bearsdad said:
I watched Sunday for a while and heard they changed the qualifying rules again, but did not hear how.
Here's how *I* understand it. Keep in mind, we're just bystanders to the 500, so I may not have it exactly right.
4 days of qualifying:
Day 1 - set spots 1 through 11
Day 2 - 12 through 22
Day 3 - 23 through 33
Day 4 - Bump Day
Each day you get three attempts to qualify. Jason was telling me how they used to have strikes - if you waved off your qualifying run, you got a strike and after 3 were pulled from competition - they don't have that anymore.
So, everyone who is qualifying that day draws for spots. Once everyone gets through once, you can get back in line for your second and third attempts. Drivers keep taking the track until 6. Once you take the track for an additional attempt, you've given up your original qualifying spot.
Bump Day - the person with the slowest qualifying time in the field can get bumped out - no matter what spot they are qualified in. (Since spots are set on different days, it's possible that the person in 15th place could have a faster qualifying speed than the person in 8th.)
I may be missing something. But that's what I've put together so far.