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Lately the top drivers in NASCAR have been complaining about cars that have qualified for the race yet are slow known as "field fillers".
NASCAR races generally have 43 starting positions available.
The cost of putting a car on the track has become so high, often their are not enough cars to fill the field.
This leaves the door open for many slower cars to qualify.
The front running teams are so fast that an independently fielded car is really not competitive.
According to Jeff Gordon.....''We don't need guys out there just riding around. There are a bunch of cars that are way off the pace. They're in the way and they don't belong out there.''
Gordon's comments were inspired by a wreck at Darlington. Andy Hillenberg was racing as hard as he could, but was approximately 20 mph slower then Tony Stewart. Tony ran into the back of Andy and spun him into the path of Jeff Gordon. Both Tony and Jeff drive for multi car teams with insane racing budgets.
Slow cars have always been part of NASCAR. Watch a tape of past races on Classic Sports Network. You will see Petty and Pearson scream by slower cars without running into them.
"Field fillers" have often been used to scuff tires for the big teams, and test.

My feeling is that working the back markers is part of racing. Tony should have been penalized for not taking some care in overtaking. Watch a sports car race with 4 or 5 classes of cars out on the track together. Outlandish prototype cars seem to navigate cars much much slower with ease. Otherwise the 24 hours of Daytona would be a crash fest. Tony could pass cars there going 30 to 40 mph slower there, so why can't he do it here? One answer might be to pay the back spots more. Take some of the money away from the winners who are zillionaires anyway, and put it to the back positions so that teams can get hold of better equipment. At any rate, there is no excuse for arrogantly running over people. The regular fan can relate to Andy, the true underdog.