NOTES FROM THE NASCAR NATION: A tip of the racing hat goes to NASCAR for the new qualifying procedures
In a sweeping move that addressed their Coors Light qualifying procedures, NASCAR has created a plan that will surely be praised by their fans and their race teams. The new procedure calls for a series of multi-car elimination rounds.
The announcement of these changes came via a January 22nd press release, from NASCAR headquarters in Daytona Beach-Florida, that said:
“In a move aimed toward enhancing the fan experience watching at the track and at home, NASCAR has announced a new group qualifying format for its three national series that is more compelling, more closely emulates actual on-track competition and underlines the sport’s on-going commitment to innovation.”
For decades NASCAR’s qualifying pole day, and practice sessions, has been a part of the total fan weekend experience. But, let’s be honest here: sometimes qualifying day could be somewhat tedious. The fans were basically watching one race car running two laps around a speedway against the time clock. With the policy of the qualifying order being set on reverse order of the practice speed charts, it was quite a long wait for the fans to see the hot shoe teams that were capable of winning the pole and possibly even setting a new track record.
With all due respect to the talent and hard work displayed by the television networks that broadcasts NASCAR racing, there were many times when their presentation of qualifying day was like watching paint dry.
NASCAR’s newly announced qualifying procedures has more than addressed those issues. The result is a plan that will raise the qualifying procedure to a higher level of fan entertainment.
The new procedure will also be a boon to the NASCAR teams. It will spare them the time of having to convert their cars to qualifying trim because the group qualifying format will be run under actual racing conditions. That also eliminates the need for spending valuable time during practice sessions conducting mock qualifying runs.
NASCAR’s January 22nd announcement outlined the details of the new procedure. Here are the major bullet points:
At tracks measuring 1.25 miles in length or larger, qualifying for the Coors Light Pole Award will consist of three rounds:
- The first qualifying elimination round will be 25 minutes in duration and includes all cars / trucks. The 24 cars / trucks that post the fastest single lap from the first qualifying round will advance to the second round.
- The remaining cars / trucks will be sorted based on their times posted in the first round of qualifying in descending order.
- The second qualifying elimination round will be 10 minutes in duration and the 12 cars / trucks that post the fastest single lap time will advance to the third and final round. The fastest remaining cars / trucks earn positions 13th through 24th based on their times posted in qualifying in descending order.
- The third and final qualifying round will be five minutes in duration and the fastest single lap time will determine positions 1st through 12th in descending order.
- There will be a five-minute break between each qualifying round.
At tracks measuring less than 1.25 miles, qualifying for the Coors Light Pole Award will consist of two rounds:
- The first qualifying elimination round will be 30 minutes in duration and includes all cars / trucks. The 12 cars / trucks that post the fastest single lap time from the first qualifying round will advance to the second and final round.
- The remaining cars / trucks will be sorted based on their times posted in the first round of qualifying in descending order.
- There will be a 10-minute break between the two qualifying rounds.
- The second and final qualifying round will be 10 minutes in duration and the fastest single lap time posted will determine positions 1st through 12th in descending order.
The new qualifying format does not apply to the Daytona 500, which will preserve its historic and unique qualifying format. Additionally, it does not apply to non-points NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events or the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Eldora Speedway.
NASCAR previewed the concept of group qualifying with its national series teams late last fall and expects the new format will be a well-received improvement by its fans, competitors, tracks, sponsors and media partners.
“We believe the timing is right for a new qualifying format across our three national series,” said Robin Pemberton, vice president for competition and racing development. “This style of group qualifying has all the makings of being highly competitive and more engaging to our fans in the stands and those watching on television and online. For the drivers and teams, we believe this new qualifying will fuel even greater competition leading into the events. Additionally, it provides our tracks, broadcasters and other key partners with a greater opportunity to develop more entertaining content for our race weekends.”
A tip of the racing hat goes to NASCAR officials for, first, recognizing that these changes were in order and, second, for creating a new program that is bound to receive instant acceptance from the fans.
