DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The qualifying session for NASCAR’s biggest race of the year was lambasted by Tony Stewart as “a complete embarrassment” and called a “cute show” by Clint Bowyer.
The frenetic knockout format ended with Jeff Gordon on the pole for the final Daytona 500 of his career.
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DAYTONA SCHEDULE
THURSDAY: Twin 150 qualifying races, 7 and 8:30 p.m. (Fox Sports 1)
FRIDAY: Trucks race, 7:30 p.m. (Fox Sports 1)
SUNDAY: Daytona 500, 1 p.m. (FOX)
And as NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell tried to answer to the wave of displeasure from the drivers after Sunday’s session, he was reminded by Gordon himself what a predicament the series is in regarding qualifying for “The Great American Race.”
“Great format, Steve!” Gordon shouted to O’Donnell from the back of a news conference room.
Indeed, Gordon had no qualms with qualifying after he and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson outsmarted the field Sunday to sweep the front row for the Daytona 500. They were among only a handful of drivers who were pleased with the format, and their opinion was most certainly based on the end result.
“This format is crazy and chaotic,” Gordon said. “It can be extremely rewarding when you have a day like we had.”
NASCAR abandoned single-car qualifying runs, the format used for 56 years at Daytona International Speedway, for the knockout group sessions it adopted last season. The format was not tried at the Daytona 500 last year, but was used at the speedway in July.
The group qualifying works fine at most tracks, but has proven tricky at Daytona and Talladega, where drivers must draft and the leader is not the fastest car. It’s led to strategies that have drivers sitting on pit road watching the clock, and jockeying for position when it’s time to go.
After a five-car accident in the first group of 25 drivers, Bowyer railed against using knockouts to set the Daytona 500 field. Reigning champion Kevin Harvick and Stewart both vented via Twitter, while Ryan Newman was among the many drivers critical of NASCAR.
“It’s hard to stand behind NASCAR when everybody I talk to up and down pit road doesn’t understand why we’re doing this,” Newman said.
O’Donnell, who acknowledged the driver complaints, said NASCAR is trying to create a more entertaining format for fans than the snooze-inducing single-car runs.
“We don’t want to see wrecks of any kind. Not lost on us how much work goes into these cars by the teams, the efforts for our biggest race of the year,” he said. “We’ve got a really good track record of making adjustments where we need to, so we’ll certainly evaluate what took place.”
But the 12 drivers who made it into the final round weren’t complaining, especially Gordon, who announced last month this will be his final full-time season.
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