NASCAR might as well just forget to schedule qualifying-day activities after rain knocked out all on-track activity Friday at Martinsville Speedway for the eighth time this season.
That's got to be some sort of record, though I don't know for sure. (Brownie points to the first person to get the right answer!)
You know the drill -- Jimmie Johnson will be starting out front, Jeff Burton second, Greg Biffle third, and Carl Edwards fourth -- thanks to their position currently in the NASCAR owner point standings.
Who got the chopping block thanks to the unending precipitation? Well, that would be 1990 Daytona 500 champ Derrike Cope and Sterling Marlin. Both will be headed home after NASCAR's system of determining who races and who doesn't kept them out of the 43 car field.
Scott Speed, who we'll have a little but more about later, will make his first Sprint Cup start in the seat of the No. 84 machine once warmed by one A.J. Allmendinger -- who will start the race in Patrick Carpentier's old No. 10 ride. Confused yet? You oughta be.
Speed will start 34th and Allmendinger in 39th.
The lone good news of the day has to be that Friday was the single-worst looking day weather-wise in the forecast, with sun, sun and more sun scheduled for race day in Viriginia. Also, teams should be able to get in the scheduled practice on Saturday morning at the half-mile paperclip oval, as the forecast appears to be clearing.
