What should NASCAR do with Qualifying?

It's pretty obvious when someone's intentionally drifting back to draft. That's just so blatantly obvious.
Yeah, but how would NASCAR codify it? Is it going to be a judgment call like football's pass interference, or pushing too long at a plate race in the X series? Again, how many cars make a pack? Two?
 
They could do group qualifying, have the cars separated by 5-10 seconds (depending on track size) when they go out that way they can't draft and sh!t. And if the cars decide to get in a pack and draft, disallow their times.
Who cares if they draft? If they can hook it up , more power to ya
 
I just found out the used to do qualifying 1 at a time. Man that sounds so much better than the crap we are doing right now. Maybe they will go back?
 
Nascar can ( if they have the balls) to fix this. Open the track for 1 hour, (Just like a final practice)
and after an hour all cars impounded until the start of the race. You race what you had including starting on those tires.
The games will stop.
 
Nascar can ( if they have the balls) to fix this. Open the track for 1 hour, (Just like a final practice)
and after an hour all cars impounded until the start of the race. You race what you had including starting on those tires.
The games will stop.
I agree with you except for the tires.
 
I think single car is the overwhelming consensus here, despite any increase in cost from race to qualifying trim. Having 1 fast lap determine the starting lineup seems to be felt strongly by the fans.
 
I think single car is the overwhelming consensus here, despite any increase in cost from race to qualifying trim. Having 1 fast lap determine the starting lineup seems to be felt strongly by the fans.
Single car isn't my first choice, but it's much better than what we've seen at the larger tracks so far this season. As a fantasy player, I think multiple laps do a better job of predicting performance during the race. What we've been seeing is a great predictor of declining interest in qualifying. Single car would seem to be the method that could be implemented in the fastest, easiest, and most understandable way.
 
The race should be complicated -- keeping up with the track, car damage, strategy, pit road perfection/incidents/mistakes, etc

===

Ideally for me:

Qualifying should be an uncomplicated straight forward, close to race set up, single-car time trial -- man and machine executing the fastest lap without assistance or interference from other cars, preferably straight to impound but with a tire change (so it doesn't penalize teams for any Qualifying tire wear).

You get your starting order, pit stall, and picture taken with track girl --
NOW RACE!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
I agree with Tony about too many rules. The uncontrolled tire rule continues to put too much control and attention to a non issue With less pit people this year, I think they have their hands full enough without trying to be tire ballerinas
 
The only drawback imo to single car qualifying was the big advantage a late draw could give you at some tracks. With group qualifying, they are all on the "same" track in equal conditions. With that said, group qualifying with draft style racing are a disaster that needs to go away. They need to remove at least one of those aspects......
 
The only drawback imo to single car qualifying was the big advantage a late draw could give you at some tracks. With group qualifying, they are all on the "same" track in equal conditions. With that said, group qualifying with draft style racing are a disaster that needs to go away. They need to remove at least one of those aspects......

This isn't really related, but if you were lucky enough to get an early draw as a lesser team, you'd sometimes get on camera for two whole laps, other times they would just use you as the commercial break.

Nowadays, some of the backmarkers fire off early in round 1 to guarantee tv time and sponsor exposure (intended or unintended). This 5/5/5 minute kills that idea, as they only focus on the big dogs from the drop.
 
Heard on the Door,Bumper,Clear podcast yesterday that they’re saying it’s going back to single car qualifying everywhere except road courses. Freddie Kraft (43 spotter) and TJ Majors (22 spotter) were the ones talking about it. They didn’t seem to happy about it but I am.
 
**** yeah.

If so, finally a good move for NASCAR. Finally. Single car qualifying is awesome.
 
It was awesome. This low horsepower package will likely create boring single-car qualifying runs. They should have just went the heat race route

No different than watching Truck Series qualifying which nobody seems to have a problem with.

Qualifying isn't supposed to be the most exciting thing ever.
 
Heat races only work if you're sending cars home
Very true. Heat races would work if NOBODY was safe from elimination and I think it would be great for the sport. Have the heat races a few hours before the green flag so that fans in attendance get more bang for their buck. If someone wrecks but still makes the show, they will have enough time to prepare their backup car.
 
It was awesome. This low horsepower package will likely create boring single-car qualifying runs.

Good, it will expose "the package" for what it is, and we'll have a small chance of nascar seeing the light.
 
