another surprise - Bill Elliot is still in the series?
He's still doing the "part-time" thing, and he's a past champ, so he is eligible for the past champ's provisional (up to 6 times total, unless the team he's driving for that week had another driver start using provisionals). The only problem is, his was back in 1988, and both Dale Jarrett (1999, only doing the first 5) and Kurt Busch (2004, last year's owners' points went to the #77 and Sam Hornish) were more-recently champs, and if it's used, it goes to the most-recent champ.