NASCAR mailbag: Thoughts on stage racing, plus more after Martinsville – FOXSports.com

When will NASCAR get away from setting the lineup based on points if practice is completed? Why not use those times? — Clay

Great question, Clay. NASCAR used to set the field by practice speeds if qualifying got rained out. But here’s the problem: Teams are smart. They know when rain is coming. So what was happening is that when teams expected qualifying to be rained out, they’d turn practice into an unofficial qualifying session, knowing that’s how the field would be set.

But NASCAR wanted practice to be, you know, practice, so they changed the rule this year. Obviously, it rewards the drivers higher up in points and hurts the ones further down.