Has NASCAR Overcomplicated Qualifying?
What’s Happening? NASCAR has made a trend of overcomplicating its most straightforward systems over the past 25 years, whether changing the…
After a season of confusion for fans, NASCAR is changing its Practice and Qualifying procedures for the 2025 season. These changes affect all three National Series and feature changes to practice format and timing.
What’s Happening? NASCAR has made a trend of overcomplicating its most straightforward systems over the past 25 years, whether changing the…
In 2024, NASCAR introduced a new Cup Series format for most tracks that utilized two qualifying rounds for Groups A and B. The five fastest from each round advanced to a combined final round, while the rest from Group A lined up in the outside row and Group B in the inside row.
This format would shift at tracks like superspeedways and road courses while retaining the two qualifying rounds. The 2024 format also limited each group to 20 minutes of practice, with NASCAR removing practice at some races like the Daytona 500.
This former format confused fans and casual viewers due to its complexity and how some drivers, who were faster than others, could line further back. Furthermore, this system was not fluid throughout NASCAR’s other national series.
The new format is rather traditional, with two key changes: removing the two-round qualifying format at non-superspeedways and additional practice time throughout the season.
In a press release, NASCAR claims the new format “will include more practice time, consistency in procedure across all three series, and a return to simplified starting lineup rules.”
The new standard format, used at 12 tracks this season, consists of 25-minute practices for two groups and one-lap qualifying with no groups, rounds, or time limit. The practice groups are decided by a metric score, with the best-scoring cars in group two. Maintaining groups in practice allows NASCAR to maintain a high amount of on-track activity while removing the confusing 2024 system of groups and alternating rows in qualifying.
Of course, this will change at other tracks that are not considered intermediates.
For non-intermediate tracks, the format changes moderately.
At short tracks, group practice remains the same at 25 minutes. However, this format, used at five tracks, adds a lap to qualifying, much like last season.
At Superspeedways, the format shifts to one lap, with two rounds, in which the fastest ten drivers make it to the final round. This two-round format compensates for a lack of practice at the tracks. However, a benefit to the new system is the highly requested addition of practice for the Daytona 500, something that has disappeared in recent years.
Road course procedure is the outlier of the track formats. While practice remains the same, qualifying utilizes a time limit, group qualifying of 20 minutes per group; however, there is only one qualifying round.
Since slimming down the format in the early 2020s, NASCAR has added additional practice time to new tracks, series returning to tracks, and important races.
Cup Series:
Xfinity Series:
Truck Series:
NASCAR also changed its other National Series formats, maintaining a similar format for each series. The only significant change is that the Truck and Xfinity Series will not have a group practice at Road Courses.
Hopefully, this system maintains the goal of cohesion while removing the confusion of last year’s Cup Series qualifying format.
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From the chaos of the Daytona 500 to what might be the best race of the season, EchoPark/Atlanta Motor Speedway is up next. Tyler Reddick comes in with momentum after his Daytona triumph, but Atlanta’s drafting style can flip the script in a heartbeat. The data says one thing, history says another, and several heavy hitters are already looking for redemption. Eric Estepp and Ryan Stevens from WinTheRace.info break down and preview the race weekend at EchoPark Speedway.
There are massive storylines bubbling under the surface. Hendrick has owned Atlanta in the Next Gen era, but recent crashes and bad luck tell a different story. Penske’s numbers remain elite here, even if Speedweeks raised eyebrows. And a handful of aggressive young drivers are hovering right on the edge of a breakthrough. Atlanta rarely disappoints, and with desperation already creeping in after just one race, Sunday could get wild in a hurry. If Daytona was about survival, this one might be about execution.
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As Denny Hamlin and Kyle Petty noted, the recent Daytona 500 felt like an old 500 race, a big celebration throwback compared to recent years, when many felt the race had lost its spark. Both pointed to the crowd and the buzz, saying the place felt like it did decades ago and that the event had fans on their feet. With JR Motorsports already making two Cup starts, both at Daytona, speculation among fans has started circulating about whether Dale Earnhardt Jr. could strap in for another run next year.
Last year, when Justin Allgaier made the Cup debut on behalf of JRM, he brought it home inside the top ten. This time, however, he started from 40th, cut through the field, and cracked the top five by Lap 81. By Lap 84, he even had his nose in front, only for the whole movie to turn 180 degrees. While trying a late block on Hamlin, Allgaier slapped the wall and lit the fuse on a 20-car Big One, sweeping up nearly half the field. The damage parked him for the day, and he was scored P38.
Still, with the race serving a full plate of drama, Junior’s wife, Amy Earnhardt, tossed a big thought into the situation by floating the idea of Junior running the next Daytona 500. On the latest episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Jr. shared, “Amy told me I should run the Daytona 500 next year. Really? Yeah. I was like, what? We were laying in bed Sunday night after the race. She’s like, you should just drive it next year.”
