by Darrell Waltrip

Ordinal out of range NASCAR is probably taking a pretty hard look right now at approving a substitute driver for all competitors who regularly race in Nextel Cup, but especially for those who are in the top 10 in points. I just feel certain that they're going to approve a substitute driver in case something like Dale Jr's accident happens to someone else.

Timely? Yes, but for years, I've lobbied for substitute drivers. Why should the entire team, sponsor and everybody else be penalized if something happens to the driver? Basically the team can win the championship, but the driver can't as we saw in the Busch Series with Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick and Johnny Sauter earning enough points for the 21 car to win the title last year.

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I guarantee you that NASCAR is saying right now, "What would we do if somebody like Dale Jr, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon got hurt and couldn't compete in the last 10 races of the season or had to miss one or two of them. If you miss a race or have a bad one, you're pretty much eliminated from the Chase for the Championship so the leaders in Daytona Beach are mulling that one over right now.

Based on what we saw at Sonoma on Sunday, it wouldn't surprise me if NASCAR put a substitute-driver rule in place in the very near future. Since it's the year of change, this is one more change that NASCAR ought to add to its list.