NASCAR retains group qualifying but will penalize drivers for not taking the green

NASCAR issued a memo to Monster Energy Cup Series teams on Monday that confirmed the sanctioning body’s commitment to group qualifying but not without crafting harsher penalties for drivers that do not make a timed lap before time expired in any given round.  

The rules remain the same for group qualifying moving forward.

However, any driver that does not start a timed lap before the clock expires in any given round will have their times disallowed and be forced to start the race at the rear of the field. Additionally, if NASCAR determines that a competitor blocks or impairs another vehicle from starting a timed lap, that competitor will have all previous qualifying times disallowed and they will start at the rear.  

“Qualifying is an important element of the race weekend, and NASCAR has worked closely with the teams to implement a procedure that is both fair from a competition perspective and entertaining for our fans,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, in a statement. “Starting this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, we will implement a procedural change that will be in effect for all three national series. We expect the updated procedure to result in a better outcome for drivers, fans and our track and broadcast partners.”

The change became necessary after all 12 cars in the final round of qualifying at Auto Club Speedway on March 15 failed to start a timed lap before time expired. As a result, the qualifying times reverted to those posted in the second round, awarding Austin Dillon the pole. 

Due to the drafting elements built into the new high downforce, low horsepower competition package, the first driver to cross the finish line in a group of cars is essentially a sucker for the rest of the field. So drivers have played games on pit road in the hopes of avoiding being the first to cross the line and with the equal intent to be deeper in the draft.

Instead of the fastest cars qualifying near the front, results with this high drag package are based on the timing of a run and a driver’s position in line.

This is best explained by Kyle Busch crew chief Adam Stevens.

"What incentive do you have to be the guy leading the pack? You have none," Adam Stevens said on SiriusXM Radio on Wednesday. "You're going to be the slowest of the cars in the draft. That's just fundamental physics…

"So, in the third round, no one wanted to be the buffoon that leads the pack and be last, they wanted to be the one drafting. The guy in second has the advantage on the guy in first. The guy in third has the advantage over those two guys and so forth. The guy who goes out last will get the pole if everyone makes it out in time.

"So why didn't the 12th place guy go out first? Because he was going to be 12th if he went out first, so why would he go out first? Because we’re just all going to follow him."

A similar situation played out at Las Vegas with drivers waiting until the last minute to make a qualifying run in the final round. As a result, Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman failed to take the green flag in time.

NASCAR was hesitant to revert to single car qualifying for the Cup Series, something it had to do for the Truck Series in 2014 since it uses a similar high downforce and low horsepower competition package.

Based on words and now action, NASCAR intends to make qualifying a show and will now penalize drivers who work against that principle, even if it is in the name of on-track results. 

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