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To quote the great Yogi Berra, “It’s Deja Vu all over again!”

NASCAR put out a news release on Monday pointing out that “Andy Lally, unless something unforeseen occurs, will be the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year.”

This is, unfortunately, becoming a familiar story.

Prior to the 2010 season there was talk that there wouldn’t be a class. Then Kevin Conway showed up with sponsor money. That money bought him a partial season with Front Row Motorsports – until his sponsor quit paying Front Row – and then a few races with Robby Gordon – until his sponsor quit paying Gordon.

I think Conway was the only one truly thrilled with winning an award for which he was the only competitor.

This season started with similar talk about no class. Then Brian Keselowski threw his hat in. He ran at Daytona, and has attempted five other races, but funding has kept the team from doing much of anything. Eventually it was Andy Lally who took over the #71 at TRG and has all but walked away with it.

And yet again we find ourselves with just one true competitor for the Rookie of the Year award.

Now don’t get me wrong, Andy Lally is an accomplished racecar driver and someone who has had respectable forays into NASCAR. And TRG, though underfunded, is not a bad organization.

This situation though speaks to a larger issue for NASCAR. Sponsorship dollars are hard to find, and teams are less willing or able to take risks on younger drivers. Hence a lack of ROY competitors.

Obviously the time will come when teams will have no choice but to start developing talent or risk running out of it – I think we’re getting to that point. We have some great young drivers in the pipeline and we’ll have some good ROY classes in the seasons to come, but is it time NASCAR looks at other ways to honor rookies? Or just gets rid of the award? There is no longer a sponsor. And when you just have one person competing for an award, what’s the point?

I understand the award is meant to reward the best rookie driver of that season and when there is only one, they are technically the best rookie driver and the rightful winner of the award. But does that mean it should be kept around? I’m just not sure.

What I do know is that when we have seasons like we’ve had this year and last, the ROY begins to lose some of its significance and that’s unfortunate.

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As we get set to make our lone trip to California this season, we’ve got quite a battle going on at the top of the standings.  Currently Kurt Busch owns the driver points lead, but by only a single point over Carl Edwards.  But there is another battle raging in the points, and the stakes are just as high, only it’s a little farther down the standings.  Near the bottom of the owners points standings are the drivers and teams working to stay in that top 35, and thus hang on to a guaranteed starting spot.  California is the final race where the guaranteed spots are based on 2010′s points, and it’s the final chance to make a move to either get or keep a guaranteed spot.

Following Bristol, the 35th spot is held down by Casey Mears and the #13 Geico/Germain team.  Their 52 points are just one better than Tommy Baldwin’s #36 team.  Those who are currently inside that magic number who could conceivably fall out are Brian Vickers, Frank Stoddard’s #32 team, Robby Gordon, and Casey Mears.  On the other side, those who are on the outside looking in that have a realistic chance of jumping up are Dave Blaney with the #36, Tony Raines, Andy Lally, and Travis Kvapil.  Kvapil and Mears are currently separated by only six points.

Many of the teams at this end of the garage are severely underfunded, but a guaranteed spot in upcoming races could go a long ways toward securing their futures.  The teams from Front Row, TRG, Tommy Baldwin, and Germain all have intentions to run full races, and would benefit greatly from a 35th or above position.  With as competitive as the sport has become, it only takes one or two DNQ’s by a team to dig an insurmountable points hole.

There are only 43 cars entered for Sunday’s Auto Club 400, so that will be a bit of a boost for those involved in the fight.  But we’ve seen as many as 48 cars entered for races this season and there are no guarantees that other teams won’t pop up.  A guaranteed starting position would go a long way towards helping these teams not only monetarily, but also psychologically.  Whatever happens though, you can be sure that the results at California will affect these teams for the rest of the season.

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