The initial 2008 version of NASCAR's Sprint Cup top 35 in the owner standings is set to debut next week at Martinsville Speedway and Martha, say it ain't so.

The checkered flag had barely fallen on a pleasantly stunning 1-2-3 sweep by Richard Childress Racing and the calculators were buzzing.

Who was in and who was out, and in the most potentially sickening aspect -- who might swap points to get back in?

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This might have just been bar-stool analysts kicking in, and if that's the case, I apologize for getting you all stirred up.

Maybe the organizations that are affected -- and those that have a solution at their fingertips -- namely Petty Enterprises and Roush Fenway Racing -- will do something simple and reasonable, like a driver swap, to ease their situations, if they choose to do anything.

Sorry, but that's the sporting way to do it. Man-up, like Red Bull Racing has done by swapping newcomer A.J. Allmendinger for veteran Mike Skinner two races ago -- which has resulted in two consecutive "makes" after three DNQs.

Do what it takes now, and worry about the plastic surgery to cover the scars later. But don't rend the very fabric of the sport by allowing an unnatural action like administratively swapping points.

At the end of 2006, Petty Enterprises first considered doing what I thought was a short-term seat swap between Bobby Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion and therefore holder of a past champion's provisional starting position, and Kyle Petty, who for the last two seasons has ended the year around "the bubble" of the top 35 cutoff.

That's not a point swap, which would be a gross misuse of the system as it was intended to function, but a seamless driver change. Well, that would be seamless except for the thousands -- if not millions -- of dollars X, Y or Z company has spent in branding its driver.

Both Petty and Roush Fenway's Jamie McMurray have had miserable luck to start the 2008 season. Petty had mechanical issues in the second race, at Auto Club Speedway, fell out of the top 35 and has never come close to regaining it. His team is 40th going to Martinsville.

McMurray, after having issues in the last two races, has spiraled from 27th down to 36th. Roush Fenway has a past champion in its stable as well, 2003 titlist Matt Kenseth, but branding is a huge issue there, too.

But couldn't that be overcome, or overlooked, for the couple of races you'd like to think it would take to rectify that situation?

Both Petty and McMurray, along with Dave Blaney, Dario Franchitti, Regan Smith, Joe Nemechek, Ken Schrader, Skinner, Bill Elliott, John Andretti and Patrick Carpentier are sealed in the pressure cooker of being outside the top 35 for Martinsville -- and trust me, that ain't pretty.

Say what you will about driver changes being a simple thing. The top 35, which locks those owners into the starting lineup for each successive week's Sprint Cup event, is no trivial matter. It's excruciating for the teams and frustrating for the fans, who have made their displeasure perfectly clear.

On the competitor side, just ask Eddie Wood, whose Wood Brothers Racing team has made only one of five races this season after falling out of the top 35 at the end of 2007 (read more). Or Red Bull Racing, which failed to make 32 of the 72 races they attempted last season with their two cars.

Red Bull Toyota driver Allmendinger has already felt the sting of the top 35 this season, as if not making the first three races wasn't bad enough. He's been temporarily benched for the veteran Skinner, who made it into his first attempt -- and to show how ultimately desperate it is outside the top 35, made it into the next show on account of the points he accrued at Atlanta, when Bristol qualifying was rained out.

But let's get back to the point-swapping issue. Between seasons, it's become an annual occurrence for owners to execute shambolic "partnerships" whereby an owner with locked-in status for the coming season deeds that to another owner. That seems distasteful enough, especially when it keeps a legitimate owner trying to break into the sport from having a reasonable shot at qualifying for races, since the horrible top-35 setup prevents the fastest 43 cars from making races in deference -- in some cases -- to whomever's angled for the best deal.

Doing it between seasons is bad enough. But to allow point swaps in the middle of the season solely for the purpose of manipulating the system would be a more harmful episode for NASCAR's credibility than anything else they've done lately: the Chase, the new car or even the loathsome top 35 itself.

Let's look at it this way. The New England Patriots make the Super Bowl. Then, in the NFC championship game, the Chicago Bears upset the Green Bay Packers. But the Packers really wanted to play the Patriots in the big game. So their cheesehead owners pay off the Bears ownership and not only play in the Super Bowl, they wear their Packers uniforms.

Sound ridiculous? Well, it is -- but it's the equivalent of what a point swap would be, if you ask me.

So let's hope NASCAR doesn't allow it to happen before the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville. And next, we'll work on plugging past champions into the mix solely because they have a free pass in their back pockets.

And that will be a start to pointing racing back to being about racing, which is to let the fastest drivers race.

Quick Hits
• Too bad this points situation jumped up to obscure a wonderful chapter in the history of Michael Waltrip Racing. Even though MWR's incoming rookie driver Michael McDowell started it by saying he'd probably drive whichever car wasn't locked into the grid at Martinsville (read more). The fact is all three MWR Toyotas are in qualified spots going to Martinsville.

That's a sharp contrast to 2007, when Michael Waltrip made the Daytona 500 in his No. 55 Camry, then failed to qualify for the next 11 races. Dale Jarrett used past champion's provisionals to make the first four races and had fallen out of the top 35 by Race 5.

David Reutimann, MWR's best driver this season in 27th in the owner standings heading to Martinsville, missed two of the first five races in 2007 and had an uphill struggle the rest of the year. So 27th, 30th (Waltrip) and 34th (Jarrett) is a fairly remarkable improvement -- especially considering all three men had to qualify for the first five races this season.

• Get over it already. Bristol is what it is and, while I thought Ryan Newman's "go to your demolition derby" comment was a little extreme, it was coming from the right direction (read more).

I thought the coolest thing I saw Sunday was when Jimmie Johnson harpooned eventual race winner Jeff Burton in the left-rear quarter coming off the corner -- and NEITHER guy spun out. Burton went on to put the exclamation to peoples' possible displeasure with the new Bristol, in my opinion.

"If you want to come watch wrecks, you'd be happier at the old racetrack," Burton said. "If you want to watch racing, you'll like this racetrack."

Couldn't have said it better myself -- so do me a favor, don't write me to complain. I'm not a stockholder in Stock Car Steel, so I like the new Bristol better.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.