Justin Wilson healed up and ready to go for Rolex 24 at Daytona
In the season finale of the IndyCar Series season at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Justin Wilson was involved in a six-car incident that resulted in “non-operable pelvic fractures and a small pulmonary contusion.”
Three months later, Justin Wilson says that he is healed up and ready to go for the 2014 season.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “I mean, the recovery went well. I was back walking five and a half, six weeks after the accident, so I was very fortunate the way my pelvis broke, it healed fast. Didn’t need any surgery. I had some good doctors, good advice.”
Wilson has yet to be in an IndyCar since the injury, but has been back racing as he took part in practice for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona two weeks ago.
“I felt great when we tested here two weeks ago for the Roar Before, and it was good to get back in the car,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to competition. Hopefully it’s going to be a good 24 hours for us, and nothing would please me more than repeating what happened after my injury in 2011 and winning the Daytona 24 Hours the following year.”
In 2011, Wilson fractured a bone in his back following an incident in Saturday morning practice ahead of the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. He was sidelined for the rest of the season and the first race back was the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona, where he took home the win.
“I think it’s great,” Wilson said of the Rolex event. “I mean, it’s the perfect way to start out your year and get seat time when there’s not a lot happening in IndyCar. The teams are just prepping, getting things ready, and you come here and get plenty of seat time, get some good racing in, and some really good competition. The thing that attracts me is nothing else is going on this time of year so you don’t have to worry about you’re missing something else, and you’re racing against some of the best guys from all over the world, and you come here and try something different out.
“It’s really a test of everything: Your patience, trying to deal with the traffic, timing, getting through that traffic. There’s so many things that can go wrong that stop you from winning this race, and you’re just trying to not make any of those mistakes, fall down any of those traps.
“It’s just, like I said, the perfect way to get up to speed, blow off the cobwebs and get ready for the new season.”
Wilson will be competing in this year’s race once again with Michael Shank Racing.
“It’s great to keep that relationship going,” he commented. “I think it works really well together. Everyone is comfortable around each other. We’re not ‑‑ we all want to be the quickest on the team, but we’re not going to risk damaging the car to get that. We try and do everything we can to try and get the most out of ourselves and the equipment without taking any risks.
“Mike has a fantastic race team, great people, all pulling in the same direction, and it’s always a pleasure to be part of that and come down here and try and help them out. I feel very privileged to have built these relationships with some great people, now great friends. Like I said, hopefully we can repeat what we’ve done before. We’ve been on the top step. We’ve been second, been third. We want to get back to the top step again.”
Wilson will be looking to get some testing in before the IndyCar season though as he will once again race for Dale Coyne Racing in 2014. Current plans have his first pre-season test being February 3rd.
“I’m looking forward to getting back in the IndyCar,” he said. “I’ve got a new engineer this year, Michael Cannon, and Bill Pappas left at the end of last year, went to Rahal Letterman, but looking forward to working with Michael, and hopefully we can gel quickly and do what we need to do, and hopefully we can win some races.”
There were some discussions that Wilson may not be back with Dale Coyne in 2014, but plans changed after some conversations.
“He promises me he’s going to get a couple of critical people in the right places and allow us to be more consistent and make life easier,” Wilson explained. “I think we had some good performances last year, but definitely felt like we need to work on that consistency and try and execute a little bit more in every aspect, not just the team, but the strategy, my driving, pit stops.”
The 2014 IndyCar season will kick off in March with the St. Petersburg, Florida street course.
“It’s a very challenging track,” Wilson commented. “You’re on the airport runways and then you go out to the city streets. It’s a really cool combination, and I think it’s a good event.
“I enjoy it. I’m looking forward to that, and hopefully we can be competitive. Last year was actually my worst year at St. Petersburg competitive‑wise. Before that I’ve always run really well. But we seemed to miss the setup last year and had a slow start to the year. But we recovered well after it.
“I’d like to think we’ve learnt a lot since then and can come back this year and be near the front again.”
