Jun 4th, 2009 by T.C.
In light of today’s announcement that starting this weekend at Pocono NASCAR will make all restarts double file, I thought it might be fun to get some of your thoughts on what else you would change or add to competition. It sounds as though many people are happy NASCAR made this change, and hopefully it will lead to some better racing.
Let me kick this off with a couple of suggestions. One is from me, and another from one of our great readers, George. They both have to do with qualifying.
First, here is George’s take on qualifying:
If I were in charge of competition, I would elect to start each year with a clean slate. When you show up at Daytona you have to get in the race based on performance. Keep the same format, but no more starting the race on owner points, past champions, etc. If after the first five events they want to have owners points get starting spots then so be it. I think the best is when it is all down to weekly performance.
How great would it be for qualifying to actually have a little bit of drama? I got this email from George following bump day for the Indy 500. Those nail-biting final minutes of the last day to qualify for the 500 are crazy intense. Imagine if it came right down to the wire for somebody like Dale Jr. or Tony Stewart to qualify for a race!
My suggestion for qualifying comes from the same place the double file restarts came from; the All Star race. What if we threw in a pit stop during qualifying? It would certainly shake things up and make it more interesting. Plus, it gets the crew more involved. You would not only have to have fast laps, but also a fast pit stop, and good entry and exit from pit road. All I keep thinking about was Tony Stewart leaving his stall after two tires, and having to throw it in reverse to get the left sides.
I feel like either qualifying suggestion would make the normally monotonous time trial sessions more entertaining, and I bet the tracks would sell more tickets for pole day.
Now I will turn it over to you. Feel free to either comment on the double file restart situation and/or throw out your own suggestions. I know Neon will throw out his heat racing idea…
