NSCS: Bowyer Blasts Daytona 500 Qualifying Format Following Crash

With just over a minute remaining in the first round of qualifying for the Daytona 500, disaster would strike.

Clint Bowyer would try to get underneath Reed Sorenson to pass him, Sorenson would come down to block and the pair would make contact. The contact would result in both drivers making heavy contact with the wall, collecting J.J. Yeley and Bobby Labonte in the process.

Bowyer had been trying to get around Sorenson as Sorenson had some minor tail damage to his racecar, after cutting up in front of Bowyer at the beginning of the session.

Following the wreck, Bowyer got out of his No. 15 5 Hour Energy Toyota and expressed his displeasure with Sorenson. Bowyer then expressed his displeasure with the NASCAR media.

“I wasn’t behind the 44. He came flying around, come up on the apron, jumps in front of me, then runs over the 51, stacks us all up and then I run into him,” Bowyer commented. “It’s idiotic to be out here doing this anyway. There’s no sense in being able to try to put on some cute show for whatever the hell this is. Then you have a guy out there doing this in desperation. There’s no reason to be out here. These guys have spent six months working on these cars, busting their butts on these cars.

“But it ain’t his fault. It’s NASCAR’s fault for putting us out in the middle of this crap for nothing. We used to come down here and worry about who would set on the front pole in the biggest race of the year. Now all we do is come down here and worry about how a start‑and‑park like this out of desperation is going to knock us out of the Daytona 500.

“We’ve been in meetings for 45 minutes just trying to figure out what in the hell everybody is going to do just so we can make the race. It’s stupid. There’s no sense in doing this.”

With his primary car wrecked, Sorenson doesn’t have the option of going to a back-up as he only had one car for Speedweeks. XTREME Motorsports will have to decide whether to bring another car down, or end their speedweeks.

“I have no idea.  We’ll have to reevaluate and see.  We don’t have a backup car as of now,” Sorenson said. “As you can see, I was just trying to block.  That’s what got Matt Kenseth to win last night.  I was doing everything I could to stay in front of Clint.  Pretty obvious what I was trying to do.  I didn’t mean to wreck anybody or anything like that.

“Just a product of this qualifying, trying to get that one lap.  I didn’t want it to end that way, that’s for sure.  I apologize to all the guys.  Try to get a car here and try to get in the race on Thursday.”

 Denny Hamlin would also get a piece of sheet metal in the front fascia of his Toyota, but was able to continue.

“Mayhem.  There’s no other word to describe it.  Everybody’s on so many different agendas.  This stuff can happen,” Hamlin commented. “But, I don’t know, it’s the format we got to go by.  We’re going to try to do the best we can to play the system, make it work.”

Other drivers also expressed their displeasure with the format, calling it ‘ridiculous’ and an ’embarrassment’ for NASCAR.