NASCAR Qualifying.. The biggest joke in motorsports?

"BKosher84" (bkosher84)
02/15/2015 at 15:00 • Filed to: None

Yep.

If anyone hasn't heard or watched today, Daytona 500 qualifying is today.. Today sets positions 1 and 2 for the 500 and sets the field for the qualifying races on Thursday afternoon.

This qualifying was nothing but a massive cluster fuck from the very beginning. They have three rounds. First round they split the entry field in half (25/24) and they knock that down to 24 drivers for round two.. Then THAT number gets knocked down to 12 and then the field is set.

The reason this is stupid is because they already have races to setup the field on Thursday.. But now we have four races essentially to set the field.

Things that happened today during "Qualifying":

1. Round One: Group 1a - They all line up at the end of pit road when the timing starts (They have five minutes each round to complete the fastest lap) and almost run into each other on pit road. After about one and a half minutes of waiting, Kevin Harvick finally decides to be first and everyone else follows.

2. Round One: Group 1a - Massive wreck between Reed Sorensen/Clint Bowyer/Bobby Labonte/Greg Biffle. Clint Bowyer is PISSED and doesn't hold back on the TV interview with Fox and just blasts NASCAR for everything that happened. (Other drivers feel the same way, he wasn't the only one).

3. Round One: Group 1b - Same thing as point number one with Group 1a. Nobody wanted to be first but at least they almost didn't run into each other on pit road.

4. Round One: Generally - The wreck from Group 1a screwed over EVERYONE in this group as they had to stop the clock and red flag the runs at 1:22 left in the timing (It takes at least a minute to get up to speed). Only about 4-5 drivers from 1a went onto the next round because of this.

5. Round Two: Drivers waited until they had enough time to complete two-three laps of qualifying.. After two laps.. Most of the drivers backed off and slowed down.. Most went to the apron as not to get hit from behind.. Except about 5-6 drivers, who slowed to 185-ish and almost caused a MASSIVE crash trying to block a group of four going 195-200 from completing a third lap (SURPRISE! One of the slow drivers was Brad Keslowski).

6. Round Three: Now we're down to twelve cars left, last five minute session. Everyone LITERALLY waits until 1 minute left in the session and then goes.. Jimmie Johnson was the last in the line and BARELY made it past the S/F Line to get a lap in.

After all said and done.. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson make it on the front row.

What a clusterfuck of a setup NASCAR has here.. My God...

DISCUSSION (5)

citizennick > BKosher84
02/15/2015 at 15:20

I like the format, but I agree, it's a joke at Daytona and Talladega. There was a huge clusterfuck last season in one of those races where the groups were playing chicken on who would go out first. So dumb.

jvirgs drives a Subaru > BKosher84
02/15/2015 at 15:25

Today was such a shitshow. As a fan, I didn't find it entertaining one bit. The group stuff works fine on intermediate and short tracks as well as the road courses. I don't understand the purpose when there are qualifying races on Thursday to set the rest of the field. They should have stuck to the single car runs and if they wanted to make it exciting, take the plates off and let'em fly. I'd watch that.

For Talladega, they should do the ARCA version where its groups of 6-8 cars and there should be no worries about helping another pack.

John Norris (AngryDrifter) > BKosher84
02/15/2015 at 16:01

Well I didn't watch it. I'm kind of sorry I missed it now.

John Norris (AngryDrifter) > John Norris (AngryDrifter)
02/15/2015 at 17:57

In defense of NASCAR, they have made a lot of changes over the last 15 years. Most changes have significantly improved the competitiveness and excitement of qualifying and racing. Some changes have done little to no good. And then there have been a few changes like this.

NASCAR will change it and make it better for Talladega and the July Daytona race. In my opinion NASCAR is much better off with the contemporary changes they've made. In making a lot of changes it's hard to avoid making a couple of disastrous ones. Certainly this looks to be a new low. And yes, they should have seen it coming with the last Talladega qualifying.

I'm guessing they'll recover though.

Dusty Ventures > BKosher84
02/15/2015 at 19:32

I get the motivation behind doing away with the whole "one-at-a-time" qualifying business in favor of group sessions, and honestly I agree with it. But the multi-round, short session business is stupid. I think orgs like F1 and V8 Supercars have a better handle on it with their one long session. If I ran the circus (and this is what I'd do for qualifying in general, not specifically Daytona) the deal would be to break the field into two groups (because there's too many cars for just one), with each getting a half hour session. Drivers are welcome to take as many or as few laps in their session as they want. They're welcome to go out, do a lap, decide they don't like what the track bar is set to, come in to the pits, adjust the car, eat a sandwich, and go back out. At the end of the two sessions the start order is determined by each driver's fastest lap time. Boom. Done. No playoffs, no bonus rounds, etc. If you really want an extra qualifying round for the fastest to duke it out then take the top 10 and have them each do a traditional-style solo lap, a la Bathurst Shootout / Lap of the Gods . No need to do that nonsense at Daytona when you've got the duals though.