NASCAR looks to stop gamesmanship in qualifying
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
The days of playing chicken in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup qualifying are over.
That’s what NASCAR hopes to achieve new rules regulating qualifying procedures.
On Monday, NASCAR sent out a memo updating rule 9.3.1 governing qualifying. Drivers who don’t adhere to qualifying procedures run the risk of having their times disallowed.
The changes come following time trials at Auto Club Speedway where all 12 drivers in the final round failed to make a qualifying run before the five-minute clock expired. The new rules will take effect starting this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
Moving forward, each track will have specific staging areas on pit road. Drivers leaving the designated staging area must commence their qualifying run immediately, without slowing or stopping. Competitors cannot block other drivers making a qualifying attempt. Any driver not making a qualifying run before the clock expires could have all previous times disallowed.
“What we’re trying to accomplish is more order on pit road and the getting up to speed lap,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “The big problem was— especially with what happened at Fontana—pit road got bottled up. The competitors that actually wanted to go, didn’t have the opportunity because others were bottling up pit road and impeding their opportunity to get out on the race track.
“So we’re going to designate where the cars can stage. They can only stage in certain spots and there will always be a lane open. If someone gets into what is the ‘open lane’ and blocks it, then they will get a penalty, probably get all their times disallowed from the session and start at the rear. That’s going to be the kind of over-arching sort of deterrent in this new model. If you break any rules that we put out, and kind of impede your fellow competitors or don’t leave early enough to start a qualifying lap before the clock runs out then, for instance, if you start in the 12, all your times will be disallowed and you will start accordingly—at the back—for the race.”
Ty Dillon, driver of the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet, advocated for a similar solution last weekend at Martinsville. Even though his brother, Austin Dillon, won the pole at Auto Club Speedway, the optics were not good for NASCAR.
"If in any round of qualifying cars don’t make it out, whether is the second or third final round..those cars start in the very back and lose their pit selection," Dillon said. "Make it a penalty we’re losing something over so people actually have to go out there and run. I don’t think the pack is bad. I don’t think anything about that is bad. I think it’s fun. And it’s not our single-car qualifying, yes. But it is still qualifying a race for NASCAR.
"We all have the obligation to go out there and figure out this style. It’s more exciting. Who doesn’t want to see more cars go closer together in a high-impact situation? Now, the sitting at pit road is not good when no cars make a lap. So, make it a penalty. And, I feel like it would be good on NASCAR’s part to just say, 'Hey, any round of qualifying, if you don’t make it out, you start dead last in the field.' And let’s see how that goes. I know that we’ve started it as far as if you don’t make it out you go back in the segment, but let’s start dead last in the field and lose pit selection.”
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