Dale Earnhardt Jr. implores NASCAR to return random draw qualifying and former practice process

Dale Earnhardt Jr. would love to see NASCAR change its practice and qualifying rules. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt shared his thoughts on the return of random draw qualifying and the former practice process.

“Bring it back,” Earnhardt said when asked about random draw qualifying. “…You relieve the person of the computer of all that stress.” Dale Earnhardt Jr. then talked about how the qualifying process went in the past.

“You’d be in the garage and walk over and draw a pill,” Earnhardt said. “That’s how they did it. That’s how they do it in dirt, right? A guy gets a bad draw, that’s just fate. And now he’s got to overcome… It’s not something that really is working itself into the conversation in terms of prepping the week, building up the week. I don’t ever hear them going, ‘Denny [Hamlin] had this and this happen, and now he’s got a bad qualifying.’ I just don’t think it’s actually helping us.”

Earnhardt also talked about how NASCAR should bring back practice. “I would love practice to come back,” he said. “Practice will be back one day because one day we’re going to wake up from this nightmare and go ‘Oh s**t. That was actually good. That actually helped us.’

“That actually drove storylines, that actually engaged fans, that actually got people interested in the race weekend and who was developing into a contender or favorite for that race. We’re going to wake up one day and implement practice again because it definitely needs to be back in there.”

Qualifying in NASCAR is set by the results of the previous week and current championship standings. The metric is comprised of the fastest lap time (15 percent), driver finishing spot (25 percent), owner finishing spot (25 percent) and owner points position (35 percent), as mentioned by NASCAR reporter Matt Weaver.

The practice process was modified by NASCAR before the 2025 season. For standard tracks, drivers in Group 1 and Group 2 will have 25 minutes to practice. At Superspeedways, there is no practice except for a 50-minute pre-qualifying session at the Daytona 500.