Kurt Busch's Suspension is David Reutimann's Good Fortune

David Reutimann has been hired by the No. 51 team to take the place of Kurt Busch this weekend during the Sprint Cup Race at Pocono while Kurt sits out the weekend to think about his verbal attack skills.

But wait, doesn't David Reutimann keep Danica's seat warm when she's not driving the No. 10 car???

Yes, usually, he does.  But for this weekend at Pocono, Tommy Baldwin said he wanted to help out another small team, so he let Reutimann drive the No. 51 car and he'll be letting Dave Blaney keep Danica's seat warm.  Though, as pointed out, Blaney's car is not sponsored and they're not sure if it will run the distance.

On Kurt's Shaky Ground

As far as team owner (No. 51) James Finch and Kurt Busch are now concerned, it's been said that any future associations they will have is now going to be on a race-by-race basis.

Good job Kurt.

Kurt's getting good at getting fired these days, and I have to admit, though we've seen Kurt at his worse a few times, I was starting to think that it's just a moment here and there.

But these few moments of anger and lashing out that the public has become aware of, apparently are not his only fits of "rage."

On SIRIUS XM this morning, I was listening to the morning drive and they were addressing how Kurt has had his repeated "fits" with media over the last year and that these two instances are not his only altercations.

I was rather shocked to hear this laundry list of issues or altercations or what ever you might call them, as they were presented.  As one reader a while back once said, both Busch brothers seem to have this particular "frustration" gene and they had to get/learn it from somewhere.

Whatever the case, if Kurt's not careful, he might be looking at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series from the outside.

Now as far as his sponsor in the Nationwide Series, Monster Energy likes edgey.  One or two moments in the spotlight might go over to some degree.  But edgy or not, a business/corporation is that Monster Energy is.  At some point, if this continues, I would not be surprised if they step in and change things up.  They stepped up to back Kyle, but Kyle has toned it down.  Kurt, has not.

We'll see!

[FrontStretch]

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Ryan Permberton Lands At Tommy Baldwin Racing

Good news for one more ex-Red Bull Racing crew member:  Ryan Pemberton has joined Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) and will be serving as crew chief for Dave Blaney for the Sprint Cup 2012 season.

His first task will be trying to get Dave Blaney into the Daytona 500 through the rigorous, multi-layered qualifying process, as they do not have a guaranteed spot in the Great American Race.

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Ryan has two wins, 21 top-5', 92 top-10s and 15 poles in his career so far.  It's good to see him landing on his feet after Red Bull closed shop!

NB&P

[Scene Daily: Pemberton Lands at TBR]

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Top-35 Owners Points Explained, And Why Owner Points Are Important

With the Danica Patrick tizzy regarding the owners points shell game and her getting into the 2012 Daytona 500, fans are once again refocusing some of their attention on the owners points system instigated by NASCAR and how the top-35 in owners points are guaranteed starting spots in the next race, with the exception of the first five races of each year.  I think there will be some credibility lost in the fans' minds with this special deal, but in the end, the bad is usually forgotten by enough people that some business decisions are worth the risk.  (Anyone know/remember what Calvin Ball is?  Remember Calvin and Hobbs... check out rule # 1.2 if you follow the link at the bottom of this piece.)

So what Is This Top-35 In Owner Points?

In NASCAR, there are several tiers of points within the sport.  When you watch a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on TV, there are several things happening behind the scenes that aren't immediately apparent, if you're the casual TV fan.  One of those items is the points structure.

When a car and driver cross the finish line, the driver gets driver points and the car owner also get points.  The most commonly referred to points standings are the driver points.  When a driver wins a race, he gets the coveted 43+bonus points awarded.  The car owner also gets points and for the most part, in the top half of the field, car points and driver points look like they work the same.  But there is a slight difference.

For instance, last year Robby Gordon finished the year 34th in driver points, with 268 points.  But his car owner (In this case, his own car), was 38th in owner points, with 334 points.  See the different in points?

That's because owner's points are distributed to ALL cars who attempt to qualify for a race, and that becomes important to the teams near the top-30 in points.  Here's how it's put by NASCAR:

"The 43 owners who make the race earn points equal to the driver points. Those who do not qualify for the race are awarded points, starting with the fastest car that failed to qualify, down to the slowest car that attempted to qualify. These points establish priority in gaining provisionals for future races."

So what this equates to is that Robby Gordon ran/qualified for 25 of the 36 races in 2011.  He had 268 driver points.  But as an owner, he/his car had 334 points, because he attempted to qualify for 33 races, only making 25 of them.  This rule even makes qualifying attempts valuable to some teams!  Like those who don't make the race, but they can still muster some spare points or so.

So...

Danica Patrick's Top-35 Points Gift Has Fans Wondering

Check out this shell game of owners points so that Danica Patrick can race in the Daytona 500 (D500):

A month ago, we were introduced to Danica Patrick driving the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevy and the announcement included that this NASCAR Sprint Cup effort would be a Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) endeavor.

Then, we heard that Danica Patrick will be using Owners Points from another team to be able to race in the Daytona 500.

We then learned that that Dave Blaney gave up his points with Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) so Danica Patrick can race in the D500.

And finally, we heard that in a collaborative effort, Danica Patrick won't be driving an SHR car, but rather, her 10 Sprint Cup races will be driving under the auspices of TBR.

There...  how hard was that?  Right?

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Wait... she is driving what with who how?

The bottom line is that in some of the best media hub-bub to come along since Kurt Busch disrespected ESPN's Jerry Punch on camera and got himself fired, I mean, off to "have fun" racing, a situation has been made possible so that Danica Patrick's very first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race will be the Daytona 500.