Why Must the Duels, formally the Gatorade 125s,be on Thursday??

Before I go into a tirade about the inconvenience of the Duels I must congratulate Dale Jarrett on his third Daytona 500 pole. Qualifying Sunday put a Yates driver Dale Jarrett on the pole and Jimmie Johnson right beside him. (http://www.nascar.com/2005/news/headlines/cup/02/13/pole_500_ap_first.ap/index.html )
For those who do not know about Daytona 500 qualifying, let me fill you in.

First they qualify for the top two slot for Sunday's race. Then come the Duels, right smack dab in the middle of the week. Far from where fans who have to work or go to school can actually see them, unless you are a kindergarten with an afternoon class that is.

But I regress.

The Duels allows the field to be broken into two races and race for position in the Daytona 500. The results puts the first race line up on the odd side and the second race line up on the even side.

So, for this year, the first Duels has Dale Jarrett on the pole and the rest of the line up based on qualifying speeds. The second 125 Jimmie Johnson is on the pole and the rest are behind him by qualifying speeds. Then they race for position. Their position at the end of each 125 puts them behind the pole sitter they raced behind.

So, and example Elliot Sadler wins the first 125 and Tony Stewart wins the second 125. Sadler will then take third behind Jarrett and Stewart will take fourth behind Johnson.

So all that end up behind Sadler will go behind Jarrett and all those that follow Stewart go behind Jimmie Johnson.

Larry Reynolds also explains it: http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/3354364

There are exceptions to this rule, for instance if Jeff Gordon, Matt sensate, Kurt Busch, or any other past champion does not qualify then they are placed in the 36 to 43 range depending on how many past champions did not qualify, giving them what is called a provisional. They only get a few of these per season.

The Duels are a staple. To get rid of them would change the reasons why the Daytona 500 is unique.

But, its time to change the days the Duels are run.

NASCAR and NEXTEL change the Bud Shootout, change the Winston (the All-Stars Race if not familiar with the old term), but they can't make minor changes to help new fans get more involved with Speedweeks.

If the qualifying was done on Friday, since there is only the practice for the Bud Shootout, and then race the Duels on Sunday when people are home waiting for more racing to watch --they might get a better turn out in ratings.

I want to watch the Duels, as do many fans. But most have to sneak on the internet during work, listen to it on MRN or PRN, or, if they are lucky and have sattelite radio.

But most of us do not. I believe it is time for a change.

Duel Line ups http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2005/101/data/lineup.html and http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2005/102/data/lineup.html

Duels Race Times: http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/cup/schedule