Robin Pemberton says qualifying format brings excitement to NASCAR
Today, NASCAR’s Vice President of Competition and Racing Development made the announcement that NASCAR will not feature single-car qualifying in 2014. Instead, they will be going to the group knock-0ut qualifying that is featured in open wheel racing.
Pemberton says the idea has been in the works for a long time and finally, they were able to put the pieces together after consulting those involved in the sport.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a track owner, a car owner, a crew chief, a driver, a sponsor, everybody has different ideas to help move this sport forward,” he said. “It’s something that we’ve been talking about for quite some time. You know, you make these decisions, some benefit more than others at different times, but I don’t think you could put a finger on any one group that would have encouraged anything like this.
“We have really great relationships out there and we work hard together, and these are the products that we come up with when we work hard together.”
Pemberton said that they considered many ideas, though this was the best one to go with.
“Really for us to try to be as consistent as we could across the board for all of our racetracks and our stakeholders, we felt like this format here was going to serve as the best right now, with three rounds at our bigger tracks and two rounds,” he said. “And so we looked at a lot of different things. We kept coming back and kept pointing to this that it could be the best for us currently.”
NASCAR released the following graphic to help explain their new format:
Other notables about the format include:
- Provisionals will still be used to set positions 36 to 43.
- If multiple cars finish with the same lap time and speed then the positions would be determined by owner’s points.
- If there’s an incident on track, the red flag will be displayed and the clock will be frozen.
- There will be a five minute break between sessions for adjustments. Teams can make wedge,tire pressure,track bar, and tape adjustments between each qualifying round, but can only use one set of tires for the entire qualifying session and are not allowed to jack up the car or raise the hood between sessions.
- Random draw will determine the order of cars on pit road as they roll out for the first round of qualifying.
- If weather halts qualifying starting positions will be based off the last completed qualifying session.
- Daytona 500 qualifying,Eldora Truck qualifying, and qualifying for the two non points races however will remain unchanged.
From a fan’s perspective, this looks like a good idea as it should add excitement, though some competitors also believe that the change is a nice one.
I found this quote fitting. “All great changes are preceded by chaos.” -Deepak Chopra Get ready @nascar fans!
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) January 22, 2014
I LOVE the new qualifying formats. Going to add new achievable goals for growing teams, as well adding excitement & strategy. Great Stuff!
— Parker Kligerman (@pkligerman) January 22, 2014
Glad to see @NASCAR making some much needed changes to qualifying. Should be fun at these worn out tracks making multiple runs on tires!
— David Ragan (@DavidRagan) January 23, 2014
For NASCAR, it’s also good on a financial side as Pemberton feels its a benefit to their sponsors.
“It’s better for Coors and Keystone, and it’s going to be a better show for TV and the people at home will have a better opportunity to watch these guys qualify,” he said.
Pemberton added that the change should work out well for the tracks as the added excitement versus two hours of single-car runs should help draw the crowd in.
It also make it easier for the TV partners in the sport as they don’t have to set aside two hours of broadcast time.
“We work with all of our key partners on a lot of these things,” Pemberton explained. “This isn’t a decision that was made in a short period of time. It took a lot of work and effort and a lot of areas. Whether it be broadcasters or competitors or sponsors here at NASCAR. So there were a lot of people, a lot of groups that weighed in on all of this. Like everything else that we do, it’s important that everybody’s engaged and we get everybody’s take on the ups and downs of some of these things.”
NASCAR knew that fans were bored with the current system as most would skip watching it at the track or on television and just view the results online later. With the new system and the unknowns associated with it, it should bring more excitement.
Though there’s also many unknowns….and the chance of cars wrecking together. If you put a bunch of cars in a pack at Daytona or Talladega, many times it brings forth wrecks.
And it appears spotters will now be required in qualifying too! Can’t wait til we have a 20 car wreck in Dega during qualifying.
— Brett Griffin (@SpotterBrett) January 22, 2014
The first test for the new qualifying format will be NASCAR Camping World Truck Series qualifying for their season opener at Daytona International Speedway in February.
