But when the track went green, things got inventive in a hurry. In single-car qualifying, drivers often shut their engines down immediately after passing beneath the flag stand, in an effort to cool the motor by coasting back to the garage. Friday, that tactic continued in group qualifying — which led to cars coasting around the desert mile at the same time as other vehicles barreling through in full-fledged attempts to top the board.

"It’s like going to a race, you have a minimum speed, right? You should have some sort of minimum speed," said Martin Truex Jr., who also did not advance to the final round. "Because you don’t ever want to be on a run and have somebody pull out in front of you going 50 mph. It’s dangerous. I don’t know. I’m not the good person to ask today, because we had a good car in practice, and it was absolutely horrendous there."

And yet, the opinions NASCAR received appeared decidedly more mixed. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition, said following the session that some drivers told him that the coasting tactic didn’t cool the engine effectively enough. Others asked him not to acquiesce to calls for the use of cooling units, which they believe would undermine strategy. The only definite coming from Phoenix is that NASCAR will continue to listen to teams and make adjustments to the format as necessary.

"They weigh in because they think things can be better," Pemberton said. "It’s our job to balance all that out and remove the agenda part of it that a team may or may not have. Right now, I think it’s doing pretty good."

Entering Friday, there were concerns about engines in the new format, but those worries stemmed from wear and tear in a 50-minute session where drivers make more than just the two laps completed in single-car runs. But it quickly became apparent that many teams planned to cool their engines in mid-session, leading drivers to routinely shut off the ignition as they passed the start-finish line. NASCAR allows teams to make only minimal adjustments to the cars during a group qualifying session, with the lone temperature modification being the addition or removal of tape on the front end.

"I didn’t know that everybody was gong to go out there and coast and cool their engines down," said rookie Kyle Larson, who qualified eighth. "In thought that was pretty weird. I’m sure they’ll tweak on it some. It was kind of sketchy for some cars that were at speed. I know the 9 (car of Marcos Ambrose), I didn’t known the 9 was coming, and I was rolling through (turns) 1 and 2 on the bottom, and he came kind of close to hitting me. I’m sure NASCAR will tweak on it some, and make it a little bit different. But it was exciting."

And yet, to most, the coasting was no surprise. Third-place qualifier Jamie McMurray said he and his team discussed the tactic at dinner the night before, and others came in with a similar game plan. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver said the issue could be resolved if NASCAR would allow generators — which have cooling units built in — to be used during qualifying. Joey Logano added that change would also allow drivers to make more laps, given that they wouldn’t have to wait as long for their engines to cool down.

"It takes so long to cool it," Logano said. "If you can cool it in five minuets and go back out, there would be more cars on the race track more often making hot laps."

Pemberton, though, said NASCAR was hesitant to allow cooling units, which would necessitate hoods being raised and lead to the prospect of further adjustments beyond just those now allowed. "It’s management as much as it anything," said Pemberton, a former crew chief.

"We’re not discounting their concerns in any way," he added. "It’s important for us to work together with the teams to come up with the right solutions."

Engines were the talk of the garage area all day. Under the prior single-car qualifying method, teams were able to manipulate engine temperatures to an ideal condition using cooling systems and generators. Engine builders were wary, given that any failure under NASCAR’s one-engine rule would necessitate starting at the rear, and no one is yet certain how much stress group qualifying will put on engines that much still undergo additional practice sessions and the race.

"I would say the engine guys are more nervous than anybody," said Doug Yates of Roush-Yates Engines, which builds engines for all Ford teams. "This is a huge change for us. Usually you line up and cool the water down and you heat the oil up as hot as you can get it, and (use) as thin of oil as you can get, and run a couple laps, and that is it. We know how the engines react to that scenario. This is all new. How many runs are you going to make? How hot will the oil get, which drives the water temperature and how do you get it cooled back down? There are a lot of factors here."

And teams hope to get a better feel for those and other factors as the weeks — and the group qualifying sessions — go along.

"I think it’s going to be great once we get it all going and get all the kinks worked out with it," Harvick said before the qualifying session began. "It’s definitely going to keep the on-track excitement up. So I think everybody is excited, but everybody is a little bit on edge, because you don’t really know exactly what you need to do. You’ve thought of everything you can think of, but there will always be a hundred things that you don’t think of."

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"How do you decipher all that? How do you get through all that?" Earnhardt asked Friday morning at Phoenix International Raceway. "It’s just a lot coming at you, and you want to take it all in. You don’t want to miss anything."

