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…
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On Thursday, NASCAR announced sweeping changes to its qualifying format for all three series. This change followed a season in which NASCAR’s fans and drivers expressed doubts and displeasure with the format. Here’s why.
NASCAR intended for the 2024 Cup Series Qualifying platform to be fair to all drivers, regardless of their practice schedule or qualifying time. This format, used on all tracks except for superspeedways, consisted of two groups and two rounds.
The two groups, Group A and Group B, would qualify at different times and line up under differing rules. Group A lined up in the outside row, while Group B lined up in the inside row. However, the five fastest from each group would advance to the second round. The second round consisted of a normal qualifying round, with those ten drivers lining up in order.
This system aimed to overcome the ever-changing track conditions of qualifying and place drivers fairly towards the front or back of the field.
What’s Happening? NASCAR has made a trend of overcomplicating its most straightforward systems over the past 25 years, whether changing the…
Two major problems stemmed from this system: inconsistency and confusion.
The lack of consistency stems from the qualifying procedures for the Xfinity and Truck series differing from the Cup in 2024. Both series utilized a traditional qualifying format with driving lining up in order, with rounds only at Superspeedways.
While this itself is confusing, the Cup Series format confused fans as, at times, and as the track conditions changed, drivers in one row could literally start in front of drivers with faster times from the other row. This became even more confusing when the second-round qualifiers found themselves affected by the A & B row system.
What’s Happening? After a season of confusion for fans, NASCAR is changing its Practice and Qualifying procedures for the 2025 season….
NASCAR addressed this system’s flaws by overhauling the format for 2025 entirely.
Next season, drivers will qualify in one round and line up in the traditional manner. At intermediate tracks, qualifying will be one lap, and at short tracks, the best of two laps.
Once again, at superspeedways only, to compensate for limited practice time, NASCAR will utilize two rounds, with the top ten advancing to round two. Groups return for Road Courses, each with 20 minutes to lay down a time. However, and most notably, NASCAR entirely removed group rows for 2024.
Finally, in an attempt to promote “consistency in procedure across all three series,” NASCAR is introducing this format to all three NASCAR National Series. The only difference is that the Xfinity and Truck Series do not have group practice at road courses.
NASCAR listened to fans on this one, and hopefully, it will pay off. However, NASCAR is known to change formats, and perhaps there will be more changes for 2026.
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