I think Racephoto1 pretty much sums up my opinions as well. But to comment on the group qualifications or not....all tracks aren't laid out the same.
For instance at G.C. the cars leave the pits right in front of the flag stand so they have to take a full lap to get up to speed before taking the green then two laps qual. which for 50 plus cars equals over 150 laps on the track in the same groove for the most part.
As for USAC @ Kokomo the cars come out on the backstretch so they take the green when they get to the flag stand and get er done with 2 laps per car.
The times that I have seen USAC attempt group qualifying they have always given the cars a full hot lap session for each group prior to group quals. Whereas the way Kokomo does it... the hot laps ARE the group qualifications. Which ever way you do it if you can save the track from being completely wore out it would definitely benefit the equality of the qual. times.
I don't think you can blame the track, or people doing the track prep for the track slicking off after all that hot lapping and qualifying of 50 plus cars. With DST it is basically a day race anyway. IMO