NASCAR qualifying changes

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, was asked about the changes in qualifying for all three of the national touring divisions: Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck during the media tour at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in North Carolina.
NASCAR announced on Monday that it was changing the qualifying procedure slightly for the 2008 season.
The cars and truck that do not have automatic starting spots in races will qualify last. Pemberton said this would give teams that might run into problems or crash during practice a chance to make repairs and qualify without being under a tight time constraint.
"It was under a lot of debate from all of us, from the garage area, when you talk to the series directors, what makes the most sense to them and how they operate the garage area," Pemberton said. "One of the key factors that comes into play is the five-minute clock, which everybody has seen come into play occasionally throughout the year."
In the Sprint Cup Series, the top 35 teams in the owners standings earn automatic starting spots in races. The most recent Cup champion can earn a provisional starting spot if the driver does not qualify on speed. There are 43 cars that start a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, leaving seven spots for cars that are not in the top 35 and not driven by a past champion.
"The thing that could happen that we didn't want to have happen is if we had 12 cars that had to qualify on speed, and the car had to be excused through unforeseen circumstances, engine problem, a wreck or something in practice, that car very well could have been placed on the truck and missed its opportunity to qualify when we got to the 13th or 14th place in the qualifying order if they were to go early," Pemberton said. "So we didn't think that was fair, to think there was another 30, 35 cars yet to qualify and one team already missed its opportunity."
With the addition of Toyota teams, there have been more than 43 cars attempting to qualify for Cup races. Last years was Toyota's first year in Cup racing and the Toyota teams struggled to qualify for races and maintain positions in the top 35 in the owners standings.
But Pemberton did not mention Toyota's qualifying woes in making the decision to change the qualifying format. He said NASCAR was trying to find a way for every Cup team not guaranteed a starting spot in a race to have a fair chance to qualify.
"That probably was the single biggest factor that weighed in on making that the best for all of the competitors," Pemberton said.