However, Junior’s reaction was not what many of his fans would have liked. He stated, “I’m like, ‘Hello? Sorry? Are you okay? There’s a lot of momentum in this sport. Oh, man. I don’t know.”
He played it down on the show and left it hanging, giving neither a green light nor a red flag. That left the door cracked open, at least in theory. After Allgaier’s tumultuous run, many wondered if Junior might be tempted to dip a toe back into Cup waters, even if it is a one-off or a Daytona-only cameo.
But then later, he took to X to clear the air, writing, “I won’t be racing Cup but she’s not the reason.”
Since he retired from NASCAR, Junior has maintained a constant presence in the NASCAR Xfinity (now O’Reilly Auto Parts Series), having attempted at least one race every season, except last year. But the last time Junior took a swing at the Daytona 500 was in 2017, when he finished P37.
Still, with two wins in the sport’s crown jewel and a stat sheet that shows seven top-five finishes and four runner-up runs in the race, fans would line the fences if he ever chooses to change his mind and roll the dice again.
While plenty of calls from NASCAR over the race weekend have raised eyebrows, from yellow flags to their talk around fuel-mileage racing, the lightning rod has been the driver approval process and the green light given to names like Cleetus McFarland and Natalie Decker.
Decker, who has barely gotten seat time over the past two seasons due to pregnancy, came back into action at Daytona in the Tier-2 series after running one O’Reilly race last year. Her return put her under the microscope right away.
During the United Rentals 300 race at Daytona, Decker found herself in a wreck that turned everyone’s heads. Running the high lane, she tangled with Sam Mayer. To most, it looked like she had a mile of room to lift and steer clear as Mayer slid up the track, and the scene did her no favors. With only seven lead-lap finishes in 46 national series starts, she does not get the benefit of the doubt from the crowd, though some argue the replay looks harsher than the reality.
That crash poured fuel on the fire around how NASCAR stamps approvals. And instead of getting discussed for her racecraft, Decker often lands in the headlines for dustups that she ends up owning. Many fans even dub her an influencer trying to pass as a driver.
The contrast many pointed to is Mike Wallace, who was not cleared to run the Daytona 500 last year after a long layoff from big tracks. Fans ask how Decker got the nod for Tier-2 competition while Wallace was left on the sidelines.
The same debate followed McFarland. He logged a couple of ARCA superspeedway runs last year and held his own. In the recent ARCA race, he hovered near the top ten before a jack issue on pit road knocked him back, and he clawed back to finish around 11th.
But in his Truck Series debut at Daytona, McFarland was swept into a wreck after six laps, and critics pinned it on a lack of laps at that level. Some fans see him as a marketing engine for lower tiers and argue that if NASCAR waves him through with a thin résumé, then the next driver with a similar logbook should get the same treatment, regardless of their fan following.
On Reddit, commenting on Decker, one fan wrote, “I mean…yeah. She had almost a whole damn mile to avoid that wrecked car and not only did she not avoid said car, she promptly launched into a whiny tirade and did not take any sort of responsibility.”
The pushback has not come from fans alone. Insiders have also poked holes in the approval pipeline. On Monday’s episode of Door Bumper Clear, spotter Freddie Kraft took aim at both drivers. On McFarland, he said flat out that the YouTuber’s racing history does not stack up for a Truck Series grid and warned that putting him in the field puts others in harm’s way after the early crash that left him at the tail end.
On Decker, Kraft argued that a track record filled with wrecks and low finishes should have kept her off a place as unforgiving as Daytona. Still, he did not lay it all at their feet. In his view, the lion’s share of blame sits with NASCAR for handing out approvals before the drivers were ready.
Even Kelley Earnhardt Miller, co-owner and CEO of JR Motorsports, chimed in with a short social post. After Decker blamed Mayer for the contact, claiming he “rolled up the track,” Kelly Earnhardt replied with a simple “Haha,” which many read as brushing off the claim.
JRM figures, including Mike Davis, backed Mayer, noting his car had flat tires, no brakes, and heavy damage at the time, leaving him along for the ride with little control over where it drifted.
Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr. struck a softer tone on McFarland. He said what happened at Daytona could happen to anyone, himself included. But given the following McFarland brings and the eyeballs that come with it, Junior believes the sanctioning body should help him climb the ladder the right way.
On his The Dale Jr. Download, the Hall of Famer said, “Is he ready to race trucks right now? No. Will he be? Could he be? Yes. If i was NASCAR, I would be doing everything I could to get him better and what he needs is more ARCA races he needs to race short track, asphalt, I know he has a track but i mean he needs to do more than Crown Vic’s and things like that. He could run the triple crown for, for the late model stocks for NASCAR. I don’t care. He just needs to be racing more than he’s doing it. And he needs to get more experience and get better.”
What do you think about these drivers making it into the upper series? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.