Tag: Qualifying Procedure

NASCAR modifies qualifying procedures

NASCAR has adjusted the practice and qualifying procedures for all three national series going into the 2025 season. Teams will now have additional practice time while reverting to only one round of qualifying with the drivers’ starting positions …

NASCAR has adjusted the practice and qualifying procedures for all three national series going into the 2025 season.

Teams will now have additional practice time while reverting to only one round of qualifying with the drivers’ starting positions based on their qualifying speeds. However, there will be exceptions to this at certain racetracks.

Additionally, a practice session has been added to the Daytona 500 schedule. It will be a 50-minute session that occurs prior to qualifying on Wednesday, Feb. 2.

The procedures for the Cup Series are as follows:

Standard practice and qualifying

  • 25-minute practice for Group 1; 25-minute practice for Group 2Groups and qualifying order are determined by metrics (70% based on previous race finish by owner; 30% based on owner points position. The best scoring cars in metrics will be placed in Group 2.)
  • Qualifying will be one lap, one round
  • Tracks: Las Vegas, Phoenix (spring), Miami, Darlington, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte, Nashville, Michigan, Pocono, St. Louis, New Hampshire

Short track practice and qualifying

  • 25-minute practice for Group 1; 25-minute practice for Group 2
  • Qualifying will be two laps, one round
  • Tracks: Martinsville, Bristol, Dover, Iowa, Richmond

Superspeedway qualifying

  • Qualifying will be one lap, two rounds
  • The fastest 10 cars in the first round advance to the final round
  • Starting positions 1-10 will be based on the fastest qualifying time in the final round; the remainder of the field will start based on qualifying results in the first round.
  • Tracks: Atlanta, Talladega, Daytona (summer)

Road course practice and qualifying

  • 25-minute practice for Group 1; 25-minute practice for Group 2
  • 20-minute qualifying for Group 1, multiple cars on track; 20-minute qualifying for Group 2, multiple cars on track
  • One round of qualifying
  • Tracks: Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Charlotte Roval

Here are the procedures for the Xfinity Series are as follows:

Standard practice and qualifying

  • 25-minute practice for Group 1; 25-minute practice for Group 2
  • Qualifying will be one lap, one round.
  • Tracks: Phoenix (spring), Las Vegas, Miami, Darlington, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte, Nashville, Pocono

Short track practice and qualifying

  • 25-minute practice for Group 1; 25-minute practice for Group 2
  • Qualifying will be two laps, one round.
  • Tracks: Martinsville, Bristol, Dover, Iowa

Superspeedway qualifying

  • Qualifying will be one lap, two rounds
  • The fastest 10 cars in the first round advance to the final round
  • Starting positions 1-10 will be based on finish in the final round; the remainder of the field will start based on qualifying results in the first round.
  • Tracks: Atlanta, Talladega, Daytona (summer)

Road course practice and qualifying

  • 50-minute practice for all cars
  • 20-minute qualifying for Group 1, multiple cars on track; 20-minute qualifying for Group 2, multiple cars on track
  • One round of qualifying
  • Tracks: COTA, Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Portland, Charlotte Roval

Here are the procedures for the Craftsman Truck Series:

Standard practice and qualifying

  • 25-minute practice for Group 1; 25-minute practice for Group 2
  • Qualifying will be one lap, one round.
  • Tracks: Las Vegas, Miami, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte, Nashville, Pocono, Darlington

Short track practice and qualifying

  • 25-minute practice for Group 1; 25-minute practice for Group 2
  • Qualifying will be two laps, one round.
  • Tracks: Martinsville, Bristol, North Wilkesboro, Lucas Oil IRP, Richmond

Superspeedway qualifying

  • Qualifying will be one lap, two rounds
  • The fastest 10 trucks in the first round advance to the final round
  • Starting positions 1-10 will be based on finish in the final round; the remainder of field will start based on qualifying results in the first round.
  • Tracks: Atlanta, Talladega

Road course practice and qualifying

  • 50-minute practice for all cars
  • 20-minute qualifying for Group 1, multiple trucks on track; 20-minute qualifying for Group 2, multiple trucks on track
  • One round of qualifying
  • Tracks: Watkins Glen, Charlotte Roval

The weekends where teams will have expanded practice sessions in the Cup Series are: The Clash, Daytona 500, Circuit of The Americas, All-Star Race, Mexico, Indianapolis and Phoenix finale. In the Xfinity Series it will be Daytona, Rockingham, Mexico, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Phoenix finale. And in the Craftsman Truck Series it will be Daytona, Rockingham, Michigan, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, New Hampshire, Charlotte Roval and Phoenix finale.

