Tim Horrigan's Nascar Qualifying Page
Copyright © 2005-2014 by Tim Horrigan
I originally put this page together in 2005, when two new wrinkles were added to the Cup qualifying process. (This was also the year that the Chase for the Championship was introduced.)
The Nascar universe is always evolving and never moves in a strictly linear fashion (although they do always drive counterclockwise.) In 2005 the qualifying system (for all races other than the Daytona 500) changed. Click here to read the official Nascar explanation.
In 2011, Nascar changed the points system for basically the first time since 1973. (I say "basically" because a few minor tweaks were made over the decades.) Also, if qualifying is rained out, starting positions are based on practice speeds. If practice is also rained out, Nascar goes back to the owners' points as in the past.
This rules change was rolled out as a fait accompli about three weeks before the season started.
The new points systems awards 46 points to the winner, 42 to the 2nd-place finisher, on down to 1 point for 43rd place. (There is no provision for more than 43 entrants: when the old system was new, some races had 60 or more entrants, depending on the length of the track.) Everyone who leads a lap gets 1 bonus point, with a 2nd bonus point to the car with the most laps led: the maximum number of points you can win is 48.
See Also:
The qualifying rules were radically changed in 2005, when the " Top 35 system" was introduced. Amd now in 2013, there has been a second radical change: the Top 35 system was eliminated. This system was based on owners points, only they accrue to the car rather than the driver, and teams get points just for showing up (even if they fail to qualify.) The car's identity is somewhat synonymous with its car number, except that teams frequently swap car numbers, which gets very confusing at times. Normally the points races are virtually indistinguishable, at least at the top of the leader boards.
The system introduced in 2013 is wonderfully simple, even though everything in Nascar gets complicated once the season gets going. The top 36 spots in the field (except in the case of the Daytona 500) go to the top 36 qualifiers. Cars go out one a time and each runs two laps all by itself The length of a lap varies greatly from track to track: it can be as short as 0.526 mile (Martinsville) or as long as 2.66 miles (Talladega.) The last seven slots in the field go to the top 7 teams (based on owners points) who aren't already in the race— but there is a "past champions provisional" if the driver happens to be a past series champion. There are two who may need to use it in 2013: Terry Labonte is only running part time and Kurt Busch is with a relatively underfunded race team. Busch has first dibs over Labonte, since he won the championship more recently.
See:
If the time trials have to be cancelled (which would normally be only because of rain) practice speeds are used. If practice is cancelled as well, then the whole field is set according to owners points.
The second-tier Nationwide Series is keeping the old "Top 35 system" only now is has a "Top 30" system. The Nationwide series used to have 43 cars per race (assuming that many cars even showed up) but now, as of 2013, it has just 40 cars per race. The Camping World Truck series has a "Top 25" system with 33 trucks per race. The Nationwide and Truck series have many multidriver teams, and quite a few teams are owned by Sprint Cup drivers who share the ride with young protegees.
Even at the Daytona 500, the Top 35 drivers get to go first in the qualifying time trials. This ensures that the remaining drivers who need to get in "on speed" all run their qualifying laps at the end of the session. This means that those drivers face uniform conditions— and it also eliminates the embarrassing situation where an underdog gets the pole early on and then loses it when it starts raining before qualifying can be completed.
The new rules were designed to help the lower-ranked full-time Cup
teams, who no longer had to worry about running out of provisionals.
(This was not a common occurrence, but it did happen to Kyle
Petty and Scott
Wimmer in 2004.)
The pre-2005 rules were exploited by a subculture of marginal (more or less) professional "field fillers" such as Kirk Shelmerdine and Morgan Shepherd. (Shepherd, by the way, is quite a colorful character. And I will mention, even though this has nothing to do with the subject at hand, that he happens to be Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s uncle.)
The post-2005 rules replaced the old "field fillers" with "start and park" cars who race their way in during qualifying but then mysteriously malfunction during the early part of the main event. They are somewhat more competitive than the old "field fillers," since they do have to run good qualifying laps: one of them, Landon Cassil even led one of the biggest races, the 2010 Brickyard 400, before his #71 car (which had been pretty strong) suddenly "overheated." (Cassill led under green, not under yellow.)
It will be fun to see what harmless little scams the post-2013 rules will lead to at the bottom of the field.
Except at Daytona...
I think I figured out how the Daytona 500 qualifying system works. It is almost as complicated as the Tax Code.
(Positions # 1-2) The first step is the same as at every other event: a 2-lap time trial. (One difference is that the qualifying takes place a week before the 500.) The winner gets the Bud Pole, the runner-up the outside pole. These two drivers are guaranteed a spot in the big race as long as they bother to go through the second phase of the process.
(Positions # 3-32) The Twin 150s (currently the Gatorade Duel 150s, formerly the variously-sponsored Dual 125s or Twin 125s.) The top 66 qualifiers (and normally there are fewer than 66 teams which show up for qualifying) are assigned to one of two preliminary races, typically held the Thursday before the big race. Seedings for the 500 are based on order of finish in the Dual races.
(Positions #33-36) Next, we go back to the time trial results and pick the four fastest qualifiers not already in the 500.
(Positions #37-42) The next seven slots are for the remaining teams with the most owners points (based on the previous season.) This could theoretically include teams which didn't even make the Twin 150s (in the unlikely event that more than 67 teams ever entered the event.) The teams are seeded in the main race by qualifying time. Unless the Past Champion Provisional kicks in, that is...
(Position # 43) Finally, if there is an eligible past Cup series champion who has not yet qualified, he or she gets the 43rd starting position. If more than one past champion has been left out of the lineup, the most recent one gets the provisional. In 2013, all the past champions got into the race without using the provisional. (Terry Labonte used his team's 2012 owner's points, and started in 39th place, based on being 34th in 2012 owners points and 36th in qualifying.) If you use the provisional, you have to start in last place, regardless of qualifying time.
Once the actual race starts, none of this matters much— unless of course your team isn't even in the race at all!
See also:
If (as happened to Jeff Gordon in 2007), a driver gets disqualified after the Duels, his or her starting position will be knocked down to 42nd and everyone else moves up a notch.
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