NASCAR: Atlanta Starting Grid Will Have Less Than 40 Cars

When NASCAR waves the green flag on Sunday in Atlanta they will be making some history as the field will consist of less than 40 cars, something that hasn’t happened in a long time.

For quite some time if you were to ask a NASCAR fan how many cars are going to be on the starting grid on Sunday they would have told you 43. The number 43 has been synonymous with the NASCAR starting grid since 1998 which was when NASCAR made it a standard that the field would consist of 43 cars on a regular basis. Prior to 1998 the size of the NASCAR Sprint Cup field was based on the track that they were racing on that weekend.

Since 1998 there have only been a couple of times where the field dipped below 43 cars. One of those times was in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. NASCAR moved a race that season and while 43 drivers qualified for the event, come the day of the race one of those teams was no longer in business and only 42 cars raced. The field dipped below 43 again in 2014 at Kentucky where only 42 cars ran in that event after issues with some of the smaller teams.

In 2016 the 43-car field became a thing of the past because of the new charter system. The system guarantees entry for 36 cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and it allows four cars to race into a given race based on time, thus setting the field at 40 cars. Last weekend the Daytona 500 only had 40 cars in the starting grid, four were sent home following the Can-Am Duels. However, Atlanta is not going to make it to 40 cars this weekend as only 39 cars are scheduled to qualify on Friday afternoon. All 36 charter teams will be there along with Ryan Blaney, Josh Wise and Cole Whitt.

If 40 cars ran in the Daytona 500 and four were sent home it would seem as though one of those five cars would jump at the chance to be guaranteed a spot in the Atlanta race, right? After all, if one more car attempts to qualify they are going to make the race regardless since they would be the 40th car in the field. Obviously NASCAR is not a spontaneous sport where a team not planning to run a race weekend can just show up on short notice, however there might be more to it than that. It’s possible that the new charter system is discouraging smaller teams from coming to events that they might have come to before.

At the end of the day, the 40th entry in Atlanta doesn’t actually matter because they most likely weren’t going to be a factor in the race anyways. That being said, it’s hard to overlook the fact that NASCAR running 39 cars in the Sprint Cup Series feels wrong.

It’s especially disheartening when you consider the fact that in the mid-2000’s NASCAR was sending several cars home on a weekly basis. The 2007 Daytona 500 saw 61 cars show up to try to qualify for the race. By comparison, the 2016 season will be lucky to see 61 different drivers attempt to qualify over the course of the entire season.

More racing: NASCAR: Five Drivers Most Likely To Win In Atlanta

Times are changing in NASCAR and the 39-car field this weekend in Atlanta is simply another example of that.