NASCAR’s most popular driver has been smiling ear-to-ear for nearly a week now, after earning his second Daytona 500 championship this past Sunday night. The most public manifestation of that elation has been on the social media network Twitter, something Earnhardt had been hesitant to join, but he finally relented in the aftermath of his most recent victory in the Great American Race.

The result? An Internet phenomenon to rival cats playing the piano. From his first post in the wee hours of Monday morning — a photo of him with the Harley J. Earl Trophy in Daytona’s Victory Lane — Earnhardt has proven a natural, following that up with a photo of him next to the statue of his father at Daytona, and later conducting a question-and-answer session with followers en route to an appearance in Austin, Texas. Earnhardt has had an account (@DaleJr) set up for him since 2008, but it’s remained inactive — until this week.

"I knew he’d like it once he got on there," said four-time Phoenix winner Kevin Harvick. "He’s kind of that techy-type of guy who likes all the cool gadgets and stuff. And for a guy who is that popular, it’s a really easy way to interact without having to create a frenzy that happens when he comes around somewhere in public. For him, it’s got to be almost a relief to be able to engage with people and do it at his own pace and not have to be in this total frenzy, because he is a rock star."

What changed? Earnhardt had been reticent to join, because he didn’t want to feel obligated to keep up with it, and potentially disappoint his followers when he didn’t. But six-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, one of the garage leaders in social media, lobbied hard for his Hendrick Motorsports teammate to join, as did other drivers active in the medium like Brad Keselowski and Michael Waltrip. Even the powers-that-be at Twitter leaned on Johnson to try and change Earnhardt’s mind.

"It’s just been something he wasn’t interested in," Johnson said. "As sharp as he is, as much time as he spends in the digital world, I knew once he got involved, he would love it, and it would work well for him. … When you’re exposed like that, when you open yourself up like that, it really lets the fans and others see the world through your eyes. And it’s been a very interesting follow. Creatively, he must have been watching from afar for a little while, because he’s got the lingo down …. He didn’t enter as a rookie on Twitter, in my opinion. He’s off to a really strong start."

The impact has been instantaneous. Earnhardt has posted regularly in the week since his Daytona victory, and Friday included photos of his new line of caps, as well as the Bible verse Darrell Waltrip’s wife Stevie gave him last weekend to keep in his car. At more than half a million followers and counting, Earnhardt is well on his way to becoming one of the most influential NASCAR drivers in social media — and he’s just getting started.

"When he gets his mind set to do something, he’s pretty much all-in, and he’s gong to be the best at it when he does it. It’s been fun for me to watch. We’ve had a lot of conversations and joked about it, and he was stubborn about it for a long time," said Regan Smith, a Nationwide Series driver for the JR Motorsports team co-owned by Earnhardt, and winner of last week’s opener at Daytona.

"I think probably about this time last year, he started paying more attention to it. I don’t know for sure, but it seemed like he kind of knew about it, and he’s picking it up quick. I mean, his tweets are better than mine, and I’ve been doing it for five or six years now. Not to mention, he’s got a half a million followers. Half a million in less than a week. I’ve been on it for five or six years, and I think I’ve barely got 90,000, if that. So it’s kind of embarrassing from that standpoint."

For Earnhardt, it’s still a work in progress. He said he’s still picking up the knack on how to use the software, and has his public relations team helping "so I don’t look like an idiot," he joked. Given his popularity, he’s understandably struggling to keep up with the volume of responses. His road manager Mike Hoag "will come up to me and say, ‘Man, such-and-such tweeted you, and I’m like — what? Where? How? How did I miss that? Why am I missing that?,’ " he said. "So I’ve got a lot to learn. But it’s fun. It’s really, really fun."

All of which makes him wonder why it took him so long. "I don’t know what I was thinking, why I didn’t want to get on there earlier," he said. "It’s a great way to tell people things you appreciate, and it’s instant. So I’m learning. Taking all kinds of advice, if anybody wants to give me advice."

The best part? Earnhardt said he has about 500 photos on his phone of his father, including a black-and-white shot of Big E in a No. 8 car on a short track that he posted earlier this week. "One thing I like about what Dale Jr. has is, he’s got all those cool pictures of his dad," Harvick said. "I’ll look forward to Thursdays now, just for the fact that I know he’s going to post some really cool pictures from back in the day."

Many Twitter users post older photos on what’s become known as "Throwback Thursday" within the medium. Toward that end, Earnhardt is armed and ready. "I’ve got Throwback Thursday for years," he said, once again showing off the smile he’s had permanently in place since last Sunday night. "I’m going to be in good shape there."

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