COTA will have the same format Cup Series teams ran at Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Roval last season. There will be two groups of drivers that have two sessions each (a total of 40 minutes) of practice. Practice will lead into qualifying.

FOX Sports will broadcast practice and qualifying the Clash, Daytona 500, All-Star Race and all Craftsman Truck Series races. Prime will broadcast Cup Series practice and qualifying for the first half of the season, excluding those Fox Sports broadcasts. TNT Sports will broadcast practice and qualifying on Max and truTV for the second half of the Cup Series season.

Single-lap qualifying suggested to solve F1 traffic issues

A number of senior drivers have suggested single-lap qualifying could be re-introduced to solve the issue of traffic and impeding on short grand prix circuits. The Canadian Grand Prix saw multiple investigations into impeding, with Carlos Sainz …

A number of senior drivers have suggested single-lap qualifying could be re-introduced to solve the issue of traffic and impeding on short grand prix circuits.

The Canadian Grand Prix saw multiple investigations into impeding, with Carlos Sainz given a grid penalty for getting in Pierre Gasly’s way towards the end of the lap. The main issues tend to occur with all 20 cars on track in Q1 on shorter venues, and Fernando Alonso believes a return to single-lap qualifying could also lead to mixed-up grids.

“It is a topic every weekend, especially on short circuits,” Alonso said. “There are a few options to improve this. One is single-lap qualifying like in the past. That would be ideal in my opinion because there’s only one car on track and full TV coverage for that lap for everyone’s sponsors and things like that, and that created a little bit of drama in case the weather changed during qualifying, you could see different cars on pole position, different names. So I think that’s my preferred option.

“You can split the grid like they do in junior formulas in Monaco and things like that, but this is a topic now.”

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Sainz agreed with Alonso, although he believes if a quicker fix is required then splitting Q1 into two equal groups would be the way to go.

“I think the shorter-term solution would be to split Q1 into 10 cars, one from each team — qualifying groups,” Sainz said. “Then I think in Q2 the track already improved quite a bit, Q3 is not a problem. So it would only be for short tracks, divide the [Q1] session by half and do eight minutes with one group. If you are in another group it shouldn’t affect you anyway because the performance of the cars are split. That’s a shorter-term solution.

“The single-lap qualifying is maybe something to experiment with also maybe on sprint weekends to try if it would work. I personally was a big fan of it because I like the feeling of having the whole track for you and having the pressure to perform only on one lap. That would be really good fun for us, for our sponsors and everyone. Maybe for the TV it would be a bit boring for you, but I don’t know.

“It depends on the technology you also have to animate that single lap. If you put a ‘ghost car’ of the fastest lap, I think with the technology we have nowadays something like that could be achievable with the mini-sectors, with the ghost cars, with that kind of stuff. I think we should look into it.”

However, Max Verstappen was against the idea of single-lap qualifying, stating it would make for unfair track conditions with those running last likely to get higher levels of grip.

“It’s quite cool but again there’s also track evolution, so I’m not sure it’s the best idea,” Verstappen said. “There’s always traffic but this is Formula 1 as well, you just have to try and manage it. Some tracks of course are a bit better than others, but it’s a tricky one.”

Nico Hulkenberg believes the problem of traffic is caused by specific teams and the way they handle the busier sessions in qualifying.

“Some tracks are more difficult than others but I also feel that some teams and drivers are better than others and pay more attention and some less,” Hulkenberg said. “Some create the situations more than others. I personally like how our qualifying is — I think it’s quite good to watch, it’s quite good fun from inside the car, so I’m pretty happy.”