NASCAR announced minor adjustments to its new qualifying procedure Thursday morning at Daytona International Speedway. The changes resulted after feedback received from teams in all three national series.
NASCAR had previously stated that adjustments would only be allowed during breaks between the qualifying rounds but that has been amended.
“Starting in Phoenix,” Pemberton, vice president of competition, explained, “the teams will be able to adjust during their qualifying rounds and in the breaks of their qualifying rounds. If it’s during the round when the track is hot, there will be one crew member over the wall that must wear a helmet and he can perform the adjustments which are tape, tire pressures and wedge. And then during the breaks, it will be three crew members when the track is cold, and they’ll go over to perform those duties.”
Pemberton announced one more tweak to the new qualifying procedures. The road courses will now follow the short track procedure, which means that they will have two rounds of qualifying, instead of three.
“So, as it remains same,” he continued, “there will be three rounds of qualifying on our larger than mile-and-a-quarter racetracks. There will be two rounds in the mile-and-a-quarter and less. The difference will be our five road courses will move into the short track version. Through feedback, they felt like the second or last round needed to be a little bit longer to get multiple laps in on the track, so this should optimize their track time.”
The new qualifying procedures will take effect in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series next week at Daytona. The Sprint Cup teams will follow suit the following week at Phoenix.
