Start and Park

Front Stretch

Found this article through a Something Awful thread about NASCAR. Start and Parkers are drivers that set-up their car for qualifying and once they qualify, they run a few laps and then park their car once they need fuel or new tires. I became aware of this practice when I became interested in Morgan Shepherd, as he was sponsored by Jesus and formerly Cheerwine. He didn't have the money to run a full race, so he would run what he could and then park.

The article touches on just how profitable this practice is and the declining incentives to run a full race when Start and Parkers are making just as much money and not having to spend it on a crew or extra fuel and tires.

While it does go against the competitive nature of the sport, unless a driver is capable of finishing in the top 10, they might as well not even bother as they're not going to get any attention anyway. In fact, there are so many Start and Parkers now, that it's basically become its own competition to see who can and can't qualify. For example, Morgan Shepherd eventually moved to Nationwide as he continuously failed to qualify for the Sprint Cup races.

One solution to this, if one even considers it a problem, would be to reduce the financial incentives. Simply reducing the payout for poor finishes though would equally hurt Start and Parkers and teams with few resources and would just lead to fewer cars in the race. A better method would be to increase the difference in pay based on final position to encourage drivers to stay on the track. As it stands now, there's little financial difference in finishing 43rd or 23rd. Another idea would be instead of giving the teams just cash, give them extra fuel and tires that they have to use at that race. This would be incredibly beneficial for teams that want to to run full races, but find themselves parking in order to save money. If the tires and fuel are already provided for them, they don't have to worry about it.