DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Among the myriad of changes announced during NASCAR’s Monday panel meeting with the media was a slimming of the qualifying procedure for all three national series this season.

For the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, the first round of knockout qualifying will be reduced from 15 minute to 10 minutes. In addition, the breaks between rounds will be cut to five minutes.

Previously, the down time in between rounds was seven minutes. The length of the second (10 minutes) and third (five minutes) knockout rounds remains unchanged.

“Really as we looked at what was going on, it was obvious that we didn’t need that extra five minutes,” said NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller. “Tightening that first round up a bit and tightening up the time between the rounds, we think that was somewhat with TV partners and just making a tighter, more interesting show out of it for our fans.”

The qualifying procedure at the two superspeedways on the schedule – Daytona Int’l Speedway and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway – will be unchanged this season, featuring single-vehicle qualifying and two knockout rounds instead of three to determine the pole.

Also unchanged is the road-course qualifying format, which again consists of a 25-minute opening round and a 10-minute final round. The top 12 advance in the two-round format.

– NASCAR confirmed that its participation guidelines will be virtually unchanged from their look last season, with drivers boasting more than five years of full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series experience limited to seven Xfinity Series races and five Truck races.

In addition, Cup Series points-scoring drivers cannot compete in any Dash 4 Cash or Triple Truck Challenge races, nor can they run the regular-season finale or playoff races in either division.

New for this season, drivers who earn Xfinity Series points cannot enter any of the Triple Truck Challenge races or the championship race for the Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

– Finally, NASCAR announced that all three national series will feature series-specific officials for the inspection process this year.

Per NASCAR Vice President of Officiating and Technical Inspection Elton Sawyer, 12 officials will be assigned to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, while 10 will work with the NASCAR Xfinity Series and eight will inspect in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

“We felt like when we sat down and we looked at this and we put this model together that the efficiencies are going to come with the fact that those highly skilled inspectors are going to be in those individual garages and living in those garages,” Sawyer said. “The scrutineering of the vehicles, whether it be trucks or cars, those are the things our inspectors will be living with all weekend. That’s not to say they won’t work in other garages, but 95 percent of the time, they’ll be right there in that garage and working with the teams and trying to correct any issues they may have.

“We feel like this model sets us up for those efficiencies as well as more success across the board as far as the inspection process and making sure ultimately that our fans are seeing a great race with a level playing field.”