Even if you’ve hardly paid attention to the first five races of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, you’ve probably heard that qualifying lately has been a disaster — and that’s putting it nicely.
The new rules package this season is designed to manufacture competition and increase side-by-side racing, so drafting at tracks has become crucial. And that includes qualifying.
So while drivers and fans alike weren’t thrilled about the chaotic qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this month, frustration peaked last weekend at Auto Club Speedway in California, resulting in boos from fans at the track.
“It makes NASCAR look bad,” NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip told For The Win. “It makes TV look bad. It makes everybody look bad.”
Set up as three rounds of group qualifying at intermediate and short tracks, the whole field is whittled down to 24 cars for the second round and 12 for the third, when they race for the pole. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to go in theory.
However, no one wants to be the first car out and at a huge disadvantage because of the importance of drafting. Last week at Auto Club Speedway, the final 12 cars bunched together on pit road and waited until the last minute to hit the track, which didn’t give a single car enough time to get a qualifying lap in.
Like everyone else watching, Waltrip, who now broadcasts races for FOX Sports, was baffled by how this unfolded. And as a result, Austin Dillon won the pole with a time of zero.
After that disaster, NASCAR said it wants to make “some tweaks” to the qualifying process, but it’s not leaning toward returning to single-car style. So what’s the solution? Waltrip actually has a couple pretty sensible ideas that the governing body might want to consider.
“Sometimes, they don’t take other people’s ideas,” the three-time Cup Series champion explained. “It’s gotta be something, sometimes, that they think of themselves.”
1. The same but different
Waltrip’s first suggestion is to keep the first two rounds of qualifying the same but alter the final round to avoid the bizarre terribleness that was last weekend.
“Everybody goes out just like always,” Waltrip explained. “First round all the cars on the track. Out of that round, you end up with 24, and out of that round, you end up with 12. And then the 12 go out individually by themselves at the end.
“That way, nobody gets in anybody’s way, that way everybody has to go and that way you end up with somebody — whoever had the best car for the third round — end up on the pole. That’s my way of doing it if you’re going to stick to the three rounds of qualifying.”
Seems pretty sensible and maybe a nice middle ground if NASCAR is insistent on sticking with some type of group qualifying.
2. Rapid fire
But in case people don’t like that suggestion, Waltrip offered a backup plan — although it would bring back single-car qualifying.
“Rapid fire is when they line up all the cars on pit road, slowest to fastest,” he continued. “Take your practice speeds, (and) you put the slowest guys out first and you go down the line, and progressively, it should get faster. And it goes by pretty quick and is kind of fun.
“You only get one lap. A car goes by, he takes the green flag, and as soon as he goes by, you send the next car out. So you’ve got two cars on the race track just about the whole time, and it’s one right after another. And that’s another way you could do it if you want to do single-car qualifying.”
The process is expected to remain the same this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, where qualifying will take place Saturday at 5:10 p.m. ET ahead of Sunday’s STP 500.
But NASCAR said it plans to make changes for the following weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. We’ll see what it comes up with and if it’s better or, somehow, worse.
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