So, in watching ABC & ESPN coverage of qualifying for the 89-93 races here over the past couple weeks, I was puzzled by one question a few times, regarding "withdrawing" your qualified car prior to qualifying an alternate car. Here's a hypothetical scenario to illustrate the question...
Driver A & Team X bring two entries for the month, #82 Primary and #82T Backup.
First weekend, Driver A qualifies the primary car (#82) - let's say for illustration with a 217.500 average.
Second weekend, the field fills and it's looking increasingly likely that a 217.500 average won't stay in the field and will be bumped, as other unqualified cars appear capable of running faster than that speed.
With the #82 "2nd from the bubble" at 217.500, Team X "withdraws" the #82 (primary) car, and sends Driver A out to qualify the #82T (backup) car - hopefully at a speed some margin above the 217.500 so they are not at risk of being "bumped".
My question is - with the #82 (primary) car already in the field at this given moment (albeit only 1 car away from being bumped from the field), why "withdraw" the #82 (primary) prior to qualifying the #82T (backup)? Why not leave the #82 in the field to either be bumped later on (likely), or to remain in the field but with a slow time (not likely but possible)?
A couple of times I saw this sort of scenario and wondered what the purpose of taking the car which is, at least at the moment, in the field of 33, out of the field PRIOR TO qualifying the other car? The rule at the time, summarized, appears to be "the car qualifies, not the driver", and although when this happened it looked like Driver A did qualify the 2nd car faster than the first one, I can think of many possible scenarios where bad things could happen:
Driver A & Team X bring two entries for the month, #82 Primary and #82T Backup.
First weekend, Driver A qualifies the primary car (#82) - let's say for illustration with a 217.500 average.
Second weekend, the field fills and it's looking increasingly likely that a 217.500 average won't stay in the field and will be bumped, as other unqualified cars appear capable of running faster than that speed.
With the #82 "2nd from the bubble" at 217.500, Team X "withdraws" the #82 (primary) car, and sends Driver A out to qualify the #82T (backup) car - hopefully at a speed some margin above the 217.500 so they are not at risk of being "bumped".
My question is - with the #82 (primary) car already in the field at this given moment (albeit only 1 car away from being bumped from the field), why "withdraw" the #82 (primary) prior to qualifying the #82T (backup)? Why not leave the #82 in the field to either be bumped later on (likely), or to remain in the field but with a slow time (not likely but possible)?
A couple of times I saw this sort of scenario and wondered what the purpose of taking the car which is, at least at the moment, in the field of 33, out of the field PRIOR TO qualifying the other car? The rule at the time, summarized, appears to be "the car qualifies, not the driver", and although when this happened it looked like Driver A did qualify the 2nd car faster than the first one, I can think of many possible scenarios where bad things could happen:
- After withdrawing the primary, Driver A crashes the backup during the qualifying attempt; now, instead of having a car in the field (albeit close to being bumped), now you have ZERO cars in the field.
- After withdrawing the primary (217.500), Driver A cannot qualify the backup any faster. Again, instead of having one slow car in the field, which might be bumped, you have NO cars in the field.
- After withdrawing the primary but before the backup makes it to the front of the qualifying line, another driver crashes heavily and the crash cleanup closes the track until time runs out (gun goes off). Now you've withdrawn a car that didn't get bumped, due to a crash and time running out, but didn't get to qualify your backup and have NO cars in the field.
- You withdraw the primary, but due to conditions, ability, or mechanical failure, no competing cars can run quicker than the time (217.500) you withdrew and the withdrawn car wouldn't have been bumped.
- Weather (rain) stops qualifying after you've withdrawn the primary car but before enough other cars can run a quicker time that would have bumped it.
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