Darby: Don't expect qualifying rules to change soon
SCENEDAILY
CONCORD, N.C. - NASCAR officials don't anticipate any immediate changes to Nextel Cup qualifying procedures, series director John Darby said Monday.
Currently, the top 35 cars in owners points are locked into the field, leaving the final eight spots up for grabs among the 50 or more teams that have been showing up each week. Those non-guaranteed teams have complained that using a random draw to determine when they qualify can result in which car goes home or gets in the field because if the track is cooler at a certain time of qualifying, the cars go faster. Darby understands that, but he said he still can't think of a better way, especially when everyone's starting position is based on that qualifying session.
"I could see some showbiz values in that - it would give television an opportunity to play out the guys going head-on on speed with separating the groups," Darby said. "But one thing I can't get over in my own mind is one of our responsibilities is to keep everything we do fair for the entire garage. You have 50 competitors that need to qualify.
"What is the fairest way to put all 50 competitors on an even playing field? Right now the best we can find is a random draw."
Darby wasn't sure multiple qualifying sessions would be prudent.
"As hard-pressed as all of our schedules are now and trying to still be somewhat efficient in time spent at the race track, I don't know that we want to go backwards in multiple rounds of qualifying [as it used to be]," Darby said. "What I do know about our business and our sport is it cycles. Today we get 50 or 50-plus cars at an event.
"If we change the world and we make all kinds of new policies and move stuff around and two years from now, we're sitting here with 44 cars at an event, we're going to say, 'Jesus, that was pretty stupid. We're doing all this extra work, two rounds of qualifying, for one car.'"
Darby said he likes the cutoff at 35th in points.
"The top 35 is still such a true representation of the big core group that determined that number originally," Darby said.
SCENEDAILY
CONCORD, N.C. - NASCAR officials don't anticipate any immediate changes to Nextel Cup qualifying procedures, series director John Darby said Monday.
Currently, the top 35 cars in owners points are locked into the field, leaving the final eight spots up for grabs among the 50 or more teams that have been showing up each week. Those non-guaranteed teams have complained that using a random draw to determine when they qualify can result in which car goes home or gets in the field because if the track is cooler at a certain time of qualifying, the cars go faster. Darby understands that, but he said he still can't think of a better way, especially when everyone's starting position is based on that qualifying session.
"I could see some showbiz values in that - it would give television an opportunity to play out the guys going head-on on speed with separating the groups," Darby said. "But one thing I can't get over in my own mind is one of our responsibilities is to keep everything we do fair for the entire garage. You have 50 competitors that need to qualify.
"What is the fairest way to put all 50 competitors on an even playing field? Right now the best we can find is a random draw."
Darby wasn't sure multiple qualifying sessions would be prudent.
"As hard-pressed as all of our schedules are now and trying to still be somewhat efficient in time spent at the race track, I don't know that we want to go backwards in multiple rounds of qualifying [as it used to be]," Darby said. "What I do know about our business and our sport is it cycles. Today we get 50 or 50-plus cars at an event.
"If we change the world and we make all kinds of new policies and move stuff around and two years from now, we're sitting here with 44 cars at an event, we're going to say, 'Jesus, that was pretty stupid. We're doing all this extra work, two rounds of qualifying, for one car.'"
Darby said he likes the cutoff at 35th in points.
"The top 35 is still such a true representation of the big core group that determined that number originally," Darby said.