With 7 or 8 minutes to qualify, no one would risk hitting the track first, and so all the cars sat in the staging lanes... just sat their, waiting for anyone else to leave first, and get the air moving in teh right direction, giving all the cars following - a draft advantage for qualifying speeds.
https://jalopnik.com/nascar-drivers-are-still-gaming-the-qualifying-system-1833998898
Formula 1 had a similar problem about 10 years ago when they were changing their qualifying format from a best lap format to a three stage elimination. The top teams didn't bother going out on the track in the first quali round (Q-1) until the last minute to save wear and tear on the car. So they'd run a 'good enough' lap and go back to the box, because after that round came Q-2 and all that mattered is that you weren't in the bottom six or seven of Q-1, Q-2 was a bit more interesting, but still the top dogs never got out on the track and pushed until the last five minutes or so of Q-3. This led to some pretty dull and predictable qualifying, when it was intended to be an exciting triple mini-race on Saturday. Took quite a bit of tweaking to get the format to do what it was supposed to do.
ReplyDeleteRacing is doomed. Put um on the trailers boys. Let's go home.
ReplyDelete