQed 4 times in 1989
In Mark Martin's book NASCAR for Dummies, Petty's four DNQs led to a massive drop in ratings in 1989. The idea of the Past Champion's Provisional was flawless until Charlotte 1997, when Darrell Waltrip failed to qualify due to Terry Labonte having dibs for being the more recent champion and was higher in points. The Past Champion's Provisional was also unlimited until NASCAR noticed that DW used it 20 times in 1998.
@@ricksanchezsflask8794 NASCAR started setting limits on the Past Champion's Provisional in 1999, resulting in DW having a lot of DNQs that year and 2000 after he used up all of his provisionals. He had to buy out Carl Long's starting position to make his final Coca-Cola 600 in 2000.
If I remember correctly, in the clip where Boris Said missed the race, around 40 cars had already qualified with Boris was on pole. But because it was rained out before the last couple of cars could make an attempt, it was cancelled. NASCAR later changed the qualifying setup which put the drivers outside the top 35 in a separate session in order to make the race. If you ever watched qualifying during the early Sprint Cup era, you’d have noticed that those below the top 35 qualified before/after the top drivers. This rule was essentially eliminated once the charter system came into place with the qualifying format changing to timed sessions.
Honestly, the Dale Jarrett DNQ was not that surprising. That car was absolute trash, and it was bound to happen sooner or later that a more recent past champion would need the provisional. I believe one of the main reasons he was put in that car was for the champion provisional.
You should do a video on the history of the Past Champion's Provisional - why it was implemented, who used it the most, and who was the last to use it before it was phased out by the charter system.
The 99 team was brand new. Back in those days, you either had to qualify on your own for the first 5 races of the year or buy points from another team. They tried the "qualify for all 5 races" method and failed.
This shows how much NASCAR has changed now. Any man or woman off the street could start a race because the field is never full now. Even the Daytona 500 is a joke.
Probably the most disappointing DNQ to me was Kerry Earnhardt at a race at Michigan in 2004 when he was driving his famous Bass Pro Father's Day paint scheme that was modeled after Dale Sr.'s 1998 Bass Pro scheme. Probably one of the only cars to not make a race that had die casts made of it lol
And it was a provisional he didn't even need. He could have taken a normal provisional but elected not to as it would have bumped his teammate Ricky Craven out of the field. He did the same thing a few years earlier to help former teammate Ricky Rudd make a race.
West Triggers ESPN and Fox split qualifying for both Cup and Nationwide during the final part of the season from 2007-14. I believe each network got 7 Cup and 7 Xfinity qualifying sessions during the latter part of the year, with ESPN and Fox splitting Nationwide qualifying the rest of the season. This is a similar agreement to one that existed from 2003-2006 between Fox and TNT, with TNT then ceding their remaining Cup qualifying rights to Fox in the 2007-2014 deal. Since the 2015 TV deals, there are no more split up weekends like that for Cup/Xfinity. (Separately from all that, Fox has always had exclusive truck series rights over that entire 2003-2014 timeframe, and still does today, although most of the truck races between 2007-2010 were unfortunately produced by NASCAR)
That second to last one with Boris Said proved the flaws of the qualifying system back then. Top 35 was too much for guaranteeing spots. It should've been the top 21 so that way 19 spots would be up for grabs, and three provisionals could be available for those high in the points to fall back on, so drivers would have to be on their toes no matter who they are, and newcomers or irregular drivers, like Said, could break in if they were quick enough. Top 35 with 7-8 spots, and the Champion's Provisional, up for grabs was way too limited.
