| No More Second Chances | |
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Last week NASCAR President Mike Helton announced there would be no more second round
qualifying beginning in 2001. This seems to be yet another blow for the smaller teams
struggling along with limited budgets.
Until now the typical Winston Cup weekend would begin with driver check in on Friday morning. Then
they usually got a couple hours of practice on the track before Bud Pole qualifying. Another practice
session on Saturday morning, then second round qualifying and finally happy hour late on Saturday
afternoon is the last chance to practice before the big show on Sunday.
Bud pole qualifying would lock in only the top twenty-five drivers. The rest of the field would have
to decide after Saturday morning practice whether or not to attempt to requalify during second
round. Then the second round qualifiers would try to bump their way into the field and if they
failed, use a provisional qualifying spot.
This system allowed a driver or team a chance to slip a little during first round qualifying and
still make the race with a good run during second round.
The new format will simply have one round of qualifying. One chance to sink or swim with
absolutely no room for error.
To the big money teams this rule change makes no difference because typically Earnhardt, Gordon,
Martin and the other top teams would simply stand on their first round time and take a provisional
if necessary. They don't have to worry about running out of provisionals and skipping second
round qualifying allows them to focus on their race setup during the Saturday morning
practice session instead of wasting more time working on a qualifying setup to get into the field.
However, for the smaller, underfunded teams this rule change makes their uphill battle steeper.
In the highly competitive world of NASCAR Winston Cup racing the difference between making the
show and going home can be hundredths of a second or less. Without second round qualifying any
team that makes an error is forced to take a provisional. For teams that struggle to make the show,
this just puts even more pressure on them to perform for one lap or risk using up their limited provisionals.
This is another example of a NASCAR decision that benefits the top half of the teams and leaves the
bottom half scrambling. It's decisions like these that have run off Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough,
and scores of other dedicated, knowledgeable car owners who just can't compete with the multi-car
superteams.
My prediction for 2001? More accidents during qualifying as drivers in mediocre rides push beyond
the limits of their cars and skills because they have no second chances.
