NASCAR using single-car qualifying at two tracks to coincide with aero package – ESPN

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NASCAR will use its single-car qualifying format for the July 26 Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Aug. 16 race at Michigan International Speedway — the two tracks where NASCAR will implement an aerodynamic package designed to increase drafting.

The typical NASCAR qualifying format is broken into three sessions, with all drivers given 20 minutes to complete as many laps as possible, then the 24 drivers with the fastest laps advancing to a 10-minute session that determines the 12 drivers who compete for the pole in a five-minute session.

That system has worked well at most tracks, but when drafting comes into play, drivers have tried to position themselves behind as many cars as possible in order to record a fast lap in the draft. The jockeying created a silly scene on pit road: Drivers all tried to wait each other out to see who would leave pit road first — the first driver out likely would have a slow time. At times, drivers have waited so long on pit road that they didn’t start a qualifying lap within the allotted time.

NASCAR changed the qualifying procedure for restrictor-plate events earlier this year and will employ the same format for Indianapolis and Michigan. Drivers will be sent out on the track one at a time, with the 12 fastest drivers going out again in single-car runs to determine the starting order of the first six rows. To expedite the process, a driver will be sent out for the warm-up lap after a driver on a qualifying lap has entered Turn 1.

The Indianapolis and Michigan package will increase the spoiler height from 6 inches to 9 inches and the radiator pan from 38 inches of 43 inches. A 1-inch wicker bill also will be added across the roof. The purpose is to create more drafting, and therefore more passing, at those tracks where cars tend to get strung out.

NASCAR recently used a reduced downforce package at Kentucky — and will again at Darlington over Labor Day weekend — that has a 3.5-inch spoiler, a quarter-inch splitter extension (instead of the usual 2 inches) and a 25-inch radiator pan.

Drivers praised that package, which led to a track-record 22 lead changes Saturday night at Kentucky, saying their cars did not stall as much behind other cars as they have been in races earlier this year.