IndyCar
Currently, IndyCar uses two formats for qualifying: one for oval tracks, another for road and street circuits. Oval qualifying runs almost like the Indianapolis 500, with two laps, instead of four, averaged together with one attempt, although with just one session.
On road and street courses, cars are drawn randomly into two qualifying groups. After each group has one twenty minute session, the top six cars from each group qualify for a second session. The cars that finished seventh or worse are lined up by their time, with the best of these times starting 13th. The twelve remaining cars run a 15 minute session, after which the top six cars move on to a final 10 minute session to determine positions one through six on the grid.
Both formats were new for 2008. In prior seasons, oval qualifying ran for two laps with the best lap used for qualification. Street and road circuits used a one qualifying lap system (the 2007 season used a ten minute shootout for the top six qualifiers).
Read more about this topic: Pole Position