Bowyer slams group qualifying format at Daytona

After emerging unscathed from the infield care center, Bowyer was among the most vocal in assailing a qualifying system that hasn’t necessarily translated on restrictor-plate tracks since its introduction in 2014.

MORE: How the Daytona 500 lineup is set

“A mess. Just typical,” Bowyer said. “It wasn’t his fault. He’s desperate and trying to get into the biggest race of the year. Like I said, we need to be focused on qualifying and who’s going to sit on the pole for the biggest race of the year and the front row, just like we always have. There’s no reason to be putting a show on and trying to make something out of stuff that doesn’t need to be. We put on a hell of a show on for the Daytona 500 and unfortunately these guys have worked the last six months for nothing.”

After a traffic jam leaving pit road to start the first qualifying session, Bowyer was running behind Sorenson, who bottled up behind the No. 51 of Justin Allgaier to slow the line’s momentum. Bowyer later dove to the inside of Sorenson, who cut across the nose of Bowyer’s No. 15 to trigger the stack-up, which red-flagged the session just 3 minutes, 38 seconds in.

Rather than fully placing the blame on Sorenson, Bowyer took aim at the chaos of the qualifying system.

“We’re having fun now, aren’t we?” Bowyer said. “Just extremely disappointed and I hate to say it but I’m disappointed in NASCAR for putting us out in this situation. You’ve got guys like (Sorenson) out of desperation trying to make it in a start-and-park team like that. You can’t blame him. He did a bonehead move to try to stick it in the line in there, runs into the 51, stacked us all up and tore our cars up, and then we’re not fast enough to do anything. …

“These guys have worked six months on these cars and we just destroyed them for no reason. By the way, we’re not even to the dance yet. Don’t forget that. There’s a lot of racing left, so yeah, I’m pretty pissed off.”

RELATED: Gordon wins pole for Daytona 500 | Full Daytona Duels lineups

Sorenson admitted afterward that he was trying to stem Bowyer’s momentum, and that he understood his rival’s frustration.

“Normally in a race, I probably wouldn’t be that aggressive unless it was the last lap and you’re trying to win the race,” Sorenson said. “Just like (Matt) Kenseth did last night (in the Sprint Unlimited), he blocked (Martin) Truex to win. For us trying to get in the race, it’s that big a deal where I was treating it like it was the last lap of a race and that’s how aggressive you have to be, especially when you’re not guaranteed in the race and you’re on the outside looking in. That’s the way this qualifying is; it forces you into that.”

Bowyer’s remarks touched off a chorus of criticisms for the group qualifying format, which was used in 35 of 36 points-paying Sprint Cup races last year. The only exception was the Daytona 500, which continued to use traditional two-lap, single-car Coors Light Pole Qualifying to set the lineups for the pair of 150-mile qualifying races as well as the front row for the Great American Race.

The group qualifying format for restrictor-plate tracks was tweaked starting with last fall’s race at Talladega with the first round divided into two groups based on a random draw and cars would only have five minutes to make a lap. At non restrictor-plate tracks, the opening round of qualifying lasted either 25 or 30 minutes, depending on the track’s size, and cars were not split into separate groups.

Steve O’Donnell, head of NASCAR’s Research and Development Center, said his reaction to how the group qualifying session played out was mixed.

“I think it’s a balance,” O’Donnell said. “Jeff Gordon on the pole, certainly his last Daytona 500, is great. Seeing the incident that took place is not. So it’s a balance. We’ve got to take everything kind of in stride. We see new things every day, have to make decisions on that. Overall I think we’re happy about the excitement of the qualifying session, but we’ve got to look at if there’s adjustments we can make to continue to improve that, we’re going to do that.”

WATCH: O’Donnell discusses Daytona group qualifying

Gordon interrupted O’Donnell’s media session to say “Great format, Steve!” and offered a thumbs-up, but even though the format worked out in Gordon’s favor, the four-time Sprint Cup admitted his nerves were frazzled after the knockout-style qualifying.

“In the past, this has been one of the easiest days I’ve had all day long,” Gordon said. “Go out there, hold it wide open, run a couple laps. It’s all about the team, the car, all the preparation they put into it. All that hard work still goes into this effort, but I play a bigger role, the spotter plays a bigger role. There’s just so much more strategy in trying to play this chess match and the time game, the wait game. It just becomes really intense.”

Though the Bowyer tangle was the only major incident of the four group sessions, the format led to some harrowing moments — both leaving pit road and with cars running widely varying speeds on the Daytona high banks.

“We’re a lot of smart people here. There’s drivers, owners, NASCAR. We got to find a better system,” said Kurt Busch, who was 30th-fastest in the opening round and failed to make the first elimination cut. “So much hard work goes into these cars, then you have this roulette wheel for qualifying. It doesn’t seem the proper system. But, hey, it is what it is. We could be here smiling, getting belted up, going back out for the second round.

“Just want to thank all my guys for all their work, all of our sponsors. We should just take the cars as we build them in the off‑season, unload, pass tech, then go qualify one car at a time, four‑lap average. That would really give a sense of pride to putting effort towards building a car to qualify for the Daytona 500 instead of shaking up bingo balls.”

MORE: Stewart, Wallace debate Daytona qualifying on social media

Denny Hamlin described the setup as “mayhem.”

“There’s no other word to describe it,” Hamlin said. “Everybody’s on so many different agendas. This stuff can happen.”

Ryan Newman, who wasn’t involved in the wreck, but failed to advance out of the first round of group qualifying, said “the frustrating part is dealing with this whole system, which makes no sense whatsoever.

“It’s hard to stand behind NASCAR when everybody I talk to up and down pit road doesn’t understand why we’re doing this,” Newman said. “Maybe I need to be sat down and educated a little bit.”

Contributing: Staff reports

MORE: