For the first time season, NASCAR will take their multi-car qualifying format to a short track and let’s just say that it could be interesting.
Granted, before we begin, NASCAR has helped the situation tremendously with banning cool-down laps and letting teams use their cool-down units. It goes without a doubt that cool-down laps were dangerous as a car going slow along the apron with cars flying by on the outside is not a situation you want to be in. Could you imagine what would happen if the guy trying to lay down a lap got sideways and hit the car trying to cool his motor? Yikes!
“From my perspective I kind of thought it was a no brainer to just let us cool the engines down,” McMurray commented. “I know that there is a reason they are not letting us do that.”
“I think we could have much better qualifying and give the fans more laps to see and a little bit more drama if they give us the units to actually cool the cars down,” Newman also commented last weekend. “That, I think is something we need to look into.”
NASCAR listened and made the change – thankfully.
Though even with that change, qualifying will be interesting to watch on Bristol’s half-mile oval. The track barely fits 43 cars as it is by itself as everybody is nose to tail. Now imagine the fact that you have guys trying to make quick laps, but being in a tightly confined space.
The drivers should be able to police themselves because, after all, they have 25 minutes in first window and 10 minutes in the second window. With each lap taking approximately 15 seconds, everybody should have adamant time to get in more than one set of laps and give each other room.
However, it’s still a concern as someone may not time it right and screw up someone else’s lap. What if that happens? This was a concern that Newman expressed earlier this year back in February at the Canadian Motorsports Expo, stating that you could have manipulation – especially on the tracks a mile and a half and bigger.
“I’m going to go out first as soon as I can so that way I can come in and let my tires cool off so I can go again later,” he started. “Then if I go out later, or I’ve waited till the end of the session and someone blocks my last run because they have the right to or the opportunity to or whatever, they’ve manipulated my chance to be in that last five minutes and have a shot at winning the pole. I just don’t want to see it where other teams can – because we’re competitors and we have egos – other teams can manipulate the outcome. We were critized heavily after Richmond with everything that went down. We don’t need to be opening ourselves up to that situation again – even if it’s just qualifying.
“That’s not the racing that we grew up with. I think that’s the biggest part of the change that as a competitor I have to deal with.”
Bigger tracks, it’s just resulted in a slower speed. A short track like Bristol – well, that’s another story. It could be disastrous as both drivers may end up with wrecked cars. Does NASCAR really want to increase the chance of wrecking cars during qualifying? Welp, if it makes for a more interesting session and it gets fan to tune in, then I guess so!
The current format may work this weekend and all this worry that I have expressed here may be for nothing at all. However, I still advise that you tune in as it may become disastrous and you may get more excitement than you bargained for.
