Tim Horrigan's Nascar Qualifying Page
Copyright © 2005-2009 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.
The first of these was the "impound system", which was not very popular and last year (2009) was used in only 3 out of 36 races. Under this system, cars are impounded after the qualifying time trials, and no work can be done on them until just before the green flag. Since teams can't switch setups after qualifying, they were forced to use a race setup for qualifying (and/or try to tweak the car during pit stops.) It was used in a majority of races the first year in 2005, but this was rolled back the next year. Rumor has it the deciding factor was complaints from NBC Sports, who wanted footage of mechanics tinkering with the cars during the pre-game show.
For more info see: Jayski's Impounding Rules page
The second innovation introduced in 2005 was the Top 35 system, which has been very popular— although maybe it became less popular when a number of competitive new teams repeatedly had trouble snagging one of the seven or eight remaining slots in the 43-car fields. There has always been some provision for getting top teams who happen to qualify poorly into the main event. Nascar used to use something called "provisionals." The provisional system was absurdly complicated, and often favored part-time "field filler" teams over the serious competitors. Under the new system, the top 35 teams in the owners point standings are guaranteed a spot in the field.
The number 35 was chosen because in 2005, there were approximately three dozen full-time teams. Since then the number of teams has increased significantly, especially since Toyota joined the Cup circuit. In 2008, 43 teams entered every race, and even the part-time teams were much more competitive than in the past. (In 2007, 47 teams entered all 36 events, meaning that every week there were at least 4 serious teams DNQing.) There is talk of reducing the number of guaranteed spots to 25— or even of just eliminating guaranteed spots altogether and simply letting the 43 fastest qualifiers race.
During the first five weeks of the season, the previous season's owners points are used. After Week 6 the current year's points are used.
Owners points are similar to drivers points, only they accrue to the car rather than the driver, and teams get points just for qualifying. 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.
Basically, the Top 35 system works as follows. After the time trials, the remaining Top 35 teams bounce the slower qualifiers out of the field. So, in essence, the non-Top 35 teams have eight spots to compete for. Past champions can use a Past Champion provisional if they need to: this puts them in 43rd place on the starting grid. This provisional is now only available six times per season. In 2007, Dale Jarrett managed to use his allotment up by the 9th event of the season.
The most recent past champion has priority for this provisional: so, Bobby Labonte (2000) has dibs over Terry Labonte (1984 & 1996) and Bill Elliott (1988). All the other active ex-champions seem to have relatively secure Top-35 rides and hopefully won't need the provisional.
The "Top 35" rule applies to the top 35 teams out of whoever actually shows up at the track. If one or more Top 35 teams skip an event, the 36th, 37th, etc. teams would get in. Unless I missed something, the first and only time this happened during the course of the season was in July 2007, at the Brickyard 400, when the 34th place team, Ginn Racing's #13 team (usually driven by Joe Nemechek), went out of existence after Bobby Ginn sold his Ginn Racing operation to Teresa Earnhardt's Dale Earnhardt Inc. (Ginn also owned the 30th place #14 team but that team merged with DEI's #15 team, which had been out of the Top 35.) The 36th-place #21 team got the last Top 35 provisional.
In 2009, many teams found themselves in severe financial difficulty thanks to the collapse of the global economy. Before 2008 even ended, DEI closed down the 27th-place #01 and 32nd-place #15 teams as part of a second merger, this time with Ganassi Racing (although they were eventually reincarnated.) The 33rd place #41 team died during the post-season and was never revived, so the #47 team moved up one slot to fill out the 35th slot on the Top 35. Several more teams folded before the 2010 season, but that was mostly due to mergers and the like.
If the time trials have to be cancelled (which would normally be
only because of rain) the procedure after the first month of the
season (events #6 through #36) is as follows. Basically, the field is
chosen on the basis of owners points, but there are a few exceptions.
Rules #2 through #4 would rarely be used, although Brian
Vickers actually did use Rule #4 at the 2007
Pepsi 400. It is pretty hard to imagine a scenario where the
first half of Rule #6 would come into play— so essentially
these seven rules boil down to the Top 43 teams in owners points
getting in, unless a past champion or recent race winner uses his or
her provisional:
#1) — First 35 by current
Owner Points [position 1-35] [top 35 teams do NOT need to attempt ALL
the races]
#2) — Last Years Cup Champ or the Event
Champion if not already in the field
#3) — Car Owners
whose team has won in the previous and current season not already in
the field
#4) — Drivers who have won in the previous
and current season not already in the field
#5) — ALL
Past Nextel Cup Champions not in by 1 thru 4 [is NOT charged against
the 6 past champ provisionals]
#6) - Qualifying Attempts [not
starts] with Owners points as the tie breaker
#7) — Qualifying
Order Position
("Post Entry" teams entered
after the official deadline would be left out..)
During the first month of the season, when the Top 35 is
determined by previous season owners points, the procedure is:
#1)
- Previous season Owner Points [position 1-35][top 35 teams do NOT
need to attempt ALL the races]
#2) — Race winners from
the previous and current season not already in the field
#3) — ALL
Past Nextel Cup Champions not in by 1 or 2
#4) — Current
season Owner Points [Top 35][not in by rules 1-3]
#5) — Current
season race attempts ties broken by current owners points standings
[not in by rules 1-4]
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 big losers were the guys the next step down, i.e., the 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.) These drivers typically tried to run roughly half the races on the schedule, owning their own teams and always finishing last and making just enough money to get by. Under the old system, thanks to their accumulated provisionals, the "field fillers" often bumped significantly faster and much better-financed Busch drivers, road course specialists, etc. whose teams were making one-off Cup appearances. Under the new system, the fastest drivers will make the field, even those whose cars are making cameo appearances. The number of full-time teams has increased greatly since the Top 35 rule was introduced: in 2004 there were roughly three dozen serious full-time teams, but in 2008 there were almost four dozen. The number of teams has dropped during Great Depression II, but not enough to open the door back up to the "field fillers." The new restrictions on on-track testing (which are intended to abolish the practice although there will be loopholes) will make it harder for the field fillers, since most of them were test drivers who field-filled on the side.
