NASCAR officials released updated practice and qualifying procedures for the 2025 season on Thursday, expanding practice time and moving to simplify starting lineup rules across its three national series.
The move closely coincides with Thursday morning’s release of race weekend schedules for the first portion of the 2025 NASCAR calendar. Those schedules include the events and timing for the weeklong run-up to the season-opening Daytona 500 (Sunday, Feb. 16, 2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), which will include a just-announced 50-minute practice session on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
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The most significant changes for practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series include:
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Group practice goes from 20 to 25 minutes.
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Single-round qualifying at every track except for superspeedways, which will still implement a final round of time trials for the fastest 10 cars.
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Starting position based solely on qualifying results, rather than row-by-row designations according to qualifying group.
Qualifying will be single-lap time trials at most tracks. At short tracks, the best of two laps will be the qualifying speed of record, and road courses will have group qualifying with multiple cars on the track for 20-minute sessions.
NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions will be shown on Prime Video in the season’s first half, and by TNT Sports on Max and TruTV in the second half — with an exception that FOX Sports will have broadcast rights for practice and qualifying for The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, the Daytona 500 and the NASCAR All-Star Race.
All Xfinity Series practice and qualifying will be broadcast on The CW, and FOX Sports will broadcast all Truck Series sessions.
Cup Series director Brad Moran said that settling on the new procedures was the result of collaboration across the NASCAR industry, including involvement with new broadcast partners who will begin their first season of a seven-year media rights deal in 2025. The slight bump in pre-race track time, Moran says, is a small step toward where at-track schedules were previously — before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted industry-wide streamlining for race weekends.
“I think it’s going to be welcomed by the industry,” Moran said. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback throughout the year, and we made a couple of adjustments through the year, and we really wanted to take a whole fresh look at it. A lot of this came into play back in COVID, when we tightened things up, so we’re kind of going back a little to what we used to do again. We’re going to have a little more practice, which is obviously better for the fans and the partners.”
A detailed look at practice and qualifying procedures for each series, listed by track type:
Standard practice and qualifying
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25-minute practice each for Group 1 and Group 2
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Qualifying: One lap, one round
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Tracks: Las Vegas, Phoenix (spring), Miami, Darlington, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte oval, Nashville, Michigan, Pocono, WWT Raceway, New Hampshire
Short track practice and qualifying
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25-minute practice each for Group 1 and Group 2
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Qualifying: Two laps, one round
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Tracks: Martinsville, Bristol, Dover, Iowa, Richmond, North Wilkesboro (Trucks), Lucas Oil IRP (Trucks)
Superspeedway qualifying
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No practice, except for a 50-minute pre-qualifying session at Daytona 500
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Qualifying: One lap, two rounds
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Fastest 10 cars in opening round advance to final round
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Starting positions 1-10 will be based on finish in final round; remainder of field will start based on qualifying results in first round
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Tracks: Atlanta, Talladega, Daytona (summer)
Road course practice and qualifying
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25-minute practice each for Group 1 and Group 2
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20-minute qualifying each for Group 1 and Group 2, multiple cars on track
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One round of qualifying
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Tracks: Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Charlotte Roval, Portland (Xfinity), COTA (Xfinity, Trucks; Cup Series will have expanded practice procedures)
Expanded practice weekends
Weekends scheduled to have separate practice and qualifying sessions:
Cup: The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, Daytona 500, COTA*, All-Star Race, Mexico City, Indianapolis, Phoenix championship
Xfinity: Daytona, Rockingham, Mexico City, Indianapolis, WWTR, Phoenix championship
Trucks: Daytona, Rockingham, Michigan, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, New Hampshire, Charlotte Roval, Phoenix championship
Note: The NASCAR Cup Series weekend at Circuit of The Americas will feature expanded road course qualifying, with cars assigned to two groups. Two 20-minute practices will be held for each group (40 minutes total per car), with those sessions leading into qualifying.
