Throughout a contest briefing on Tuesday at its R&D Heart in Harmony, N.C., NASCAR unveiled some tweaks to its qualifying procedures for Cup Sequence races.
The change will have an effect on all races besides these on superspeedways since group qualifying isn’t used at these tracks.
In any respect others, all entries will nonetheless be cut up into two teams for qualifying, with the quickest 5 drivers from every group advancing to the ultimate spherical. These 10 vehicles will then compete for the pole. How these 10 vehicles end within the remaining spherical will set the primary 10 positions on the observe for the race.
Nevertheless, so far as positions 11-40, vehicles that don’t advance from Group A will decide the skin row for beginning positions 11-40 (quickest to slowest), whereas the remaining vehicles from Group B will decide the within row.
Beforehand, the vehicles that completed exterior the highest 5 within the two teams had been seeded 11-40 based mostly on their quickest qualifying lap no matter which group they got here from.
Cup collection managing director Brad Moran mentioned the change got here after consulting groups and drivers with the objective hoping to eradicate or scale back any benefit obtained by drivers being in a specific group as observe situations change.
Group assignments will proceed to be decided by efficiency metrics, which contemplate quickest lap time place, driver’s remaining race end place, proprietor’s remaining race end place and proprietor factors place.
Amongst different objects introduced Tuesday:
– NASCAR will proceed to make use of mufflers for the preseason Conflict on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Chicago road race however has tailored a brand new design it helps to lower the quantity of warmth within the vehicles generated by the mufflers.
– NASCAR examined a full battery electrical race automobile – with a compact utility automobile design – for 3 days at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The automobile, which has no manufacturer-specific design, did 340 laps over three days with driver David Ragan.
– Following the Daytona 500, NASCAR will do extra paving within the space of Ryan Preece’s wreck which happened close to the backstretch chicane. It had already paved a few of the grass space earlier this month.
– Cup groups can be allowed to have LED boards on their pit field indicators to permit sponsor signage.
– Each the Xfinity and Truck collection can have stay pit stops in any respect races barring unexpected circumstances.
– The Xfinity Sequence will as soon as once more supply the “Sprint 4 Money’ bonus program. The qualifying race can be March at Richmond, Va. The 4 races which pays the bonus are Martinsville, Texas, Talladega and Dover.
– The Truck Sequence will as soon as once more supply the “Triple Truck Problem” bonus. The three races the bonus can be paid are Charlotte, Gateway and Nashville.
