NASCAR has a fix after the debacle that was qualifying at Auto Club Speedway on March 15.
No drivers posted a lap in the third round of qualifying after they all waited too long to get going off pit road. To prevent that from happening again, NASCAR announced Monday that any driver that doesn’t complete a lap in a round of qualifying due to “excessive waiting” will start at the rear of the field.
The new rules go into effect for the March 30 race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Since none of the 12 drivers in the final round made a lap at Auto Club, the top 12 positions were decided by drivers’ second-round qualifying speeds. Austin Dillon started first.
Drivers lollygagged on pit road because the fastest way around intermediate tracks with air ducts on the cars (part of NASCAR’s 2019 rules changes) is to draft with each other. And the lead car in a group of cars drafting typically posts the slowest time. So no one wants to go first.
A similar situation happened in the Truck Series after NASCAR introduced its group qualifying format. The NASCAR solution then was to institute single-truck qualifying at larger tracks so trucks couldn’t draft with each other. Single-car qualifying is also in effect at larger tracks in the Xfinity Series.
NASCAR decided not to go that route with the Cup Series. And given how committed it is to the group qualifying format, that decision is defensible.
However, the decision to force drivers to post a lap during every qualifying round doesn’t change another problem that has cropped up during qualifying at tracks like ACS and Las Vegas. Because drivers have been waiting until the last few moments of qualifying to make a run the early minutes of the second and third qualifying rounds have been devoid of action. NASCAR’s next move may be to shorten the qualifying clock at larger tracks if the waiting around predictably continues.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports
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