Nascar Race Today

By: Al Pearce on 1/14/2014

With a wink and a smile, NASCAR president Mike Helton teased broadly that things are about to change (again) in the way NASCAR runs its races and determines its champion. He didn't offer any specifics last week at Daytona International Speedway even as he deftly played the media like a marlin on a line. "Stay tuned," he said coyly. "January is going to be full of announcements, so we'll wait for them."

In recent years, Helton, vice-president of competition Robin Pemberton and NASCAR Chairman/CEO Brian France have used the annual Sprint Cup Media Tour in Charlotte to make major announcements. Among them: the Car of Tomorrow, the Chase for the Championship format and the new, slimmed-down point system as well as several personnel moves. Helton, Pemberton and France likely will have plenty to announce on this year's Jan. 27-30 Tour at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

In Daytona Beach, though, Pemberton revealed that all qualifying in the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series will be in a group session instead of the traditional single-car session. "There are some details we're working on and trying to finalize," Pemberton said. "I can tell you that the Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series will not be single car qualifying at all this year. We're still working on some of the final details of that. That includes for the race here in Daytona."

Sprint Cup team owners fully expect a change from single-car to group qualifying everywhere except for the season-opening Daytona 500. The 500 format features a convoluted process of single-car timed runs, a pair of 150-mile qualifying races and a handful of owner-point guarantees tacked onto the back of the grid. The Thursday afternoon 150-milers are a tradition of Speed Week, a revenue-generating afternoon that NASCAR isn't about to ditch.

"I think what comes into play is the fact that Daytona's format has always been a one off and a great format," Pemberton said. "We've got the Duels on Thursday, and that's been a pressure packed race for the teams. Especially now with the lack of lock ins. You have to race in. This place stands on its own right now. They have qualifying races which nobody else has. They've been a one-up on everybody for the most part."

Last fall, at their R&D Center near Charlotte, NASCAR officials met with teams in a "town hall-like" session to discuss possible format changes for this season. Drivers learned they were considering scrubbing boring single-car qualifying runs that never played well on TV. The alternative would be group qualifying similar to the system on road courses, where a number of drivers would qualify at the same time. They'd go into a group based on practice speeds, from slowest to fastest, then each driver's quickest lap would be its qualifying time of record.

In another likely change, France recently told a NASCAR-based radio show he was considering making winning more meaningful by juggling the point system yet again. Currently, a winner can gain a maximum six points on the second-place finisher and might gain only three, depending on lap-leader bonus points. In France's mind, that doesn't inspire the "Game 7" moments he's often said he wants.

"We're not satisfied we have the exact balance we want with winning, consistency, points, running for a championship," he said on "NASCAR Live." "We think we can make some tweaks that continue to incentivize risk-taking, racing harder and so on. We're looking at that. We'll undoubtedly be coming with things that put the incentive on winning races and competing at the highest level."

Drivers, though, wonder how much harder they can race. "I don't know how you make it perfect all the time," said Ford driver Carl Edwards. "I don't know how you can make every race as important as the final lap of the final race for the championship. But I can tell you this: Every driver out there... we don't have to get motivated to try to win that race. If anything, you have to sometimes not be too motivated so you don't ruin your championship hopes. I think it's a battle, but everyone's doing the best they can.

"I actually got a phone call one time from a promoter after a race and he asked me, 'What could I do, how much money could I offer to make guys race harder?' because it was a race that didn't end very dramatically. I tried to explain that all of us race to win; that's the whole point; that's why we started racing. I race just as hard in my little four cylinder modified car as I race now. I think it's $40 to win or something in those races. It doesn't matter. The money's not important. It's not about incentives like that. It's just that we're trying to win."

"So whatever format they come up with, there will only be two things on each driver's mind: Win the race and to win the championship, and that's it. So we're racing as hard as we can. I don't think there's any incentive you can throw out that's going to make people put on a better race. I'm not certain of that [because] I feel we're all racing pretty hard right now."

As Helton said.... stay tuned.

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