NASCAR adds quality to qualifying

NASCAR will make qualifying a more accurate predictor of actual race performance, and move the sessions to Saturday at more than half its tracks next year.

Special qualifying parts and chassis setups will be eliminated by the procedural change announced Monday.

For decades, qualifying hasn’t been a realistic indicator of who would do well in a race. Teams would make radical changes to their cars for qualifying only and then go back to the garages and undo all the modifications to put the cars in “race trim.”

NASCAR hopes to change all that by moving qualifying from Friday to Saturday and then impounding all 43 cars in the field, forbidding any work on them until the race starts.

Because “qualifying setups” make cars so fragile and difficult to drive for more than one or two laps, teams wouldn’t dare leave their cars in that condition for a race.

“Ultimately, all the teams will arrive at the track with a focus on one goal,” said NASCAR Nextel Cup Series director John Darby. “That goal will be to have the best possible race setup.”

The plan is to run two hours of practice on Friday, then time trials only on Saturday afternoon, then lock up the cars, then race.

Previously, at most tracks, there was an initial practice session, and then qualifying, on Friday. Then on Saturday, teams would return the cars to race trim and fine-tune them in two final 45-minute practice sessions long known as “Happy Hour.”

The rule won’t apply at special events such as the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, N.C., where time trials traditionally are run well in advance of the races.

Not all tracks on the tour have agreed to the changes. Darby did not specify tracks that have agreed to the change.

But Chicagoland Speedway has not yet agreed to the change, sources said. Those in agreement include Daytona International Speedway, for its July race only; Homestead-Miami Speedway for its one race annually; and California Speedway for its two races.

“We’re still in the process of getting more tracks to commit to this procedure,” Darby said.

Darby called the changes “cost-saving measures” for team owners, who won’t have to buy as many tires for a race weekend, nor any specially developed springs, shock absorbers or lubricants.