Sports

NASCAR CHANGES QUALIFYING AT TALLADEGA AND DAYTONA

CARS WILL TAKE SINGLE LAP BY THEMSELVES

(Source: © Nascar)
USPA NEWS - NASCAR has a new qualifying format for Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway, a hybrid of its group knockout qualifying and the old single-car format.
Starting at the Talladega race weekend in May, cars will take a single lap by themselves. But instead of a long, drawn-out session like in the past, officials will release the cars at timed intervals to speed the process. The procedure for Daytona 500 qualifying will be announced later.
There will be two rounds, with the top 12 drivers advancing to the final round after a 10-minute break. NASCAR's knockout qualifying seemed to work well on every other track but the superspeedways, where drivers would team up in packs and try to hang at the back -- where the draft made the last car the fastest.
That created a race against the clock and also sparked crashes that took out several vehicles. At Talladega last fall and at Daytona in February, drivers railed against the format -- most notably with Clint Bowyer ranting after being involved in a wreck that destroyed his primary car for the Daytona 500.
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