Jan 28, 2008

NASCAR Changes Qualifying Rules -- Sort Of

Well, NASCAR has changed its qualifying system to make it fairer. Great. In describing the change one has to use the relative term "fairer" because in the through-the-looking-glass world of NASCAR, it is hard to apply the word "fair" as an absolute. And, as I tell my children virtually every day, nothing in life is fair. So why should NASCAR be any different? A small step forward is surely better than none at all.

We first talked about the qualifying issue in the January 7, 2008 column, and now NASCAR has altered its procedures in the interest of making qualifying more equitable for all involved. And the simple fact of the matter is that all who are really, truly involved are those drivers outside the anointed top 35 who, by the arcane mechanism of "owners' points," get a free ride into the field each Sunday. The change in the rules is that all those drivers who aren't grandfathered into the grid on owners' points or exemptions will get their attempts to qualify at about the same time. Up until now, each individual qualifying time was strictly luck of the draw, and drivers might get a beneficial track time or one that was horrendous simply as a matter of chance. NASCAR qualifying sessions are typically so long that track conditions -- sun, clouds, temperature -- can change significantly over the course of the day, affecting individual driver's ability to qualify. From now on the "real" qualifying will take place at the end of the session, so that all the drivers who are not already granted a spot in the field based on their owners' continual fealty to NASCAR will get a roughly equal shot.

While we applaud this, in our myopic way we feel it doesn't go nearly far enough. If you ask most NASCAR fans they will tell you that the grid each Sunday afternoon or Saturday night consists of the drivers who were fastest in qualifying, but in the NASCAR system that is not the case at all. In an effort to help owners protect their investment, NASCAR has long had a system in which 35 of those spots are reserved for drivers on teams that have both a big investment and a long relationship with the sanctioning body. So for those 35, which of course is by far the bulk of the field, "qualifying" isn't about qualifying; it's about grid position, which doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot in Sprint Cup racing.

With all that in mind what you hear from this corner is the sound of one hand clapping for the rules change. It's a step in the right direction, but the way we look at it -- our philosophy being "let the fastest racers race" -- it doesn't go nearly far enough.