Happy Hour: Sunday’s qualifying session dominates
Happy Hour is back, back again. Happy Hour is back, back, tell a friend.
Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to [email protected] or @NickBromberg. We’ll post them here and have a good time.
Welcome to 2015, everyone. We’ve got just over 24 hours until the Budweiser Duels, and are we the only ones who instinctively want to say “Gatorade” before the Duels? Is it just us? We don’t have trouble with Twin/Duel, however.
It’s also the 14th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001, when he was running third to Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
One this day I do not mourn his death. I thank God he lived. #DaleEarnhardt
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) February 18, 2015
If you weren’t on the Twitters last night, you need to check out this site. It was first tweeted by USA Today’s Jeff Gluck and it’s great for some amusement, especially if you’re on Twitter. Here’s one of the bios it generated for us.
Unsurprisingly, the dominant topic is what happened on Sunday with group qualifying for the front row. Here’s a sampling of the emails we received.
It was just outrageous! Stupid! Unsafe! What the hell is NASCAR thinking? I can’t think of many fans who would’ve enjoyed that despite what the Waltrip mouthpieces say. – Tom
Michael Waltrip’s answer after he returned to the Fox broadcast when he was done with his turn in qualifying was, uh, politically correct to say the least. It was clear he made sure to speak from the sugarcoated broadcaster’s view. And, well, he’s not going to be driving for much longer, so it was a play for the long term.
Kenny Wallace was also espousing the entertainment value of what happened Sunday and Tony Stewart smacked him down.
I am writing you in regards to NASCAR’s new knockout qualifying format. I am a longtime NASCAR fan who not only watches from the tv but also travels to various cities to watch the race live from the track. After watching the drivers qualify for the Daytona 500 using new format I must say it is very confusing to the fans and seems useless and meaningless. I think the drivers should qualify as they have always qualified one by one alone on the track. It saves money and lives. – Rhonda
Let’s slow our roll just a little bit here. Saves money, sure. But there’s no need to introduce a hypothetical as a reality along with it.
Yes, there are obviously big downsides to crashes — injuries can happen. And thankfully we’re only talking about torn up sheetmetal and extra expenses right now.
While drivers may like to go back to one-by-one qualifying for the front row, now that it’s gone away, can it come back? It’s a question that has to be answered effectively and finally before options can be seriously discussed.
I really don’t understand how a group of leaders at NASCAR whom are supposed to be at least semi-intelligent could come up with such a hair-brained idea. The race teams spend hundreds of hours fine tuning every aspect of those cars to get them to go as fast as possible only to have the idiots running the show jeopardize their safety for WHAT ? I am an old time racer from the 60″s when you won the pole it was because you had the fasted car against the clock one car at a time-no help from team members or other cars. I have watched every Daytona race since 1979 and Indy race since 1963. I am no longer a fan of NASCAR as of today. Please ask for a ground swell of fans to object to the morons running NASCAR to go back to the old way on the restrictor plate racetracks in caution to safety and to help the 1 car teams who can’t afford to smash up a dozen cars . – Randy
Similar to the previous email, let’s slow this one down again. Giving up NASCAR because of a qualifying session? Huh?
It’s become clear from every tweak to group qualifying that teams will eventually figure out a counter to the tweak to find a competitive advantage. That’s the nature of racing. You go to every nook and cranny you can within the rules to get as much edge out of everything that you can.
If single-car qualifying is not the answer in 2016, what if group qualifying goes off Kurt Busch’s four-lap average idea?
The four-lap average would start when each car takes the green flag for its first full lap. It has to be four consecutive laps, and if a car pulls off during the four laps, the qualifying attempt is aborted. That way, teams are forced to run all-out for each lap and can’t try to slow on the track to mess other cars’ laps up.
The rounds could be five minutes for four laps, or a longer period without the field being divided in half like it was for the first round on Sunday. And while we’re at it, what if the pit road box lines served as a commitment line of sorts? Once a driver backed out of his pit stall and cleared the line, he or she was committing to going out on the track and not allowed to stop on the edge of pit road. Hell, that could be implemented at every track if it was feasible.
My 1st time for qualifying. Been to more than 10, 500’s. I won the tickets from Wind 95.5 radio station Ocala Fl area. I will never go to qualifying again. It sucked big time. Sitting on pit row, ridiculous. Why didn’t any of them ream up as 2 and cut a few laps and then change places and run a few more. – Mark
I was at the exit of pit road for the start of the first round and wow, I had a lump in my stomach for a second. The traffic jam was absolutely remarkable. I have no clue how it looked on television, but there was not very much space between Danica and the wall when she tried to squeeze in between a car and the inside of pit lane. It was like being two feet from a crazy traffic jam.
In case you missed our guaranteed to be inaccurate Chase predictions, you can view them right here.
We think 13 cars win races this year. Which, of course, is an average of two wins per winning driver. Last year, 13 cars won races and seven won multiple races (led by Brad Keselowski with four) and six had a win apiece. The guess is we’ll see a similar breakdown this season.
The view from the top of the new Daytona grandstands is absolutely fantastic. You can see every part of the track (and very far beyond), though we do recommend some binoculars if you’re so inclined. It’s also windy up that high, so it’s something to keep in mind too.
Also, don’t be surprised if the stands look emptier than normal for Thursday’s Duels – for good reason. The forecast temps for Thursday are roughly a high of 50 and a low near freezing. If there’s a breeze it will be mighty chilly (for Florida) in those grandstands. we’re not going to blame people for wanting to stay warm one bit.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
