Daytona's Long Qualifying Routine Is Nearly Meaningless on Race Day

One would assume that this excruciatingly long process to find 43 suitable starters for Sunday's Daytona 500 might be totally worth it.

Think again.

Drivers and teams are forced through a process that literally takes six days to finally complete. One might expect that from a 24-hour endurance race, but this course sets up for Sunday's 500-mile showdown that normally takes just over three hours to complete.

Starting on the Saturday a week before "The Great American Race," teams hit the track for two-lap practice runs to prep for the following day's time trial session. That Sunday session -- an excruciating three hours-worth of individual cars taking to the track -- yield just one sure-fire thing for Sunday's race: Martin Truex Jr. would be on the pole and Mark Martin would be second.

The rest of the cars used their specific speeds combined with their finish in the 2008 owner point standings -- don't ask to me explain that one -- to have their position set for Thursday's pair of 150-mile qualifying races.

From the finish of those races, NASCAR takes the two highest finishing cars per race that are not previously locked in the field as well as the finish of the locked in cars to set the inside and outside line for the 500. A driver is "locked in" based on finishing the previous season in the Top-35 in owner points.

This process leaves four spots left in the field. One of those positions will go to the most recent past NASCAR champion not already locked in the field and three others are decided based on the first day qualifying speeds of the remaining cars.

So, come Sunday, NASCAR has 43 drivers locked in important positions, right?

Well, not exactly.

Going back in every single race at Daytona since 2000, the average starting spot of the winner is 11th-place, with Kevin Harvick in 2007 starting from 34th before taking home the Harley J. Earl Trophy.

And for Harvick, it's not like it took him 500 miles to find the front, either. By lap 81 of the 200 lap race (the race was extended in to 202 in 2007), Harvick found himself out front for 3 laps.

Advancing position at Daytona (and it's near-sister track Talladega, for that matter) is made much easier thanks to the style of pack racing that the restrictor-plate affords. One of the most noted examples, in fact, came from the 2000 season at Talladega when Dale Earnhardt drove from 18th-place with 5 laps to go to win.

Knowing that, and knowing that the past 9 Daytona 500s have seen an average of 25 lead changes per race, its crazy to think about the time, effort and money teams spend just getting into the show.

Sure, it helps garner excitement for NASCAR's biggest event and works to dethaw a long offseason, but at the end of the day -- or, of the race -- is the drawn out qualifying process really worth it?

I don't really think so.