It's one thing to try new things, and to exploit gray areas in the rules. But this is not the case here - as even you admit. Traditional racing procedure is quite simple: you qualify and then you race. If you don't qualify you go home. My complaint boils down to: when the sanctioning body allows a team to violate that long-standing procedure - particularly its defending series champion - it makes people think something smells. I don't think that NASCAR can afford that when already its popularity is falling, and a lot of the reason it is falling is because of driver behavior and convoluted changing rules and NASCAR appearing to let too many transgressions slide.
But if you're okay with teams doing whatever they think best improves their chances to win, then with today's mix of Monster Energy Series rules and politics here's what I would do if I were a car owner with a franchise. If pit selection and starting position is not critical at the track we're at (which is a lot of them) then:
> Run the first practice or two, along with everybody else, and get lap times so I can see if we have a car fast enough to go for the pole (probably within the top five practice times).
> If not, forget about the pole and start working on our racing setup.
> Skip qualifying. Take the automatic starting spot, and convince the sponsor that race performance is much more important and will get him more exposure anyway.
BTW, if I was a multiple team owner all with franchises then I'd do this with all of my teams. At the same time at the same race.
After all, there can be significant differences in optimum setup for the race segments vs. a few jacked-up qualifying laps. And I get to sandbag other teams.
I don't have to waste time and money chasing a pole I'm not going to win, and instead spend more time than the other teams preparing for the race (which counts more anyway).
Fans might wonder if I think qualifying is a joke, and they'd be right. If NASCAR complained I'd use your excuse "If it isn't required or banned in the rules, it's fair game."
I suspect that if this works and my cars are strong in the race then other teams would copy. Qualifying might end up with only a dozen or so participants (mostly non-franchised teams and the fastest few in the opening practices). But I wouldn't expect people like you to complain...
You don't think that a lot of others would complain? Well, to use your football example have you ever noticed people complaining when teams who have made the playoffs sit out their stars for the last one or two regular season games? But I don't know, maybe you don't mind shelling out full price for tickets to events where you don't get to see the stars play.
