NASCAR RANT: with Hank "The TANK" - Knock-out Qualifying!

Courtesy of SI - Will Danica Show Up?

The big news this week in the world of NASCAR is that qualifying will now be a “knock-out” style qualifying instead of one car at a time. At tracks 1.25 miles or longer, there will be three rounds. The first round, all drivers will be on the track for 25 minutes.

Speed is the Key!

The second round will have the top 24 cars attempting the fastest lap for 10 minutes, with only the top 12 of those moving on for the final five minute round to see who wins the pole. At the tracks that are shorter than 1.25 miles, there will only be two rounds.

The first round, all drivers will attempt their fastest lap for 30 minutes, while the top 12 will move on to the second and final round for a 10 minute shot at the pole. These will not be in effect for the Daytona 500 or the All-Star race.

This causes an actual consistently fast car to be able to win the pole. In seasons past, a driver could get lucky and have a cloud position itself above the race track (adding more grip), and causing him to have a little bit more of an advantage than all the others. Oh but no more!

Now you have to be fast, period. And you have to be fast over three rounds, not just one lap. Don’t get me wrong, a perfect qualifying run would have at most 3 laps, each running that fastest lap on the first lap. But now, someone who would struggle trying to qualify for races because of only having one or two laps, will now have time to put together a great lap and move on to the next round. It really takes the pressure off of drivers who have to run a perfect lap on their only attempt at it.

I really believe that this new qualifying format is a great change in NASCAR. It is going to be exciting! But of course, there are those who don’t like it. Why? Because CHANGE IS SCARY!!! AHHHHH! Oh stop. Ten years ago, this season they made one of the biggest changes to race formats the sport has ever seen: The green-white-checkers rule. And that rule set up some great finishes and made sure that the race ended under green and not caution. Another change in NASCAR in recent seasons?

The simpler point system, where you can calculate where you need to finish almost instantly instead of breaking out that calculator and seeing how many points are needed if that guy finishes deeper in the field. So change isn’t always a bad thing. I feel that this will be an amazing change, making for excitement before you even watch the race




Rev your engines! We are just getting started!!!

Hank "The TANK"