Daytona Group Qualifying was a failure so lets try something different?
At Talladega this weekend NASCAR attempted a new qualifying format similar to Single Car Qualifying. After Daytona something had to be done especially with the Clint Bowyer and Reed Sorenson incident almost costing Clint his shot at the Daytona 500. I think the change should only be implemented for the Daytona 500 Qualifying in which I didn’t think a change was needed from the original Single Car Qualifying. The new qualifying was good for those like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. who really had fast cars in single car practice. Drivers like Ryan Blaney and Sam Hornish Jr. really benefited from this Qualifying with Ryan starting 3rd and Sam starting 12th, both starting inside the top 15. Drivers who were hurt by this new qualifying include Michael McDowell, who finished 7th at Daytona in July last year and led laps last season at the 2.66 mile superspeedway. It also hurt Jeb Burton who, like McDowell, didn’t turn a fast enough lap to qualify for the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, McDowell’s first DNQ since Atlanta in 2014. McDowell had speed in Pack Practice on Friday where he finished 10th. Sadly Michael was unable to show his pack speed on Sunday. Others who this new qualifying didn’t really treat well include Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Landon Cassil, and a few others. Teams like Hillman Racing normally qualify very well when it comes to group qualifying at superspeedways because of the fact that underfunded teams don’t normally have the speed when it comes to single car runs. McDowell, who has affiliation with Team Penske, usually works with Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano who technically are teammates to Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell. These teams when alone don’t have the speed in single car runs but if you put them in the pack at Talladega or Daytona during qualifying they will run very fast laps because of the draft. In my personal opinion NASCAR needs to have Single Car Qualifying for the Daytona 500 because Leavine Family Racing, Phil Parsons Racing and others like them can race their way into the show on Thursday in the Budweiser Duels. But on any other level keep the Group Qualifying until NASCAR can find a way to qualify with equal playing grounds. (Koelle, 2015)
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