Automotive Journal

NASCAR qualifying for the Daytona 500, the biggest money stock car race of the season, is unique in the world of NASCAR.

Daytona’s unique sprint run process was the brain child of NASCAR pioneer Bill France, who is responsible for most of the rules and regulations NASCAR follows today. There were two reasons for Daytona’s process – to bring in more money to pay for the expensive facility, and to better prepare drivers through qualifying in race conditions.

France decided to follow the methods used by shorter tracks at Daytona rather than standard NASCAR qualifying – heats and last chance qualifiers. France accommodated both convertibles and hardtops, both of which would compete in the first Daytona 500, by setting each a 100 mile qualifier two days before the big Sunday race.

In this non-standard NASCAR qualifying Bob Welborn beat 38 other hardtop cars in a race that contributed points to the yearly championship, while Shorty Rollins won for the convertibls in a race that didn’t contribute to the championship standings. A last chance sprint was also held, won by Jack Smith.

From then on two races were held to determine NASCAR qualifying for Daytona, with cars split by their best single lap speed set on pole day. In the 1969 season – when NASCAR shifted the qualifying races to Thursdays – the short race distance increased from 100 to 125 miles, then was again raised to 150 miles in 2005. Rain forced the cancellation of qualifying day once in the history of the Daytona 500, way back in 1968.

Oddly, winning in the qualifiers has not often resulted into success in the main event. Beginning in 1962 with the legendary Fireball Roberts in 1962 and the last, Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2004, only eight drivers have won both the qualifying race and the Daytona 500 in the same year. Second place in the Daytona 500 has gone to the qualifying winner 14 times in the race’s history.

To add to the mystique of this exception to NASCAR qualifying, only once has 1st and 2nd place at the Daytona 500 gone to the two winners of the two qualifying races. That was 1995 with the two qualiying winners, Sterling Marlin and Dale Earnhardt, taking 1st and 2nd respectively. Coo Coo Marlin, who is Sterling’s father, and Mike Skinner are the two unfortunate drivers who won a qualifying race but were listed without an official victory, because the qualifiers no longer counted granted championship points in 1972.

In reality, for the most part, things haven’t been too good at the 500 for NASCAR qualifying race victors. In 2007 Tony Stewart won a qualifying race, but crashed out of the 500 and ended up 43rd. 38 qualifying winners ended up 31st place or worse, but Stewart topped them all as the only one to end up last.

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