Very true. Heat races would work if NOBODY was safe from elimination and I think it would be great for the sport. Have the heat races a few hours before the green flag so that fans in attendance get more bang for their buck. If someone wrecks but still makes the show, they will have enough time to prepare their backup car.

Would be cool to see. They'd never go for EVERYONE being up for elimination though, the darlings and the sponsors.
 
“It was (a) unified (decision) between broadcasters, teams and NASCAR,” Scott Miller, NASCAR senior VP of competition, said of returning to single-car runs.

“One of the other things to make a compelling program out of it is we’ve seen the use of the ghost car (on television). That’s going to be a big element in presenting a quality show. I think fans are going to be able to see which drivers drive in deep, which drivers roll the middle faster and get off the corners faster and really give the talent in the booth something to talk about.

“Another interesting aspect is every team has a good shot of getting covered during the qualifying session. We’re building in a few two-minute breaks to where TV can get some spots in and not break away from live action. That’s one of the goals in this, and I think with those designated spots and breaks we will be able to present almost a whole qualifying session live without going away.”
Ha. Knockout qualifying was supposedly implemented at the behest of the broadcasters, yet now single-car qualifying is a preferable TV product. I think the use of the 'ghost car' and the traditional real-time qualifying ticker are good, as well as the increased exposure for individual drivers (even if it takes longer), but it's funny that for the past several years we were told otherwise.

It'll also be interesting to see just how wide-open, or close to it, the drivers actually are with this intermediate aero and power.
 
Good, they are going to use the ghost car also. Best of two laps for the short tracks.

“Another interesting aspect is every team has a good shot of getting covered during the qualifying session. We’re building in a few two-minute breaks to where TV can get some spots in and not break away from live action. That’s one of the goals in this, and I think with those designated spots and breaks we will be able to present almost a whole qualifying session live without going away.”
They are going to take the top 20 from last weeks race and have them draw for their spot in position and the run those 20 cars last in qualifying order.
https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2...-to-single-car-qualifying-at-all-oval-tracks/
 
Last edited:
Good decision. Multi-round knockout qualifying itself was not necessarily a bad format, but it is unworkable with the package they are currently using. There is nothing wrong with single car time trials, keep it simple stupid.

I will reserve my snark for anyone who told us that this year's mess was:

a. So entertaining.
b. Helpful because everyone is talking about it.
c. The teams' or drivers' fault.

 
How long until people complain that single car is boring again because the cars lack power, speed, and are glued to the track? This could be the ultimate "we told you so!" trick by NASCAR. Change it back, wait for the complainers, reverse the change, and never look back again - ultimately getting their way they wanted all along.
 
How long until people complain that single car is boring again because the cars lack power, speed, and are glued to the track? This could be the ultimate "we told you so!" trick by NASCAR. Change it back, wait for the complainers, reverse the change, and never look back again - ultimately getting their way they wanted all along.

I think it is more likely that in the next couple years, we are heading toward cars that aren't wide open for qualifying again. I see a ray of hope.
 
How long until people complain that single car is boring again because the cars lack power, speed, and are glued to the track? This could be the ultimate "we told you so!" trick by NASCAR. Change it back, wait for the complainers, reverse the change, and never look back again - ultimately getting their way they wanted all along.

the ghost car will help, nice to see how and where a driver gains or loses time. Great thing for the fans that go for the technical aspects of the sport. And there is some show bidness involved with the last fast twenty drawing spots. Whiners are going to whine regardless. They always find something it seems.
 
One thing I've always liked about single car qualifying, once it became televised, is that every single driver got airtime. You learned something about every driver on the track. Knockout qualifying was just another reason to give the TV networks to just talk about Kyle Busch, the Penske duo, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex and Chase Elliott.

Hopefully next up, the cars will get a little more parity and we could see someone like a Matt DiBenedetto or Chris Buescher qualify on the pole one race.
 
Preece for instance and Hemric are in the 20 that will draw for spots. Both of those guys it won't hurt to get some air time, Lajoie, Sorenson finished in the top 20 also. Yeah they aren't going to set the world on fire, but recognizing a good finish by guys that don't run up front can't hurt anything, and I can't help but wonder if that will motivate guys to try hard to get into the top 20 for next week's qualifying
 
Back
Top Bottom