ARCA: Group Qualifying Format Added for Talladega

The ARCA Racing Series announced earlier this week the addition of a group qualifying format that will debut this weekend at the Talladega Superspeedway.
 
With the format so popular by fans over in the NASCAR top-three racing series, ARCA will now move to a knockout format simular to what NASCAR brought in this season.
 
Traditionally, ARCA ran one car at a time, and each car could only run up to two laps. The format will work like this: the results of the Friday morning practice session will set the qualifying groups. During the qualifying session, ARCA will allow the teams to draft, which will provide numerous interesting moments as the session goes on. This format is a little bit different than what NASCAR uses, but will still provide much excitment for those watching.
 
“Practice is going to be key at Talladega this weekend especially with the new group qualifying,” said Mason Mitchell. “Being a single car team we need to find someone to work with before practice starts to ensure we end up in a fast group for qualifying.”
 

“We’re really hoping my teammate, Grant Enfinger, and I will be able to help each other during qualifying and then the race,” says Allison. “We wanted to work together at Daytona, but since our chances ended early, we weren’t able to do so. It’s very beneficial to have a strong teammate at a superspeedway.”

 
Sadly, in the past, FOX Sports 1 never televised ARCA Racing Series qualifying, but its something they could possibly look into. FOX announced earlier, probably two weeks ago, that because with so much viewer increase for the group qualifying format, they have decided to move Sprint Cup Series qualifying from FOX Sports 1 over to FOX at Talladega
 
This is a great move for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards because many drivers use the series to get a feel for what the NASCAR racing series is like. If they going to be using it in the future, why not start them early? Yes, NASCAR features two-three sessions, depending on the track size, so this format is a little bit different, but I still think this is still a great move. 
 
Before this season begun at Daytona, ARCA announced the addition of double file restarts after numerous racing series have switched to those proceedures. This move has enhanced the racing this season and with group qualifying, it’ll only help the series expand further more in the future.
Brett Winningham
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