NASCAR's New Sprint Cup Qualifying Format for 2013

The 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup series will introduce the 36-6-1 qualifying format and reintroduce random order qualifying.

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Though I've come to enjoy this year's process of qualifying for NASCAR Sprint Cup races, change is inevitable.  What's the saying?  "Life is change.  Growth is optional."  And NASCAR recognizes that a lack of growth is stagnation and that's never good.  Unless you're a mold spore or a fungus.

Next year, NASCAR is going to what they dubbed the "36-6-1 format" for qualifying.  This new process is effectively eliminating the top-35 owners points process that has been in effect for quite some time. 

The 36-6-1 process Explained:
The 36
In the "36-6-1 format" the fastest 36 cars on the track will be making the race. 

The 6:
After that, whoever is left of the qualifying group, the next 6 will be seeded by owners points.

The 1:
This final, lone position will be awarded to the most recent eligible past champion.  If there is no past champ, this will then be the 7th car in the owners points.

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In case of rain during qualifying and it's cancelled, (Like when does THAT happen?) the Sprint Cup Series field will be set by practice speeds.

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Also, qualifying order will now (again) be sorted by random draw.

BUT if you're wondering about the beginning of a new season...

"provisional positions in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be based upon the previous year's owner points for the first three races, as opposed to the first five races in previous years for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and four races for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. "

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As far as the 36-6-1 process goes, I'm fine with that.  Fans have been grumbling about the top-35 in owners points for quite some time, but what they didn't realize that is sometimes, that rule got "name drivers" in the field, just in case of a bad qual.

As far as the random draw for qualifying order goes, I'm not so much a fan of returning to the random draw.

I enjoyed the process of qualifying order based on practice speeds.  What this did was make the televised process fairly more exciting.  As the slower guys qualified, the viewer was kept in suspense, wondering if the next fastest driver would out-pace the last driver to qualify.  And you WANTED to stick around to the end to see what would happen.

With the random draw, I don't have any incentive to stick around for the last few guys if they're not the "name drivers" in the field.

I wonder if they've pondered this and if televised qualifying wasn't a big factor for them?  My guess is not.  But hey, it is what it is.

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