Hornish to be given Busch's owners points

This makes sense on Penske's part but it shows how idiotic the current top 35 scheme is.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -NASCAR has approved Penske Racing's request to transfer the owner points from Kurt Busch to Sam Hornish Jr., a move that locks the three-time IndyCar Series champion into the first five races of next season.

Hornish publicly thanked Busch for giving him the points at the Penske holiday party on Friday night. Bud Denker, senior vice president of Penske Corp., confirmed Saturday that the team would swap the points with NASCAR's approval.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said the sanctioning body had signed off on the transfer.

"This would obviously help Sam as he prepares to run the first five races instead of prepares to qualify for the first five races,'' Denker said. "With a champion like Kurt Busch and the opportunity to utilize (the points), anyone would be foolish to not take care of the situation.''

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/racing/wires/12/15/3010.ap.car.nascar.penske.points.swap.0442/

Silly silly rubbish.

Should be say, the top 15 in points, AT MOST. Then it'd be a real challenge to get into the races.

Or hell, why not just make it that you ALL have to qualify but keep the provisionals. Silly people.

Surely it would be better if it was attatched to the driver's points, or just on an everyone has to get in on speed system.

Sounds like it'd be justice if Busch failed to qualify for one of the races, and lost this year's title as a result. It's not a great system.