ROUND 1A
So, with less than two minutes on the five minute clock Reed Sorenson and Clint Bowyer end up in the wall. Bobby Labonte was collected as was Denny Hamlin and JJ Yeley.
Hard to tell if Clint Bowyer hit Reed Sorenson or what. There was a mad rush to get onto the track – no one wanted to go out onto the track first, then everybody rushed out at the same time and was jostling to get onto the track resulting in some contact before they really got going. Looks like Dewey Alligator had to check up, causing Sorenson to check up, and Bowyer ran into the back of Reed damaging the rear end of the car.
Brian Pattie was begging Clint to stay in his car and not to do anything stupid to the other driver. I’m imagining after the little blow up between KHarv and Logano last night NASCAR might have had a word with the teams over getting hot under the collar or something.
It’s funny they use incidents to advertise the races, but fine and warn the teams involved. Cake. Eating it too.
The clock stopped for the red flag with 1:55 seconds remaining.
This qualifying method is such crap so far. They had a little piece with Brain France talking about how well last year went and how nothing’s really changed for this season. Often if you say something enough times it becomes true. For me this season is a test season. If things continue as they did last season, I have my doubts if I’ll return for the 2016 season. NASCAR seems so busy chasing new fans they’re not remotely concerned that they’re moving away from their core, as well as the recent converts to the sport.
Clint Bowyer is laying down the law! He’s telling the truth about the qualifying though. He blasted NASCAR for putting on a ‘cutesy show’ instead of qualifying. He said instead of qualifying they’re having to worry if a start and park will knock them out of the Daytona 500. He repeatedly called it ‘this crap’. I’m guessing there will be fines in the future of the 15 though he simply told the truth. He has to go to a backup car.
They talked to Denny who isn’t much more pleased – even though he’s the fastest in his group – but he managed not to say the word ass during his interview and to avoid directly blasting NASCAR though he made implications.
The final run doesn’t count because no one wanted to go first and they didn’t leave pit road with 60 seconds to go – they were at 50 seconds or something.
Reed said he was just trying to block and stay in front of Clint. He doesn’t have a backup at this time. He said its what Matt used to win last night, and it was obvious what he was trying to do and he didn’t mean to wreck anybody. He was gutted.
Like Clint said NASCAR put them in a position of desperation causing them to make all kinds of crazy moves. Reed has to race in so he needed to keep Bowyer behind him if possible and Bowyer needed to get around him.
They’re going to take the top 24 times of both sessions to determine who moves into the next round.
ROUND 1B
The clock is running down from 5 and has reached 3 minutes now – and is still going down – at 2:45 they’ve finally left pit road. NASCAR cut the qualifying sessions down from 25 minutes to five minutes and the same thing is happening where they drivers are just sitting around waiting for the least amount of time on the clock to basically make two laps. So people are sitting in the stands, having paid to watch cars sit at the end of pit road for half of the time. You pay for qualifying which used to be free to watch, and they cut down the amount of time it takes, so you’re getting ripped off from the top,then the drivers sit on pit road waiting for the clock to run down to basically only run one or two laps. They used to have two laps for each car. For all intents and purposes they still have two laps (at the most) for the cars, just all within 15 minutes or something. I’m offended they would dare charge for that foolishness. I miss qualifying dreadfully. I enjoyed going to the track and watching it. I also enjoyed watching it on television. When FoxSports1 began to cut it (edit it or go to commercials during runs) I was angry. When NASCAR got rid of real qualifying I was hurt. When they had they nerve to charge for it as though it were areal race, I became offended. Still there.
Now Newman is complaining about the qualifying procedure. He says no one he’s talked to on pit road understands why they’re doing this. He surmised maybe he needed to be sat down and educated.
Moving on to Kurt Busch who is calling it a roulette wheel for qualifying. He said it doesn’t seem a proper system. He’s calling it shaking up bingo balls now. He said sending cars out and getting a four lap average would allow them to show pride in the hard work they’ve done for the Daytona 500 instead of shaking up bingo balls.
Stenhouse says he feels fortunate to make it out of the first round.
There are a lot of unhappy drivers and teams over this qualifying format.
DW says it might be due to the fact this is mostly qualifying for a spot in a qualifying race, instead of actually qualifying for a race. It kinda doesn’t really count and yet its a big production.
There are two more rounds. The top 12 will move on to the next session to run for the front row of the Daytona 500.
ROUND 2
Bobby Labonte was one of the fastest 24 but since he crashed he’s not running in this round, nor is J.J. Yeley.
Again they’re letting the clock run down. We’re approaching the 3 minute mark. At 2:58 the Penske cars head out followed by the rest of the cars about 10 seconds later.
Michael Waltrip had clutch issues and didn’t go with the rest of the cars.
The final lap was ugly as a bunch of cars were threading through slower cars at the end and it got dicey for a while.
ROUND 3
Martin Truex Jr has some damage on the right side of his car. His crew chief said it came during his fastest lap. The clock is currently down to 2:15 and they’re still sitting on pit road. They’ve rolled out of pit road at 1:00. So now they’re racing to the start-finish line before the clock gets to 0 – Martin Truex went out first – Truex got it – everybody made it before the clock ran down with 3 seconds to spare.
The front row of the Daytona 500 will be Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
Jeff Gordon has said this will be his final Speedweeks, so that’s fantastic that he gets the pole and Jimmie will be beside him on the front row.
Jeff is saying nice things about the qualifying format – that the driver gets some input. He’s really pumped. He said it was pretty nerve-wracking waiting on pit road that long. Mr Hendrick is not there.
Jimmie says its a very ‘interesting’ qualifying session to say the least. He mentioned that as the rules were written if no one left pit road he’d get the pole so he was fine with that, then he was worried about reaching the start-finish line in time, then he thought he might have the pole since he was at the end of the line, but is pleased with second.
Michael Waltrip got his idiotic butt up there after not moving on to the final round and said this qualifying is a lot of fun to watch. Once again I say, unless you’re paying for a ticket to watch it, or not getting paid in any way, shape or form from it, you don’t have the right to tell the viewing audience how much fun it is for them! That always pisses me off royally when people who make their living from NASCAR and therefore have a completely biased opinion tell me how I should feel about the product!
NASCAR news this week:
- Budweiser Duel Starting Lineups.
- NASCAR Reacts to Qualifying.
- Drivers Debate Qualifying Format.
- Bowyer Criticizes Qualifying Format.
- Johnson: ‘It’s On Us’.
- Earnhardt Jr., Hamlin Fail Inspection.
- Gordon Wins Daytona 500 Pole.
- How the Daytona 500 Field is Set.
- Harvick, Logano Exchange Heated Words.
Next Race: Daytona 500
GO 48!!!!