The ARCA Racing Series will make history when it returns to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway for the General Tire 150 on May 24.
General Tire Pole Qualifying will feature multi-car timed session qualifying rather than single-car runs. It will be the first time that the starting field will be set by timed session qualifying. The timed session will begin when the command from the tower is given to release the cars coming off pit road. Teams will have the option of when to leave pit road to make their qualifying attempt, as well as how many laps they run. When a car returns to pit road, its qualifying attempt is complete. When time expires in the scheduled session, qualifying will be complete regardless of where the cars are on the track.
Each driver’s fastest lap time from the session will become their official time of record. Regardless of the time remaining, the qualifying session will be considered complete once all cars have made qualifying attempts. "The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards has implemented group qualifying at road courses and at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway venues in recent years," said ARCA President Ron Drager. "The timed session qualifying procedure makes the most efficient use of the time available to complete a qualifying session providing each team with an equal opportunity to win the General Tire Pole Award."
Todd Gilliland, son of NASCAR veteran David Gilliland, was fastest in ARCA open testing last week among the 30 drivers who posted times.
Practice for the General Tire 150 is scheduled for Thursday, May 24 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. General Tire Pole Qualifying follows at approximately 5 p.m. The General Tire 150 airs live on FS1 at 9 p.m. Thursday night. All times are Eastern.
