Johnny Sauter is replacing Jeremy Mayfield for Saturday night's race at Phoenix because Mayfield fell to 36th in owner points.

It urkes me to have these driver swaps. I think it gets confusing to the fans. Maybe I should speak for myself, it gets really confusing for me to keep up. It should be banned.

I read the press release and decided to stroll over to nascar.com and take a look at where everyone stood in the owner point standings, something I rarely do.

Teresa Earnhardt has cars in the 16th point position (car #1), 19th point position (car #8), 24th point position (car # 15) and 35th point postion (car #01). Not very good considering we are seven races into a 36-race season.

Regan Smith's car is sitting in the 35th spot. Forgive my ignorance here but I've never quite understood how the provisionals work. Does Smith get provisionals? Do you think Teresa Earnhardt will find another driver to fill in like so many seem to be doing? Can she shift points around like what Penske did between Kurt Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. at the beginning of the season? Or was that a one-time deal?

I'll just say this right now. I'm so glad that Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumped ship when he did.

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