FONTANA, Calif. – When 12 cars failed to post a lap during the final round of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying Friday afternoon at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway, NASCAR knew they had a problem on their hands.
A big problem.
A series of various rules packages this season has been met with some pushback from some of the garage, while others have embraced the change meant to bring the field closer together and create more drama and excitement for NASCAR fans.
When Austin Dillon scored his fourth career Cup pole on Friday based on his fastest lap in Round 2 of qualifying, race fans took the element of drama and excitement to sheer disappointment.
But it wasn’t only the fans that were disappointed, NASCAR called the session a “mockery.”
“I saw obviously what our fans don’t want, obviously, having the last 12 cars wait until they couldn’t get a time posted on the board and kind of making a mockery out of the qualifying is not what we expect for our fans,” offered Scott Miller, senior vice president of competition for NASCAR.
“It’s a little bit on us that we hoped things would go better than that. It’s an exciting show when they’re out there on the race track but obviously, we have a little work to do on our part to get a little bit better format so things like that can’t happen.
“We certainly want to provide our fans with what they deserve, and we and the teams didn’t do a very good job of that today, so we’re really disappointed.”
With NASCAR finding itself front and center when it comes to sports “entertainment” lately, the question now becomes how the sanctioning body moves forward and rectifies the situation while still attempting to put on a spectacle for its viewers?
After all, NASCAR did say Friday evening that they plan to make adjustments to group qualifying in time for the next mile-and-a-half race track at Texas Motor Speedway on March 29.
Exactly what and how it will be done – remains a mystery, but changes are coming.
“I think we will definitely make some tweaks to it, not quite sure what,” added Miller. “We really don’t want to go back to single-car qualifying. There may not be another way. We want to exhaust every possibility before we do that because that’s not as fun, not as intriguing of a show as the group situation.”
The Cup Series heads to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway next weekend for the first short track of the season, where drafting won’t be an issue. The extra week allows NASCAR more time to plan a solution but, in the meantime, – suggestions come plenty.
Do you penalize the drivers who failed to turn a lap during the final round and send them to the rear?
Or perhaps mix the old with the new as Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin suggested.
“Do you draft up until the final session and then we go one by one,” Hamlin offered. “I don’t know. I don’t know if that is the answer or not.”
Kyle Busch took a more simplistic approach to the qualifying shenanigans on Friday
“Don’t hate the player,” he said. “Hate the game.”
Game or not. NASCAR nation is buzzing, and everyone is waiting to see what happens next.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
