August 5, 2010
By Doug Demmons
Is there anything about a Sprint Cup weekend more tedious than qualifying?
Is there anything about the current qualifying system that would entice someone to buy a ticket and sit in the stands for an hour or two to watch it?
If you just like to hang out at the track, qualifying day can be an enjoyable experience. For one thing, there’s no traffic and you can get to know the other 15 or 20 people who showed up.
You’d think that NASCAR would have figured out by now that if practically nobody is coming out to see its stars while they are on the track that something must be wrong.
Well, maybe they have.
The truck race at Pocono featured a different form of qualifying than we have been used to seeing. Multiple trucks were on the track at the same time.
It wasn’t overly exciting but it was certainly different. And it shows that NASCAR is willing to experiment a little.
So maybe the experiment can be taken a little further. Maybe qualifying can become something that people will actually want to buy a ticket to watch.
Isn’t that the point after all -- to sell tickets, to get fans excited? If you’re putting on a show that nobody is watching, what’s the point in continuing it?
If qualifying is going to be nothing more than 45 cars taking individual laps, then just do away with it entirely. Set the field by the fastest times in practice. Draw straws. Flip a coin.
Or, shake things up a little. How about giving knockout qualifying a try?
It works wonders in Formula One. In fact, F1 qualifying is sometimes more exciting than the race itself.
In F1 there are three stages of qualifying. All 24 cars go out in the first 20-minute session. Cars can pit during the session. The slowest seven cars are eliminated and start at the back for the race.
In the second session, the 17 cars that advanced go out for another 15-minute session. Times from the first session are erased. The fastest 10 cars advance to the final round.
The last session is 10 minutes. The fastest car wins the pole. It becomes a race against the clock as drivers save their best for that last lap and the pole often is decided in the last seconds of the session.
What’s not to like about that?
Would it work for NASCAR? It would need to be done differently since a NASCAR field involves about twice as many cars as F1.
For instance, the top 35 teams could be divided into two groups. Each group would go out for 20 minutes. They could run as many laps as they want in that time and pit for tires or adjustments if they choose.
The top seven in each group would advance to a 10-minute second round. Times from the first round would be erased. The fastest in the final round wins the pole and the rest of the field is set from fastest to slowest.
The cars that have to qualify on speed would compete in their own 10-minute session after the pole has been decided. The fastest cars fill out the remaining eight positions.
The whole thing would be over with-in an hour and 15 minutes.
At a track like Pocono or Indianapolis where track position is crucial, knockout qualifying would take on added importance and drama. At a track like Talladega, where starting position is meaningless, qualifying would be enhanced with the ability of cars to bump draft.
In economic times like these -- with tracks slashing ticket prices to fill the seats on Sunday -- maybe part of the answer is to fill some of those seats on Friday.
Doug Demmons is a writer and editor for the Birmingham News ~ he writes daily and weekly auto racing columns ranging from NASCAR to open wheel to Formula One, local tracks and more... you can read Doug's columns online at Blog of Tommorow
Follow Doug on Twitter: @dougdemmons
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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