NASCAR announced a change to the Cup Series qualifying format Friday afternoon before the New Hampshire Motor Speedway race weekend.
The first round of qualifying remains unchanged. The top five cars from each group advance to the final round.
But in the final round, Group A vehicles will occupy even-numbered starting positions and Group B vehicles will occupy odd-numbered starting positions, based on speed. The only exception is the pole-winning vehicle — the fastest among all 10 cars — which will get lane preference. The second qualifier will start the race in the opposite lane.
The change is to eliminate any advantage of being in a particular qualifying group.
NASCAR will officially add the changes to the rulebook next week.