“Shouldn’t Be Hurt From the Week Before”- Insiders Rip NASCAR’s Metric After Inclement Weather Dictates Starting Grids

It’s August 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down, and NASCAR is feeling the impact too. With qualifying sessions disappearing from race weekends and teams having less time to prepare, the sport needs a new way to set its starting grids. Enter the performance-based metric, a system designed to keep races moving when qualifying is cancelled. Six years later, that temporary solution is still shaping race-day lineups whenever bad weather intervenes. Now, insiders Jeff Burton and Tommy Baldwin Jr. are questioning whether drivers should pay for the previous week’s results when every race brings a fresh challenge.