NASCAR Cup Series: Single-car qualifying not the way to go

After more issues with qualifying, officials are considering switching NASCAR Cup Series qualifying on 1.5-mile tracks back to a single-car format.

Has NASCAR Cup Series qualifying really gotten that bad? Is the faster and much more entertaining session qualifying format really at threat of being replaced by the older, longer and uninteresting single-car qualifying format?

It certainly appears that way, according to NASCAR vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell.

Here’s what O’Donnell said Monday about the matter on the Morning Drive on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, according to Autoweek.

"“We’re going to look at every option, including the possibility of going to single-car qualifying. The reason we haven’t is that’s on the teams. That’s parts and pieces. We’ve tried to be as efficient as possible trying this method of (group) qualifying. But we’re definitely going to look at it and see what we can do. We’ve got a couple of weeks to do that. We’ll make adjustments as needed… If we have to go back to single car, simple. We’ll do that. It won’t be popular with some of the owners, but unfortunately, we’re getting put in this position.”"

To be fair, qualifying has been an issue almost all season long. Since seeing how much faster trailing cars are over leading cars at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, no one has wanted to lead a pack of cars out of pit road. Many drivers have sat on pit road while others have left to churn out slow laps because they’re alone on the track. The current aero package may have produced better racing on Sunday, but it has muddled Friday qualifying.

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But is single-car qualifying really a better option? The switch to group qualifying came in the 2015 season because teams wanted to run the same setup in qualifying as they do in races. Group qualifying shows which cars are really the best since these situations are closer to races, whereas single-car qualifying is just that, single-car qualifying. Everyone’s alone. There is no drafting and no maneuvering around traffic.

Single-car qualifying is in no way the better option, not for teams who want to earn their starting positions under a race-like setting, not for Fox and NBC and their advertisers who want people to watch qualifying and not for the track owners and the vendors wanting to people buying qualifying tickets, team merchandise and concessions.

There have to be better options, and luckily, NASCAR has a long time to find that option. Drafting is a non-factor at Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway, the next two tracks on the schedule.

NASCAR already uses single-car qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway, and there shouldn’t be any issues at Dover International Speedway. In the middle of that four-race stretch is an off week. NASCAR has until Friday, May 9, the day before qualifying for the race at Kansas Speedway, to come up with a solution.

One possible solution is requiring everyone to get on the track and stay on the track. Forget about tire wear, fender damage and everything else. Have half the field follow the pace car off pit road, run one pace lap and then drive for 15 minutes. Once that ends, do the same with the second half. Eliminate half the field and then run two more sessions the same way to determine a polesitter.

There would be no one sitting in the pits scared of leading the field and no blocking other cars from getting on the track.

Maybe that sounds a little bit like heat racing, but maybe that’s the direction NASCAR might need to move towards.

Teams don’t want torn-up race cars, I get that. But nobody wants the current product that qualifying is producing, and a solution has to be found, whether that’s the method I presented, duel races similar to the Gander RV Duels at Daytona International Speedway for every superspeedway race or something else. You have five weeks, NASCAR; the clock is ticking.