There are positives and negatives to it and yes it does happen all the time. I wasn't being class specific.
So lets say a fella runs his heat, gets wrecked and cant make the feature. So the next weekend said fella shows up at the track and says, "I think i'll skip the heat this week and just start tail". Now you have one less car in the heat races. Until the next three drives catch on. Then three more. Then we have very slim heat races. Why use up your equipment if you don't have to? Skip the heat races and just run the feature.
How is it fair or is it right that a driver runs his heat, wrecks or qualifies but then another driver can just show up late and run the feature without attempting to qualify? Driver A is done for the night and does not even get a payout cause he didn't start the feature because he attempted to qualify and wrecked. Driver B does not attempt to qualify, does not take that chance of wrecking his car, but still gets to start the feature and get paid? I know if I was that wrecked driver, I know how I'd feel about that situation.
Just trying to look at it from both sides is all.
What would be a solution to that problem? Maybe if there was not a full field don't run heats? You all qualify anyways? Line up by points or a draw? What if a driver shows up late and theres a full field and 6 guys did not qualify. Does that guy that drove over the hill from thunder get automatically added or sent home at the gate?