In a NASCAR era in which so few seem to agree on much of anything, it’s noteworthy that most everyone agreed that last weekend’s qualifying session from Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, was an unmitigated disaster.

The new high-downforce, low horsepower competition package has complicated group qualifying to the point where change is probably looming over the figurative horizon.

The 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars now feature so much drag that the trailing car is designed to actually be faster in a straight line compared to a leading car. In simpler terms, what is supposed to make this a more exciting race package actually works to the detriment of group qualifying.

As a result, all 12 drivers who made the final round of time trials last weekend failed to make a timed lap, simply because they no one wanted to be the first driver out. The starting lineup reverted to second-round speeds.

Due to the drafting elements built into the package, the first driver to cross the finish line is essentially a sucker for the rest of the field, and no one wanted to be a sucker. Instead of the fastest cars qualifying near the front, results are based on timing of a run and a driver’s position in line.

It’s almost random.

That’s also why no one went out to record a lap until it was too late.

Kyle Busch’s crew chief says there was no incentive for anyone to be that sucker.

"What incentive do you have to be the guy leading the pack? You have none," Adam Stevens said on SiriusXM Radio on Wednesday. "You're going to be the slowest of the cars in the draft. That's just fundamental physics...

"So, in the third round, no one wanted to be the buffoon that leads the pack and be last, they wanted to be the one drafting. The guy in second has the advantage on the guy in first. The guy in third has the advantage over those two guys and so forth. The guy who goes out last will get the pole if everyone makes it out in time.

"So why didn't the 12th place guy go out first? Because he was going to be 12th if he went out first, so why would he go out first? Because we’re just all going to follow him."

So, what can be done?

NASCAR's Scott Miller says he expects some changes to be made before Texas next weekend, but isn't sure what, at least as of last weekend.

"I think we definitely make some tweaks to it," Miller said. "… We really don’t want to go back to single-car qualifying. There may not be another way, but we want to try to exhaust every possibility before we do that because it’s not as fun and not as intriguing of a show as the group situation. We’re going to try to figure out a way to adjust the group qualifying thing and not go back to single, but we’ve got some work to do on that."

Aric Almirola isn’t sure what these changes will be, but agrees NASCAR needs to do something.

"We’ve got to have obviously cars on the race track during qualifying," Almirola said. "I mean, that’s not good for anybody. It’s not good for us. It’s not good for the fans. It’s not good for the sport for cars to not be on the race track during a qualifying session."

Kyle Busch says he doesn't really care what they do.

"I don’t know. I just follow the rules," Busch said. "Whatever the rules are. I told Claire (B. Lang) last week - I said ‘hey, you’re all talking about it, you’re conversing about it, there’s a buzz around it and people may not like it, but we’re talking about it rather than there just being single-car qualifying and nobody is saying a damn word about it.’

"Pick and choose your battles wisely folks."

Ty Dillon says he would suggest to NASCAR that any driver that fails to turn a lap at any point during a round in which they are participating, that the sanctioning body should make it a penalty that forces that driver to start at the rear of the field, regardless of how deep they made into multi-round qualifying.

"I don’t think the pack is bad," Dillon said. "I don’t think anything about that is bad. I think it’s fun. And it’s not our single-car qualifying, yes. But it is still qualifying a race for NASCAR. We all have the obligation to go out there and figure out this style. It’s more exciting.

"Who doesn’t want to see more cars go closer together in a high-impact situation? Now, the sitting at pit road is not good when no cars make a lap. So, make it a penalty. And, I feel like it would be good on NASCAR’s part to just say hey, any round of qualifying, if you don’t make it out, you start dead last in the field. And let’s see how that goes. I know that we’ve started it as far as if you don’t make it out you go back in the segment, but let’s start dead last in the field and lose pit selection."

And then there's Almirola who says there was nothing inherently wrong with single file qualifying.

"I mean, that’s the way it’s been since I was a little kid," he said. "I was eight years old and started racing go-karts and locally we would run heat races, but when I went to state races and national races we qualified and the fastest kids with the fastest go-karts qualified up front. That’s all I’ve ever known and so this year with the qualifying rules the way they are, the fastest car doesn’t necessarily always get the pole.

"It’s the guy that times it right at the line, gets the best draft, and it really has less to do about the fastest race car and more about situational, and so from that aspect I would hope that whatever rules come down the pipe incentivize again kind of what our roots are and where having the fastest race car means something in qualifying."

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io