42 Qualifying for other IndyCar Races
Description
This article is from the Motorsport FAQ, by A H Henry bspahh@midge.bath.ac.uk with numerous contributions by others.
42 Qualifying for other IndyCar Races
On road courses, qualifying takes place in two sessions over two days
on the Friday and Saturday before race Sunday. Each session is split
into two halves, the slow half and the fast half. All drivers in each
half can go out any time they want to, so more than one car will be on
the track at a time. Timing is handled electronically by a sensor in
the car. On Friday, slow and fast drivers are determined by order of
finish in last week's race. On Saturday, they are determined by
Friday's times (thus it's possible to run in the slow group on one day
and the fast group on the other). Drivers are ordered on the grid in
order of the fastest time they were able to turn in their qualifying
sessions. Thus, the pole winner will always have turned the fastest
lap, unlike the Indy 500 where this is not guaranteed.
There's a couple of other contingency rules for determining the
IndyCar grid. If Saturday qualifying gets rained out or for some other
reason isn't held, the grid is determined based on Friday's qualifying
times. If there was no Friday qualifying session, the grid is based on
the fastest time recorded during practice. If there were no practice
sessions, the drivers are gridded based on the current PPG Championship
points standings. If the grid is determined based on practice times or
the points standings, then the PPG Championship bonus point for fastest
qualifier is not awarded for that race.
A different procedure is used for the ovals. For the New England 200
at New Hampshire International Speedway:
All qualifying takes place in a single session on the Saturday before
the raceday. Cars qualify one at a time, in an order determined by a
lottery. Each qualification attempt consists of one warm-up lap and one
timed lap. The team can wave off a qualifying attempt at any time up to
the checkered flag on the timed lap, in which case they go to the back
of the line of drivers waiting to qualify. The grid for the race is
ordered by fastest timed laps for each qualifying driver.
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