However, we have recently seen an influx of "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.)
The other national series have similar qualifying rules, including the Past Champions provisional for the last spot in the field, although there is no equivalent to "The Chase." The top 35 teams will be guaranteed spots in the 43-car Nationwide Series fields. The top 30 teams will be guaranteed spots in the 36-truck Craftsmen Truck fields.
Except at Daytona...
I think I figured out how the Daytona 500 qualifying system works. It is almost as complicated as the Tax Code. I will make multiple references to the "top 35": this is the top 35 teams in the previous year's owners' points race. (See above for a more detailed explanation.)
(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 # 3-39) 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. The Top 35 teams are guaranteed a spot in the main event, no matter what (unless they miss the Duals/Duels altogether.) Spots 3 through 39 are based on Dual finishes. Typically, this means 33 Top-35 teams and 4 other teams get into the main event through this part of the qualifying process (unless one of the two front-row cars is not a Top-35 team.) Seedings for the 500 are based on order of finish in the Dual races. (In 2008, a non-Top 35 team— Michael Waltrip's #55— qualified for the front row alongside defending 2007 champion Jimmie Johnson. Hence, 34 Top 35 teams and 3 other teams moved on to the main event.)
(Positions # 40-42) Next, we go back to the time trial results and pick the three fastest qualifiers not already in the 500. (This means that, going into Duals, the three or four non-Top 35 teams with the fastest qualifying times will always already be locked into the 500 starting grid.)
(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. (Yes, there are still a few active drivers other than Jimmie Johnson who have won championships! For the 2010 event, Bobby LaBonte [2000] had priority over Bill Ellliott [1988].) If (as would normally be the case) there is no past champion who needs to use the "Past Champion Provisional", then the final spot goes to the next-fastest (i.e., fourth-fastest) qualifier not already in the race.
Once the actual race starts, none of this matters much— unless of course your team isn't even in the race at all! It would be interesting to find out what would happen if any of the Top 35 teams failed to finish 66th or above in qualifying. It looks as if the rule would be that all Top 35 teams get to go to the Duals, regardless of how badly they do in the time trials— hence, if necessary, the 66th place, etc. cars would get bumped from the Duals to make room for Top-35 cars.
See also:
Or another way to look at the Daytona qualifying
First the pole sitter and the outside pole sitter get spots #1 and #2 and they are locked into those spots. They do have to enter the Gatorade Duels but it doesn't matter how they finish.
Only 66 cars make the Gatorade Duels: 33 in each race. (I believe, although I am only 99.9% sure of this, that the field is made up of the "Top 35" teams based on last year's owners points plus up to 31 other teams, based on qualifying time.) In 2007, 61 cars made qualifying runs. In 2008, only 54 cars did so.
Theoretically, the first Gatorade Duel race, with the odd numbered cars, is infinitesimally stronger than the second one with the even numbered cards. So, one more car gets in from Duel #1, when the next 37 spots are filled: 19 from the first race, 18 from the second. Spots 3 through 39 are filled up according to Duel finishing position.
BUT: any "Top 35 team" which finishes out of the money in the Duels gets to bump non-Top 35 teams out of the race. The net result is that the 4 highest-finishing non-Top 35 teams get into the race via the Duels. (If a non-Top 35 team wins a place on the front row—as happened in 2008, when Michael Waltrip's #55 car finished 2nd in qualifying— then only 3 or perhaps even 2 "transfer" spots would be available.)
The 43rd and last place is available for a Past Champions Provisional, should it be needed. In 2010, two past champions entered non-Top 35 cars at Daytona: Boibby Labonte and Bill Elliott. (Labonte had priority because he won the championship the most recently, in 2004.)
Spots 40 through 42 go to the fastest 3 qualifiers who aren't already in the race. If no Past Champions Provisional is used, the 43rd spot goes to the 4th-fastest qualifier who isn't already in the race.
And I think this is how it all played out before the 2010 Daytona 500 (but I may be misunderstanding and/or oversimplifying):
Eight non-Top 35 teams made the race, using various paths to get in:
Michael McDowell and Max Papis got in from Duel #1. Todd Bodine and Joe Nemechek got bumped out of the big show by slower Top-35 teams. But that was not the end for Nemechek.
Mike Bliss and the appropriately named Scott Speed got in from Duel #2. Casey Mears, Past Champion Bobby Labonte, and David Gilliland got bumped from the big show by slower Top-35 teams. But that was not the end for Labonte. (The slowest Top-35 driver was Boris Said in either duel. He completed just 3 laps. In the two previous years Said got bumped on a technicality by a Past Champion,)
Slots #40 through #42 go to the three fastest qualifiers who aren't already in the race. Those were Past Champion Bill Elliott, Joe Nemechek, and Past Champion Bobby Labonte.
Michael Waltrip got the last spot as the fastest remaining qualifier.
The Daytona 500 field is not reseeded by qualifying time: however, if (as happened to Jeff Gordon in 2007), a driver gets disqualified from the Duels, his or her starting position will be knocked down to 42nd and everyone else moves up a notch. In 2010, Gordon wrecked his car in his Duel and will go to the back of the field— but that just means he literally pulls out of the grid during the last parade lap to drop back to last place. The race is scored as if he started 21st and had a very bad first lap.
See also:
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