NASCAR is reacting to the criticism from last Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup group qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway by making changes Wednesday to the group qualifying sessions that will take place for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series later this week. Last Sunday marked the first time NASCAR used their group qualifying session in this format at Daytona. The knockout style qualifying met with some criticism when it was tried on the last superspeedway the series visited, Talladega last October. Sunday’s session at Daytona left drivers feeling frustrated just as they were at Talladega last fall.
“The frustrating part is dealing with this whole system which makes no sense whatsoever,” driver Ryan Newman who was knocked out in the first round said. “It’s hard to stand behind NASCAR when everybody I talk to up and down pit road doesn’t understand why we’re doing this.”
The session was separated into three rounds all five minutes long. The first round consisted of a group of 24 cars. As they had done last fall the group waited nearly two minutes before going out. It wasn’t long before a crash ended the hopes of several drivers. Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, Bobby Labonte and JJ Yeley got together between turns 1 and 2. MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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