NASCAR modifies Daytona qualifying format for XFINITY, Trucks
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Why have a five-minute qualifying session if no one is going to use the full five minutes?
That
was one of the rationales NASCAR considered in streamlining the time
trial process for the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series for
events to be held at Daytona
International Speedway this weekend.
The
first round of qualifying for Friday’s Nextera Energy Resources 250
NCWTS race (7:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1) and Saturday’s Alert Today
Florida 300 XFINITY Series race
(3:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1) will feature cars divided into four
groups, in numbers as equal as possible based on a random draw.
Smaller
groups will ease pit road congestion, which was an issue during
Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying. The cars will be staged
with their left-side tires just
outside an assigned pit box, giving each driver an unimpeded exit from
pit road.
And
once a car begins to roll, it must continue its progress toward the end
of pit road. No more starting and stopping. No more backing up.
Each
qualifying session will be reduced to 2.5 minutes as opposed to the five
minutes used in the Cup series on Sunday. The 24 fastest cars from the
four sessions in the first
round combined will advance to the second round, which will feature two
2.5-minute sessions with cars divided into even and odd-numbered groups
based on speeds in the first round.
The fastest 12 cars advance to the final 2.5-minute round, which will determine the pole winner.
Though
the new format applies only to the NCWTS and NXS races at Daytona,
NASCAR considers this a trial run for possible modifications to the
system for other superspeedway
races, and perhaps extending to Sprint Cup.
