Professional Qualifying Format Changes in 2008
Written by David Lamm · January 16, 2008
In reaction to the significant impact weather and atmospheric conditions have had on qualifying for NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series events in past seasons, the NHRA announced today it has modified its race qualifying procedure. The NHRA will adopt a “provisional” format similar but not identical to the one NASCAR currently uses.
Beginning with the CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Feb. 7-10, the top 12 elapsed times in each pro category will be provisionally recorded prior to the last day of qualifying. Those teams who were unable to earn a provisional spot in the top 12 will have an opportunity to make the 16-car starting order during the final day of qualifying.
While the 12 provisional times are officially recorded prior to the last day of qualifying, the NHRA professes those positions are not locked-in. All teams will have the opportunity to improve their positions during the final day of qualifying and can bump in or be bumped out of the field.
“There are no guarantees with this system,” said Graham Light, senior vice president of racing operations, NHRA. “If you are one of the 12 quickest cars, you can still be bumped out on the final day of qualifying, or you can improve your position in the order. However, if weather conditions change and become less optimal and as a result the performances are not as good throughout the field, the four quickest cars from outside the provisional 12 on the final day of qualifying will complete the 16-car lineup.”
The field of 16 for each of the four professional categories will be set at the conclusion of the final round of qualifying, using the traditional 16-car race bracket for eliminations.
Sounds similar to the NASCAR provisional set-up only the NHRA is front loading their field with traditionally quicker and faster cars rather than inserting those provisionals at the back end of the field like NASCAR does.
All qualifying elapsed times will count in the Full Throttle Pit Crew Championship standings as well as towards national records.
This is all well and good and ensures that the top dogs of the NHRA are not left outside of the Sunday show just because rain moves through the area. At a second look, this seems to contradict what the NHRA was preaching last year at this time when it rolled out the Countdown to the Championship format. The big company line was “teams better be on their game during crunch time or the championship could be lost in a blink of an eye”. I’m paraphrasing here but that seemed to be the predominant reasoning behind the championship format change.
The old format rewarded consistency for the championship but penalized those that had an off weekend during qualifying. Now with the new rules, consistency is rewarded for qualifying but penalized in the championship format. Anyone read the book Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber?
I am in favor of changing things up to make things exciting but holding spots for teams that essentially can not qualify is not what makes drag racing fun to watch. The NHRA has a hard enough time bringing fans through the gates and to their TV screen to watch qualifying. Now they have devalued that ticket and that show with this format change. I wonder if they will reduce the price of tickets for qualifying now that Friday and Saturday does not mean that much? Yeah, I was laughing when I wrote that too.
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5 Responses to “Professional Qualifying Format Changes in 2008”
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I am starting to thing the heads at NHRA and Nascar drank from the same punch bowl on New Years,Yes please keep screwing up the system and I’ll have to start learning how to talk to my wife again.
This is a much needed change and will not “devalue” the qualifying. It’s just not exciting to watch cars go out in the heat on saturday and smoke the tires trying to beat times that were set in the cool night air on friday. If you are going to keep having a friday night session, you have to do something like this.
HAVE ONLY I DAY OF QAULIFLING THAT WOULD END ANY PROBLEM THANKS
NHRA WE LOVE YOU AND CAN NOT WEIGH FOR THE NEW SEASON
This article is poorly written. It appears he does not know anything he is talking about. There is no comparison between nascar qualifying and NHRA qualifying (new or old format).