NASCAR continues to experiment with its Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series format. For Friday evening's scheduled qualifying session at Richmond Raceway for Saturday nights Toyota Owners 400, the stock-car racing sanctioning body has shortened the session.
With rain predicted throughout the Richmond race weekend that is expected to culminate in Saturday's Cup Series race, chances of Cup Series qualifying cancellation are significant, but if the qualifying session is held, as scheduled, the first two of the three rounds will be shortened from 10 to five minutes, matching the length of the final round.
Otherwise, the qualifying format will remain the same, with the fastest 24 cars from the first round advancing to the second round and the fastest 12 from the second round moving on to the third round to contend for the pole and set the top-12 spots on the starting grid.
The time change may not be permanent, but NASCAR is considering changes to its Cup Series qualifying format. The sanctioning body has been studying its qualifying format and considering changes since early in the season as a result of problems arising because of the 2019 aerodynamic rules package.
This year's rules package has caused drafts to come into play during qualifying at tracks 1.5 miles and larger, and those drafts have resulted in waiting games and pit-road trickery among teams and drivers that have left NASCAR officials unhappy with the on-track product, especially when some or all drivers have failed to make qualifying attempts before time ran out in a round to which those drivers advanced.
Richmond Raceway is a 0.75-mile track, so qualifying drafting issues aren't expected.
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