Saturday’s Coors Light Pole qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series GEICO 500 is the unveiling of still another new format for Talladega Superspeedway, and it meets with wide approval among drivers.
“I feel really good about what it’s evolved into,” said Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick, the 2010 winner of this race. “I think all the competitors feel that way, the guys in the garage feel that way.”
Talladega’s 2.66-mile distance and the necessity for two laps to get up to speed in the long-standing, one-attempt qualifying was not fan-friendly, yet the “knockout” qualifying established in 2014 led to some problems.
Saturday’s qualifying, set for 1 p.m. Eastern, will have two rounds, with the order of the first round determined by a random draw. It will determine the starting spots from 13th through 43rd. The 12 fastest will have their speeds re-set and, after a 10-minute break, move on to the second round.
The new wrinkle is that each driver will receive one timed lap per round and there will be more than one car on the track at the same time, though a second car would be released by NASCAR in a predetermined interval.
“Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) and I looked at each other this morning and we go, ‘I’m so glad the qualifying has changed,’” Danica Patrick said. “It just was, I feel, like a very unnecessary stress for everybody. The amount of conversations and meeting with drivers and I felt like I was on ‘Survivor’ and trying to make alliances and finding out the best thing to do was to not have any.”
The GEICO 500 is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern on FOX.
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